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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.
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Dallas DA Craig Watkins says his great-grandfather was executed in Texas

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Craig Watkins
Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins made a startling disclosure today:

"People don't know that my great-grandfather was executed by this state," he said.

The district attorney offered no further details.

The revelation from the first black district attorney elected in Texas came in a news conference after a hearing to exonerate a man, Richard Miles, whose trial and convictions for murder and attempted murder have raised questions.

Before mentioning his executed relative, Watkins said exoneration proceedings offer an opportunity to examine whether Texas is "doing the right thing" by using capital punishment. He added, however, that his office will continue to pursue death cases because it is the law.

Watkins, who has in the past expressed conflicting personal opinions about the death penalty, left as the news conference continued.

He did not indicate whether he or his family believed that his great-grandfather had been wrongly convicted.

He could not be reached for comment later.

His office confirmed that the execution had taken place -- on Aug. 10, 1932 -- but released few other details.


Source: DallasNews, Feb. 22, 2012

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