Texas Man Executed Nearly 70 Years Ago Posthumously Exonerated
In a landmark decision addressing historical injustice, a Black man executed in Texas almost seven decades ago has been formally declared innocent. Tommy Lee Walker, who was sent to the electric chair in May 1956, has received a posthumous exoneration after prosecutors acknowledged his conviction was built on false evidence and deeply tainted by racial prejudice.
A Case Built on Fear and Prejudice
The case centred on the 1953 killing of 31-year-old Venice Parker, a white shop assistant in Dallas. Her murder occurred during a period of intense racial tension in the area, fuelled by reports of a "Peeping Tom" allegedly terrorising women. This atmosphere led to hundreds of Black men being rounded up by authorities in the subsequent months.
Walker, then just 19 years old, was arrested four months after the crime. According to Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot, Walker was subjected to threatening and coercive interrogation tactics by Dallas police captain Will Fritz, who had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Walker later testified he confessed because he feared for his life.
Flawed Evidence and an All-White Jury
An extensive review of Walker's conviction, conducted by the Dallas County Criminal District Attorney's Office with assistance from the Innocence Project of New York and Northeastern University School of Law's Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, uncovered multiple critical flaws.
The review found problems with statements from a Dallas police officer who claimed Parker had identified her attacker as a Black man. Multiple witnesses denied that Parker "did anything outside of convulse and hemorrhage exorbitant amounts of blood" after being attacked, making any identification impossible.
At his 1954 trial, Walker's defence presented ten witnesses who testified he was at a local hospital with his girlfriend when she gave birth to their son at the time of the murder. "But this carried little weight in Jim Crow Dallas," noted the Innocence Project. Walker was convicted by an all-white jury.
A Long-Awaited Acknowledgement of Injustice
"The prosecution in this case presented misleading and inadmissible evidence," Creuzot stated. "This case, while it has undeniable legal errors, was riddled with racial injustice during a time when prejudice and bigotry were woven throughout every aspect of society, including the criminal justice system."
Creuzot credited journalist Mary Mapes, who began investigating Walker's case thirteen years ago. "He paid with his life for a crime he could not have committed," Mapes told Dallas County commissioners during a Wednesday meeting called to declare Walker innocent.
Emotional Reckoning for Families
The meeting witnessed a poignant moment when Walker's son, 72-year-old Edward Lee Smith, and the victim's son, Joseph Parker, embraced each other. "I'm so sorry for what happened," Parker told Smith, who replied, "And I'm sorry for your loss."
Smith, emotional before the commissioners, shared how the wrongful execution devastated his family. "I'm 72 years old and I still miss my daddy," he said through tears, recalling his mother's words: "Baby, they give your father the electric chair for something he didn't do."
Joseph Parker expressed hope that the exoneration would help prevent future wrongful convictions. "If nothing else comes from this situation... it's that we learn to try not to make the same mistake again. The mistake being what? The mistake being the injustice, the taking of an innocent life."
Symbolic Resolution Passed Unanimously
At the conclusion of the meeting, Dallas County commissioners unanimously passed a symbolic resolution declaring that Walker was wrongfully convicted and executed. The resolution stated that what happened to him represented "a profound miscarriage of justice," finally providing official recognition of a tragedy that has lingered for generations.
This exoneration serves as a stark reminder of how racial bias and flawed judicial processes can lead to irreversible consequences, while offering a measure of belated justice to a family that has waited nearly seventy years for the truth to be acknowledged.
