A Texas man exonerated from death row last year shared a message of hope and advocacy with the Third Ward community Sunday.
"The very system that almost took my life for something I did not do still exists. Yet I am still hopeful," Anthony Graves, 45, told a crowd at the S.H.A.P.E. Community Center.
Graves spread the same message during a recent speaking tour in Germany, France, Sweden and Switzerland.
"I went to educate people about the death penalty and the flaws of our system," said Graves, who spent 18 years behind bars, 12 of them on death row, for the murders of a grandmother and five children in Somerville.
Anthony Graves Wants His Name Cleared
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| Anthony Graves |
It was a day of celebration for Anthony Graves. After 18 years of wrongful imprisonment and two execution dates, he will finally be compensated for the Texas injustice.
Govenor Rick Perry signed legislation in early June that will allow Anthony Graves to receive $1.4 million in state compensation for a wrongful capital murder conviction that left him behind bars for 18 years.
Graves says it has been a tortuous journey home from the hell that is Texas death row and in order for his fight to be over, he needs one more thing from the State of Texas.
Houston abolitionists, local activists, and members of the peace and justice movement welcomed Graves to the Shape Community Center on Sunday afternoon.
While Graves says the $1.4 million will help him build a new life, it can't replace his loss of freedom.
"I'm happy about the money, but let's not forget, it's not the lottery that I won; I lost 18 years of my life and if I had a choice between the money and the 18 years, I would take the 18 years," said Graves.
After 18 years of fighting, Graves says there is one more thing he wants -- his name cleared.
"What I wish now is for the State of Texas to give me some type of decree that says I'm actually innocent, then that's when the fight is over for me, this particular fight," said Graves. "I filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General's office asking them to do just that and it seems like it's going to be a fight just to get that done."
Since Graves walked free from prison in October 2010, he has been a busy man. He works as an investigator for the Texas Defender service in Austin and he recently traveled to Europe for a speaking tour. But he says it has been hard fitting into today's society.
"Everything, your sense of direction, you've been gone for 18 years and then it's like, they take you and just throw you on a new planet and say, 'Survive the best way you can,' so you come out of there you see technologies has changed, everything around you has changed, what you may have taken advantage of every day, is still kind of scary to me," said Graves.
As for his future, he is doing what he wants to be doing, fighting against the very institution that almost took his life away, the death penalty.
"Everybody's focused on the money, but what about the fact that I almost lost my life, what about the 18 years that was stolen from me, what are we going to do about that? How are we going to make sure that if doesn't happen to your neighbor, friend or dad, this is not a feel-good moment, it's bittersweet for me, because I gave up so much, just to get a little," said Graves. "I almost lost my life. Where's the outrage?"
"This chose me, I didn’t choose it. It chose me, and now it's given me some sense of purpose and direction in how I want to live my life and where I want to take it," said Graves. He will not receive the $1.4 million dollars all at once.
Graves will get $80,000 every year for the next 18 years. He said he will spend some money on his mother, but he's going to be very frugal and wise with the rest.
Source: myfoxhouston, June 27, 2011
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