Justice for Whom? Kent Whitaker never wanted execution for his son

Thomas Whitaker is up for execution next Thursday, Feb. 22. Whitaker, 38, was convicted of capital murder for conspiring to kill his brother and parents in December of 2003. He had arranged for his family to go out to dinner. When they returned home, a gunman was set up in their house.

Chris Brashear shot and killed Whitaker's mother and brother; his father, Kent, was shot in the chest but survived. Fort Bend County prosecutors secured a life sentence for Brashear but sought the death penalty for Whitaker, who they said concocted the plan to collect on a 7-figure inheritance - a figure Kent Whitaker maintains was sharply exaggerated and beside the point; his son had been suffering from mental illness.

Whitaker has lived a relatively consequential life in the last 5 years on death row. In 2013, he filed a joint lawsuit with Michael Yowell and Perry Williams that questioned the purity of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's then-current stock of pentobarbital (the state's execution drug of choice).

The case was originally dismissed for Whitaker and Williams because neither had been issued an execution warrant at the time. (Yowell was also unsuccessful, and executed with the state's 1st known dosage of compounded pentobarbital.) But in 2015, the Attorney General's Office agreed the state should retest Whitaker and Williams' doses shortly before their executions.

The next summer, Williams saw his execution date withdrawn after the state failed to procure test results on his dosage (or that's what the TDCJ told the general public).

Meanwhile, Whitaker's case is currently pending in the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices are set to conference on Feb. 23, 1 day after his scheduled execution. Whitaker will request a stay to allow the justices time to conference.

Whitaker is currently represented in those efforts by Maurie Levin, and on clemency by James Rytting and Austin attorney Keith Hampton. In January, Hampton and Rytting filed a request with Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on the specific grounds that Kent Whitaker never wanted his son to be executed (indeed, he lobbied for a life sentence at trial) and would not be brought any form of closure, healing, or justice through his surviving son's execution.

Texas has already killed 3 people this year, including William Rayford and John Battaglia over the past 3 weeks. Whitaker would be the 4th. There are 2 more inmates on the Huntsville calendar at this time: Rosendo Rodriguez III on March 27 and Erick Davila on April 25.

Source: Austin Chronicle, February 14, 2018

Urgent Action: FATHER APPEALS FOR SON'S LIFE TO BE SPARED

Thomas Whitaker, aged 38, is due to be executed in Texas on 22 February. He was convicted in 2007 of the murder of his mother and brother in a shooting in which his father was badly wounded but survived. The father is appealing for clemency for his son.

Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:

* Calling on the Texas authorities to commute the death sentence of Thomas Whitaker;

* Noting support for clemency from inmates, guards, and the prisoner's father, also a victim of the crime;

* Noting that the actual gunman received a life sentence and the very troubling claims surrounding the prosecution's alleged solicitation of the defendant's confession and its use in arguing for a death sentence.

Friendly reminder: If you send an email, please create your own instead of forwarding this one!

Contact these 2 officials by 22 February, 2018:

Clemency Section, Board of Pardons and Paroles

8610 Shoal Creek Blvd.

Austin, Texas 78757-6814, USA

Fax: +1 512 467 0945

Email: bpp-pio@tdcj.state.tx.us

Salutation: Dear Board members

Governor Greg Abbott

Office of the Governor

P.O. Box 12428

Austin, Texas 78711-2428, USA

Fax: +1 512 463 1849

Contact Form: https://gov.texas.gov/apps/contact/opinion.aspx

Salutation: Dear Governor

Source: Amnesty International USA, February 2018

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

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