Image comprising key words from the final statements of 330 Texas death row inmates

January 6, 2010: Tomorrow, January 7 at 6 P.M., the State of Texas will kill Kenneth Mosley unless the state hears the call of human rights, death-penalty abolition and religious groups and grants him clemency. Read the articles below to see how you can help.

- Britta Slopianka and Les Blough

Dear Abolition Movement Friends,

Texas plans to execute a man Thursday for the death of a police officer in a shooting some say was unintentional. Execution Watch will broadcast live, with coverage from Huntsville, legal analysis of Kenneth Mosley's case and a discussion with political reporter Richard Vogel. Details are below.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Ann Stein
281-989-6556
Producer, Execution Watch

KPFT HD-2 Houston 90.1 FM

Streaming live at Execution Watch6-7 pm CT

Spotlighting Texas's badge of shame by broadcasting during executions
Currently Scheduled Dates:

Scheduled Executions in Texas

RADIO PROGRAM PREVIEW
Execution Watch
Jan. 7, 2009, Thurs., 6-7 pm CT
Listen on KPFT's HD-2 channel, 90.1 FM Houston, or
Go to Execution Watch at 6 p.m. CT, click on “Listen.”

SCHEDULED TO BE EXECUTED

KENNETH MOSLEY, 51, convicted in the 1997 death of Garland, Texas, Police Officer Michael David Moore, who responded to a call about a bank robbery and was shot during a struggle over Mosley’s weapon. Appellate attorneys sought a new hearing, arguing that the shooting was unintentional and that trial attorneys failed to present evidence of Mosley’s childhood abuse, brain damage, and adult drug habit. (For more background, go to Execution Watch, click on “Backpage on Kenneth Mosley.”)

AXIS OF LOGIC UPDATE - JANUARY 5

Texas asked not to execute man who may be brain damaged
January 5, 2010
Ikklesia

Human rights, religious and anti-death penalty groups are calling on the US state of Texas to stop the execution of a man who may be brain-damaged.

The campaign follows that against the judicial execution of a Briton in China suffering from mental health problems.

Kenneth Mosley, aged 51, faces execution by lethal injection on Thursday 7 January 2010, unless Texas governor Rick Perry intervenes.

Amnesty International supporters are sending 'urgent action' appeals to Governor Perry and to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Mosley was sentenced to death in 1997 after being found guilty of the murder of a police officer, David Moore, in an attempted bank robbery in the city of Garland, Texas.

At his trial, Mosley testified that he had not intended to shoot Moore and there were conflicting eyewitness accounts as to whether the shooting appeared intentional.

Meanwhile, the trial jury was told nothing about Mosley's upbringing, which was marked by violent abuse from his father and his exposure to toxic pesticides that may have seriously damaged his brain. Neither did the jury hear of his severe depression and a long history of cocaine and alcohol abuse as 'self-medication'.

After his trial, two psychologists concluded that Mosley suffered from frontal lobe dysfunction. Another psychologist said he had "generalised brain impairment as well as damage to specific areas in both the right and left sides of his brain." The third expert said that the "primary cause" of his "neuro-cognitive deficits" was "his lengthy and varied exposures to toxic chemicals at a vulnerable developmental stage."

Amnesty International's UK Director, Kate Allen commented: "Executions are always cruel and unnecessary, but for Texas to put to death a man who might be brain-damaged would be utterly unforgivable."

She added: "Our thoughts are with the family of Officer Moore at this time but even those that support the death penalty ought to admit it's totally wrong to execute a man like Kenneth Mosley."

"As with many other US capital cases, a jury has made a decision over Mosley's fate without hearing the full story. Governor Rick Perry should, in all conscience, stop this execution," she said.

Texas is one of 35 US states to retain the death penalty. The USA has seen a fall in the number of executions in recent years, but it still executes dozens of people every year - in 2009 there were 52 executions.

Kenneth Mosely is one of 342 inmates (332 men, 10 women) on death row in Texas.

From 1973 to the present, 139 people have been released from death row in the USA on the grounds of innocence (an average of approximately three exonerations per year).

Since 1976 the USA has executed 1,188 people. Some 3,300 prisoners remain on death row.

Ekklesia

There are many reasons why this state killing should not take place. Among them are Kenneth's inadequate defense at trial, his brain impairment due to chemical exposure as a child (pesticides) and his childhood abuse by a violent father. Kenneth denies intentionally shooting the police officer. We also note the prejudice involved in Kenneth's sentence: often by law, those convicted of killing of a police officer are automatically sentenced to death while others receive imprisonment. We value all lives equally and to set the life of a police officer above those of other citizens is not only unjust, it also goes to the creation of elite groups within society.

Amnesty International has taken up Kenneth's case now and argues to save his life the article below. Below the AI article are numerous updates by Axis of Logic with more specific information about Kenneth, including a hand-written letter from him to our Death Penalty columnist, Britta Slopianka. We also provide information on how you can help us appeal to the Texas Board of Pardon and Paroles and Rick Perry, Governor of Texas for a commutation (scroll to bottom for addresses and sample letters). Please take a few minutes to write and send a letter to these authorities. It is not too late. We begin this update with a copy of Kenneth's letter to Britta Slopianka, longtime advocate of death row prisoners and leader in the movement to abolish the death penalty.

- Britta Slopianka and Les Blough

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

URGENT ACTION

Kenneth Mosley, who received a stay of execution in September from the US Supreme Court 24 hours before he was due to be put to death, is now scheduled for execution on 7 January 2010. Mosley, a 51-year-old African American man, has spent 12 years on death row for the murder of a white police officer, David Moore.

Kenneth Mosley entered a bank in Garland, Texas, on 15 February 1997, wearing bulky clothes that were inappropriate for the warm weather. His appearance raised a staff member's suspicion – she recognized him as the person who had robbed the bank the previous month – and the police were called. Officer David Moore arrived and confronted Mosley, who was waiting in the queue. The two men fought, and crashed through a plate glass window; Moore was shot and fatally wounded. Mosley was arrested at the scene with a note saying "This is a hold up, I have a gun, put money in bag." At the trial, Kenneth Mosley said that he had gone to the bank to rob it to buy drugs. He testified that he had not intended to kill the officer, and there was varying witness testimony about the incident, including whether the shooting had appeared intentional. Kenneth Mosley was convicted of capital murder. At the sentencing phase of the trial, the defence presented only two witnesses. Mosley himself testified, and was removed from the courtroom after he swore in graphic terms at the jurors. He was sentenced to death.

Evidence not heard by the jury has been presented to the appeal courts describing Mosley’s poverty-stricken and abusive upbringing in a family of poor farm-workers, his exposure to toxic pesticides as a child, his possible brain damage, his depression, and his use of cocaine to self-medicate (see overleaf). The appeal courts have upheld Kenneth Mosley’s death sentence, rejecting the claim that he had received inadequate representation at trial. On 23 September, the US Supreme Court stayed the execution of Kenneth Mosley, scheduled for the following day. On 20 October, without comment, it announced that it was not taking the case.

Texas continues to account for a large proportion of the USA's executions. Of the 1,184 people put to death nationwide since 1977 when executions resumed in the USA, 446 have been in Texas. There have been 48 executions in the USA this year, 23 of which have been carried out in Texas.

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English or your own language and cite Kenneth Mosley’s prisoner number (#999243) in your appeals:

• Expressing concern that Kenneth Mosley’s jury was not presented with a full picture of the man they were sentencing, including his background of poverty and abuse, his possible brain impairment, and his depression;
  
  
• urging the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Perry to stop the execution of Kenneth Mosley and to grant him clemency;
  
  
• expressing concern at the continuing use of the death penalty in Texas, and calling on members of the Board and Governor Perry to work with members of the Texas legislature with a view to abolishing this punishment;
  
  
• explaining that you are not seeking to excuse violent crime or to downplay the suffering caused to its victims.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 06 January 2010 TO:

Rissie L. Owens, Presiding Officer, Board of Pardons and Paroles, Executive Clemency Section

8610 Shoal Creek Boulevard, Austin, TX 78757, USA

Fax: + 1 512 467 0945

Salutation: Dear Ms Owens

Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor, P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428, USA
Fax: + 1 512 463 1849

Salutation: Dear Governor

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives of the USA accredited to your country. Please check with your section office if sending appeals after the above date. This is the second update of UA 240/09 (AMR 51/099/2009).

Additional Information

Kenneth Mosley’s family lived on several farms in Arkansas between 1961 and 1971 (when he was aged three to 13) and the whole family had continued to work as labourers until 1979. In an affidavit presented to the appeal courts in Kenneth Mosley’s case, one of his brothers recalled that the family was very poor. He also recalled the violence of their father towards their mother: "He would become angry over the least little thing and hit Mom with his hands, his fists, and kick her when she was on the floor." The children, the brother said, were all scared of their father: "When one of us kids did something wrong, our father would punish all of us. We each had to take a turn in getting beat. One time the violence got so bad that me and two of my brothers ran away from home. We did not get very far; the police found us the same night. When we were returned home, we were all whipped by our father."

The brother also recalled that the children would play around drums and barrels of pesticides on the farms and that the pesticide residue would remain on the cotton fields where they worked. Kenneth Mosley’s mother and another older brother recalled that both their house and the crops would be sprayed from the air with pesticides.

A psychologist who examined Kenneth Mosley in 2000 concluded that he suffered from frontal lobe dysfunction. Another psychologist, who reviewed this finding, concluded that the evidence supported this assessment, and that such a brain impairment would help to explain Kenneth Mosley’s poor impulse control, his problems with attention and concentration, and his difficulty in inhibiting inappropriate behaviour. In her affidavit, she asserted that it was "exceedingly difficult for Kenneth Mosley to conform his behaviour to societal standards, particularly in the midst of stressful situations." A third expert concluded that Kenneth Mosley had "generalized brain impairment, as well as damage to specific areas in both the right and left sides of his brain." She concluded that the "primary cause" of his "neuro-cognitive deficits" was "his lengthy and varied exposures to toxic chemicals at a vulnerable developmental stage." In her affidavit, she added that current research and science indicated that such exposure could cause "severe health problems, particularly in terms of neurological damage."

Evidence that Kenneth Mosley has long suffered from major depression, and that this had led him to self-medicate with cocaine, has also been presented on appeal. However, the courts have rejected the claim that Mosley’s trial lawyers failed to adequately investigate and present mitigating evidence to challenge the state’s pursuit of the death penalty at the sentencing phase of the trial. In a recent appeal brief to the US Supreme Court, his current lawyers wrote: "Mosley’s numerous inpatient drug and alcohol treatments support that Mosley had debilitating addiction and depression issues. Had [trial] counsel followed the leads that these un-obtained medical records revealed, they would have learned that much of Mosley’s conduct was motivated by his desire to self-medicate his severe depression. In addition, Mosley has brain impairment due to chemical exposure as a child. There was a plethora of mitigating evidence that was never uncovered and, thus, never evaluated for introduction at the penalty proceedings."

Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally. To end the death penalty is to abandon a destructive, diversionary and divisive public policy that is not consistent with widely held values. It not only runs the risk of irrevocable error, it is also costly, to the public purse as well as in social and psychological terms. It has not been proved to have a special deterrent effect. It tends to be applied in a discriminatory way, on grounds of race and class. It denies the possibility of reconciliation and rehabilitation. It promotes simplistic responses to complex human problems, rather than pursuing explanations that could inform positive strategies. It prolongs the suffering of the murder victim’s family, and extends that suffering to the loved ones of the condemned prisoner. It diverts resources that could be better used to work against violent crime and assist those affected by it.

Further information on UA: 240/09 Index: AMR 51/122/2009 Issue date: 30 November 2009

PREVIOUS AXIS OF LOGIC UPDATES

"Where there is life, there is hope"

-Portuguese proverb

(Originally published on June 4, 2009) It is said that the ultimate heroic act is one of saving the life of another human being. There have been many celebrated stories of someone rushing into a burning building or diving into the water to save the life of another. Each of us has an opportunity to do our part to save the life of Kenneth Mosley. Unless we are successful, the State of Texas will kill Kenneth on July 16 in their death house in Huntsville. His attorney is filing a petition for clemency and has asked us to launch a letter-writing campaign on behalf of Kenneth. He provided us with information about Kenneth himself, his life and facts about his case.

In this era of e-mail correspondence we no longer take time to write a traditional letter, either fax it or place it in an envelope, stamp and mail it. This letter writing campaign deserves that time and attention on the part of each of us. In addition to your letters, please call the Texas BPP and voice your appeal. Addresses, phone/fax numbers and a sample letter are provided below the following information about Kenneth and his case.

- Britta Slopianka, Columnist,
Abolition of the Death Penalty
and Les Blough, Editor
Axis of Logic

Kenneth’s life was a life broken by an abusive childhood, racial trauma in school, untreated mental illness brought on by exposure to chemical pesticides; by a church that abandoned him because of his drug use, and by his inability to beat drug addiction. He was failed by his trial attorneys who failed to tell his story.

• Mitigating evidence was everything in this case, and much was available, but none was presented at his trial. The prosecutor portrayed Kenneth as a one-dimensional criminal. His trial attorneys did nothing to dispel this illusion; or convey to the jury the complex circumstances that had led to the case; or to show that there was indeed reasonable doubt of intent to cause the death of Officer Michael Moore.
  
  
• Kenneth suffers from frontal lobe impairment and diffuse brain injury as a result of extensive childhood exposure to neuro-toxic pesticides. Expert testimony confirms this frontal lobe impairment could have easily resulted in his erratic and aggressive behavior. This medical testimony was never presented to the jury nor was the fact that Kenneth suffered major depression and that his resort to cocaine often followed the expiration of his antidepressant medication. His trial lawyers did not even examine his medical records! They never informed the jury of the true root of his drug abuse allowing it to be attributed erroneously to moral failure. The failure of his lawyers allowed the jury to view Kenneth only as morally blameworthy rather than medically impaired.
  
  
• As a child Kenneth was afforded none of the protection due a child.
  He was brought up in a violent and chaotic household as evidenced in medical records at the time. He was his mother’s seventh son. His father, who was not the father of his older brothers, was strict, aggressive, and abusive. The family was poor and lived in farm hand quarters adjacent to soybean and cotton fields in Arkansas. Kenneth was working in the fields at age five. Crop dusters routinely dusted and sprayed the fields along with the living quarters with chemicals, pesticides, weed killers, and defoliants. On occasion, Kenneth and his brothers were intentionally chased and sprayed by the crop dusters. As a result, all of the brothers experienced headaches and other ailments and as experts have testified Ken was left brain damaged. When the family moved to a different part of the state, one of Kenneth’s brothers refused to move because of the violence and abuse in the home. Kenneth later regretted that he had remained. It was as a young boy that Kenneth had first been introduced to drugs by an older brother.
  
  
• Kenneth attended a segregated grade school, but just before he began high school, schools were integrated, and he suffered directly during the civil rights era. However, he graduated from high school and attended one year of college at the University of Arkansas. Then he quit school and went to work as earning became an imperative.
  
  
• Despite his deprived background Kenneth held down a good job for nearly 16 years with Coca-Cola Bottling Company. He advanced within the company and was regarded as a diligent and hard worker. During that time he met and married Carol to whom he is still married, and they have a daughter, Amber to whom Kenneth remains devoted. Kenneth lost his job because of his addiction and with his job went his medical insurance. Kenneth and his wife sought long and hard to get treatment for him but without insurance or money this was fruitless. Poverty, addiction and illness combined led Kenneth to a desperate situation, and despair led to crime.

Facts of the case:

First Letter

Board of Pardons and Paroles
Executive Clemency Section
General Counsel's Office
8610 Shoal Creek Blvd
Austin, TX 78757
Phone: (512) 406-5852
Fax: (512)- 467-0945

SAMPLE LETTER

Feel free to send a copy of this letter or personalise it with your appeal in any way you can and mail or fax it to:

[Today's Date]
Rissie L. Owens, Chair, and Other Board Members
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
P. O. Box 13401
Austin, Texas 78711-3401

Re: Kenneth Mosley TDCJ Number 999243

Dear Member of the Board of Pardons and Paroles:

I am writing on behalf of Kenneth Mosley who is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on July 16, 2009. I have read about Kenneth's crime in which police officer, Michael Moore was killed. I have also read about Kenneth's life. I've read about his tragic childhood, abusive father, his frontal lobe impairment, his mental illness, his chemical dependency/addiction and resulting psychological problems.

Also, I am impressed by how Kenneth overcame these huge disadvantages by successfully completing high school and one year of college, his marriage and family and his 16 years of successful employment for Coca Cola Bottling Company. I write this with full understanding that this was not the first crime that Kenneth committed and that this was his second robbery of this bank. I've read how tragically, Officer Moore was killed in the struggle with Kenneth. But no act of revenge can bring Officer Moore back to his loved ones nor lessen the pain left by his death. Having considered all these factors, I am appealing to you as a human being and as a member of the Board of Pardons and Paroles to show mercy for Kenneth Mosley and recommend clemency to Governor Rick Perry. Please do everything you can to stop the execution of Kenneth Mosley on July 16, 2009.

Respectfully,

Your Name
Your City, State, Country

Second Letter

Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

(main switchboard. office hours 8am to 5pm)

Phone: (512) 463-2000
Fax: (512) 463-1849