Execution's Doorstep: True Stories of the Innocent and Near Damned

Execution’s Doorstep Execution’s Doorstep True Stories of the Innocent and Near Damned LESLIE LYTLE Northeastern University Press Boston published by university press of new england hanover and london Northeastern University Press Published by University Press of New England, One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766 www.upne.com © 2008 by Northeastern University Press Printed in the United States of America 54321 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Members of educational institutions and organizations wishing to photocopy any of the work for classroom use, or authors and publishers who would like to obtain permission for any of the material in the work, should contact Permissions, University Press of New Eng- land, One Court Street, Lebanon, NH 03766. The statistical information and circumstances recounted in Execution’s Doorstep reflect information available prior to January 1, 2008. Song lyrics on page 233 COURTESY OF RANDAL PADGETT Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lytle, Leslie. Execution's doorstep : true stories of the innocent and near damned / Leslie Lytle. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978–1–55553–678–7 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Trials (Murder)—United States. 2. Judicial error—United States. 3. Compensation for judicial error—United States. 4. Death row inmates—United States—Biography. I. Title. kf221.m8l98 2008 345.73′02523—dc22 2008024996 University Press of New England is a member of the Green Press Initiative. The paper used in this book meets their minimum requirement for recycled paper. For my sons Abram and Christopher that they may inherit a more just and compassionate world than the one into which they were born. Contents Introduction ix Glossary of Context-Specific Death-Penalty Terms xvii Ron Keine 1 Juan Roberto Melendez 47 Michael Ray Graham, Jr. 92 Madison Hobley 136 Randal Padgett 183 Conclusion 235 Appendix: States Paying Restitution for Wrongful Convictions in Capital Cases 241 Acknowledgments 243 Notes 247 Index 273 Introduction Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter. —Martin Luther King, Jr. The individuals whose stories appear in this book were sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit. They spent from two to seventeen years in- carcerated in cells smaller than the standard-size dog pen at a boarding kennel. A circuitous path led me to these men. I have always opposed capital punishment, but my reasons were vague and poorly defined until five years ago, when I authored an article investigating the movement to declare a moratorium on executions in Tennessee. Stunned by what I learned and convinced that no reasonable person could be in favor of the death penalty if they knew the facts, I soon found myself addressing civic and faith- based groups, encouraging them to support a moratorium on executions, as a stepping-stone toward abolishing capital punishment. My “facts” were no match for questions like, What about that monster Scott Peterson who murdered his pregnant wife, Laci? What if Laci Peterson was your daughter, how would you feel? Statistics showing that execution did not deter crime and cost far more than confining the o=ender for life paled against the faces of innocent victims.* Then, in the spring of 2004, through my *Even death-penalty advocates acknowledge that capital punishment does not deter crime. Homicide rates are 48 to 101 percent higher in states that practice execution. When Oklahoma and California resumed executions, after a twenty-five-year moratorium, homicide rates increased. “Fact Sheet: Deterrence,” National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) website, www.ncadp.org, retrieved 26 July 2007; “Issues, Facts about Deterrence and the Death Penalty,” Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC), www.deathpenaltyinfo.org, retrieved 26 July 2007. Most of the expense in capital cases is incurred during the investigation and original trial, not during the appeals process. In Florida, each execution cost the state $3.2 million compared to $600,000 for life imprisonment. “Cost,” Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing (TCASK), www.tcask.org, retrieved 26 July 2007. x Introduction a<liation with the Tennessee Coalition to Abolish State Killing, I arranged for death-row exonerated Ray Krone to speak at the University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee. You could feel the emotional barometer in the room rising as Ray told his story, about how he was convicted and sentenced to death on the basis of a bite mark on the victim that allegedly matched his teeth. The prosecution concealed evidence that hair and foot- prints at the crime scene were not his. The dental expert who testified to the bite-mark match received fees in excess of $50,000. Ray’s court- appointed attorney was paid $5,000 and had a total budget of $2,500 for expert-witness fees. Ray appealed his conviction, won a new trial, and was found guilty a second time. Harboring doubts about his guilt, the judge re- duced his sentence to life. After ten years in Arizona penitentiaries, DNA evidence conclusively proved his innocence. The gazes that followed Ray as he walked slowly back to his front-row seat were a mixed lot—some members of the audience were weeping; others were wide-eyed and in- credulous; still others scowled, their expressions locked in an angry, clenched-teeth grimace, enraged by what they had just heard. I was told af- terwards that several ardent supporters of capital punishment reversed their position as a consequence of hearing Ray Krone speak. Ray Krone’s presentation compelled me to pen a collection of narratives— adhering to the literary maxim, “Don’t tell me, show me”—recounting the experiences of men like him. These stories invite the reader to stand in the shoes of the accused and, at the same time, to have a bird’s eye view of the legal proceedings and crime. My purpose was twofold: To give the wrongfully accused voices and faces—to make them real for the reader— and to school readers in the workings of the capital-conviction process so they could better understand how and why wrongful convictions occur. A study conducted by Professor James Liebman of the Columbia University School of Law, at the request of the U.S. Senate Committee of the Judiciary, reported that for capital convictions reviewed on appeal from 1973 to 1995, the courts found “reversible error” in 68 percent of the cases—that is, error in the trial or pre-trial procedures that su<ciently distorted information available to the jury to make the verdict and/or sentence subject to being reversed.1 Although the doctrine innocent until proven guilty is embed- ded firmly in the tradition of Anglo-American jurisprudence, in actuality the investigative team and prosecution often presume guilt based on a shred of suspicion and then set out to prove their hunch correct. The five men whose stories appear in Execution’s Doorstep—Michael Ray Graham, Jr., Ron Keine, Juan Melendez, Madison Hobley, and Randal Padgett—were not sentenced to death by virtue of some honest mistake. In all instances, individuals directly responsible for their conviction—police, sheri= ’s Introduction xi o<cials, and/or prosecuting attorneys—concealed evidence pointing to their innocence. All five men likely would have been executed were it not for fortuitous quirks of fate: an appellate attorney’s chance encounter with a former law-enforcement o<cial who revealed previously undisclosed information about the disappearance of a rifle that was likely the murder weapon; a transcript of the real killer’s tape-recorded confession discov- ered among files stored in a garage; the actual killer’s religious conversion that compelled him to turn himself in to the police. None of the five were exonerated by DNA evidence. Since the death penalty was reinstated after a brief hiatus in the mid- 1970s, 124 individuals sentenced to death have been found innocent of the crimes for which they were convicted.* Virtually all of the exonerated men and women su=er from posttraumatic stress disorder. After long years in a cell, in isolation, where someone else scheduled every aspect of their day in a routine over which they had no control, autonomous self-directed be- havior and decision-making pose Herculean challenges. Many exonerated individuals turn to alcohol and drugs. Some commit suicide. In the vast majority of cases, the exonerated prisoners are released into the free world with no money, no job, and no support system. Although innocent, they are tainted. Says Ron Keine, “One guy told me he couldn’t hire me, because I would scare the women who worked there.” The allure to resort to crime to survive is strong. Preliminary to writing the book, I reviewed the hundred- plus documented cases of innocence since the death penalty’s reinstate- ment and talked with a number of the exonerated individuals or their legal representatives. In selecting subjects, I held to two criteria: that the candidate had remained crime-free since being released, and that the candidate was willing and able to participate in a series of interviews. Of the men whose stories are included here, three are Caucasian, one African Ameri- can, and one Hispanic.† Prior to their sojourn on death row, three had at- *The U.S. Supreme Court, 1972, Furman v. Georgia cited racial bias and other factors to conclude that the death penalty was applied in an arbitrary and unfair manner and, as such, constituted “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the U.S.

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