MEMORABLE QUOTE (1):
"I am innocent, innocent, innocent. I am an innocent man, and something very wrong is taking place tonight."
Leonel Herrera:
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MEMORABLE QUOTE (2):
"Justice Blackmun decried the Court’s refusal to consider Herrera’s petition, bluntly writing in his dissent, “The execution of a person who can show that he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder."
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MEMORABLE QUOTE (3):
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I was really moved by a column written by Molly Ivins, the late liberal columnist noted for speaking her mind about her Texas culture, which appeared on the day Leo Herrera was to be executed. "Soon after midnight tonight (May 11) the state of Texas, in your name and mine, will execute Leonel Herrera for killing a cop, He probably didn't do it. The Supreme Court said the probability was so high that her needed a new hearing. This is the same Supreme Court that has been turning down death penalty appeals with the monotony of a stamping machine. But Herrera dies anyway because of a catch-22 so bizarre it makes you wonder if the whole criminal justice system doesn't have a morbid sense of humour. In the meantime, Leonel Herrera dies soon after midnight. Look, a convicted murderer is not someone even a bleeding-heart liberal can work up sympathy for. But all of us have an obligation to leonel Herrera because he is being killed in our name, We are his executioners. No one who has lived in this state long enough can be unaware that the state of Texas has been known to miscarry justice. Nor is there any doubt that had the new evidence presented at Leonel Herrera's trial, he would not have been convicted. The reason we have an obligation to preserve a scumbag like Herrera is because they are legal rights. You may not think that you will ever have to worry about being accused of killing two cops you never even saw. But you do live in Texas. So don't bet too much money on it." Reporter Natalie Smith-Parra wrote an excellent article on Norma Herrera's efforts to save her brother's memory - even though she could not save his life. The sections below contain excerpts from her article, which was published by Justice Denied."
Harold Levy: Publisher: The Selfless Warriors Blog.
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THE CRIME: "(Excerpt): "Last Words from Death Row is a sister’s gift. It is a record of the death of an innocent man, author Norma Herrera’s brother Leo, executed in 1993 by Texas’ legal system.The saga begins in a small south Texas town where Leonel (Leo) Herrera’s family is partners with the local sheriff and his deputies in smuggling large amounts of cocaine into the United States from Mexico. When two deputies are killed, it is Leo who is arrested for the crimes – which he didn’t commit. He is captured and beaten unconscious by 20 officers. When Norma is admitted into the jail with a lawyer, she sees her brotherhand cuffed wrists to ankles, bloody and unconscious. Every officer she passes on the way to Leo’s cell has blood on his knuckles, arms, boots, or clothes. Norma has little medical training, but upon seeing her brother on the concrete floor she administers CPR to save his life. She first has to tilt his head to allow blood to slither out of his mouth. The sheriff finally transports Leo to the hospital emergency room...in a hearse."
CONVICTION: (Excerpt): "And so begins a story of injustice and brutality that the Herrera family suffered, a story so horrific, that few people would believe it could occur in a so-called civilized country. Eventually, Sheriff Marmalejo is arrested and convicted for his role in the drug smugling operation. He is sent to prison in Florida, but none of the considerable assets he acquired from the drug trade are seized.As too often happens in small towns, four members of Leo’s jury are intimately connected to local law enforcement and the two murdered deputies."
PROOF OF HIS INNOCENCE: (Excerpt): "After Leo’s conviction and death sentence, his brother Raul came forward and admitted to the killings. He explains that when he shows up instead of Leo to cut the drugs, Deputy Rucker becomes infuriated. An argment ensues during which Raul shoots Rucker. Raul shoots the second deputy on the way home when he is stopped for speeding. Raul’s son, then nine years old witnesses both murders, and when he is questioned by law enforcement, he tells what he knows. Years later, Raul Jr. writes an affidavit attesting to what he saw: His father shot both men and his Uncle Leo was not present. Several other witnesses also executed affidavits clearing Leo of the murders."
INNOCENCE BE DAMNED: A PERVERSE SUPREME COURT RULING: (Excerpt): "Hours before Leo’s first scheduled execution, a U.S. District Court judge orders a stay so that his writ of habeas corpus’ claim of innocence can be considered. In his order he writes, “...a sense of fairness and due process made it necessary for a state court to listen to Herrera’s evidence of innocence.” The State ofTexas appeals. In overruling the stay and giving the OK for Leo’s execution, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal writes:“The existence merely of newly discovered evidence relevant to the guilt of a state prisoner is not a ground for relief on federal habeas corpus.” Leo then obtains a stay while he appeals to the U.S.Supreme Court. In February 1993 the U.S. Supreme Court rules against Leo, “Petitioner urges us to hold that this showing of innocence entitles him to relief in this federal habeas proceeding. We hold that it does not.” National Public Radio Commentator Nina Totenberg summed it up: “Innocence is irrelevant.” The Supreme Court’s ruling in Leo’s case is memorialized in Herrera v. Collins (USSC 1993.)"
AN EXTRAORDINARY LAST REQUEST: (Excerpt): "The way is paved for Texas to carry out Leo’s sentence. A series of protests take place on the daysleading up to Leo’s execution scheduled forMay 12, 1993. Celebrities, including actor Danny Glover, attend the protests of an innocent man about to be executed. The final telephone conversation between Leo and his sister and mother is as heart-breaking a page of writing as has been written. Norma agonizes about how to tell their mother that all avenues to save Leo have been exhausted: What do you say? “I’m sorry, Mom. There is nothing left to do.They are going to execute Leo. ”Leo makes a final request to his sister: “My story, remember, I want you to make sure that people know what was done to me and the whole truth. This will be the last thing I will ask of you.”And it is the last thing Norma is able to do for her brother: to tell his story. To save his memory, even though she couldn’t save his life."
THE BOOK: As I have not yet received a copy of "Last Words from Death Row,' I have been able to access excerpts of the book published by Google Books, and the release announcing publication: (I will run a second post after I have had the opportunity to access the entire book). The release tells us that: "If all the court proceedings, including the Supreme Court's decision prior to Leo's execution represent the visible tip of the death penalty iceberg, Last Words from Death Row exposes the enormous human tragedy that resides below the surface. Her questions drive a powerful wedge between the legal process in capital cases and the truth. Why do the guilty go unpunished? When is innocence not enough to free a convicted man? Does Truth not prevail in the American Justice system? Who pays? Who is next?" From what I can tell from the Google Book portions, Norma Herrera, was a very intelligent, articulate human being, who did not let her anger at the justice system, which took her brother's life on a technicality while acknowledging his innocence, get in the way of honouring her commitment to him to truthfully tell his story, after his life had been so unjustly taken. We know from a review of the book published by The Death Penalty Information Center, that Last Words from Death Row: The Walls Unit reveals that, "Norma Herrera recounts the tribulations she and her family suffered as they worked to free her brother, Leonel, from death row in Texas. The book documents court events and press coverage of the case and captures the family’s efforts to assist Leonel prior to his execution in 1993, four months after the U.S. Supreme Court held in Herrera v. Collins that, in the absence of other constitutional violations, new evidence of innocence is no reason for federal courts to order a new trial. Leonel was a decorated war veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder when he was sentenced to death for the murder of two police officers. He was nearly beaten to death after his arrest for the crime. He was quickly sentenced to death by a jury that largely consisted of local police department employees or those closely associated with them. As they fought to prove their client’s innocence, Leonel’s appellate attorneys introduced eyewitness evidence that Leonel’s brother had actually committed the crime and that local police officials were part of an effort to hide the truth. One of Leonel’s attorneys, Robert McGlasson, noted, “Indeed, never in my almost ten years of death penalty practice had I seen such extraordinary evidence demonstrating not just my client’s innocence, but the extreme degree of government involvement in deceit and criminal involvement.”
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THE 'SELFLESS WARRIOR': Norma Herrera's story is starkly different from all of the other 'Selfless Warriors' published thus far in this series: Their herculean efforts to free someone they believe to have been wrongfully convicted - have proven successful (often many years later) albeit with great disruption to their lives. Norma and the members of her family who fought so hard to save his life - had to live with fact that Leo, whose innocence had been acknowledged by the courts, had been executed. Still, Norma did not stop advocating for Leo after the state so unjustly took his life. She honoured her commitment to truthfully his story, and reportedly advocated for his innocence right up to her death on January 14, 2008 at the age of 54.
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COMMENTARY: I prefer to sum up with Norma Herrera's own words from the book - words that stayed with me a long time after I read them:
"I kept and collected the following pictures as the years went by. No matter how many years go by, our loved one will remain in our hearts and prayers. Often people have told me to put closure to this ordeal, however, it is so so hard to forget the atrocious ordeals that happened. The one thing that does console my heart at the time of this writing is that I did fulfil my brother's last request. I love you Leo."
Then, along side a photo of her brother's grave, bearing the inscription 'Leonel Herrera. US Navy. Vietnam, one reads the words: "The final resting place of my brother Leo's ashes. You can now rest manito, for your story has been told."
READING MATERIALS:
Last Words from Death Row; (Nightengale Press);
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/04/prweb516564.htm#
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Last words from Death Row: (Google Books):
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Natalie Smith-Parra article;
http://justicedenied.org/issue/issue_39/last_words_jd39.pdf
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Molly Ivins column:
https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=799&dat=19930512&id=I74dAAAAIBAJ&sjid=vVcEAAAAIBAJ&pg=3501,6542126-------------------------------------------------------
A final word: Many thanks to University of Albany Archivist Jodi Boyle for all of the helpful assistance she provided me with. The University's 'Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives' is home to the 'Leonel Herrera Collection: 1954-2007 which can be accessed at:
https://archives.albany.edu/description/catalog/apap300
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