A Saint on Death Row

by Thomas Cahill

  Which brings us to the title of this book. In what way do I propose Dominique as a saint? Certainly, in the common sense of the word, “saint” as a person of extraordinary kindness and patience. Dominique was hardly a saint in his early years, but I think we may speak of him this way in his last years as a fully achieved human being.

  The three largest Christian denominations in the world— Catholics, with more than 1.1 billion adherents; Orthodox, with nearly a quarter billion; and Anglicans, with more than 80 million—together representing two-thirds of the Christians on the planet, all speak of saints as those among the dead who we know are with God and to whom it is therefore appropriate to speak and to ask that they pray with us whose earthly journeys are unfinished. I would also propose Dominique as a saint in this more theological sense. There are not a few whose lives he touched who view him in this way who believe they speak to him and that he hears and answers them, even that, as he promised on his last day of life on this earth, “Where I'm going I'm going to take care of everybody.”

  However that may be, Dominique was not buried in Huntsville's brutal burial ground. His ashes were brought to Rome by Dave Atwood and his wife, Priscilla, and today they rest in the shadow of the beautiful Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, in the dignified entrance hall to a seventeenth-century palace, which is now the home of Sant'Egidio's refuge for abused and abandoned children. His carved memorial stone reads:

  DOMINIQUE J. GREEN

  HOUSTON 13 V 1974-HUNTSVILLE 26 X 2004

  BROTHER AND FRIEND

  It is the Lord who sets out the steps of a man

  and takes pleasure in his journey.

  Though he fall, he will not be sent sprawling—

  For the Lord is holding him by the hand.

  Psalm 37

  ∗ Till lately, Dallas County vied with Harris for the distinction of being the most unjust county in Texas. But Dallas now has as its district attorney Craig Watkins, the first black district attorney in Texas history Watkins has partnered with the Innocence Project (see Chapter 7) in reviewing DNA evidence from old convictions—convictions won in cases tried by the legendary Henry Wade (of Roe v. Wade), who served as Dallas County's district attorney for thirty-seven years and regularly withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense and from the jury During Wade's tenure it was well-known that if you were charged with a crime, you were almost certain to be convicted. So far, the convictions of seventeen prisoners have been overturned on the basis of DNA reviews; one prisoner, James Woodard, had served more than twenty-seven years in prison before his exoneration. Two hundred fifty additional cases remain under review.

  ∗ The American Baptists, however, are opposed to the death penalty. Disagreements of interpretation over the authentic Baptist tradition, which was once a more oppositional form of Christianity than it tends to be today, have caused many prominent Southern Baptists—including Jimmy Carter, Bill Moyers, and Bill Clinton—to leave the fold or to rethink their commitment. The novelist John Grisham, whose fictions have done so much to dramatize the moral dilemmas of American life, calls himself “a moderate Baptist” and has said, “I'm a Christian, and you'll never convince me that Jesus taught revenge killings are what Christians are supposed to be doing.” On the other hand, many Roman Catholics, despite the stance of their church, favor the death penalty. So there is often enough a significant disjunction between a church's stated position and the opinions of its members.

  7

  WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

  Here are a few books, articles, and Web sites you may wish to consult.

  No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice System, by David Cole (New Press, 2000). An examination of all aspects of our judicial system, including police behavior, jury selection, and sentencing; a convincing case that there is a double standard that allows those with money to enjoy constitutional protections not extended to those without money. A 2003 article with some updates can be found at http://www.nacdl.org/public.nsf/GideonAnniversary/news04?opendocument/

  Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II, by Douglas A. Blackmon (Doubleday 2008). An exposé of the little-known but widespread American practice of convict leasing. “Under laws enacted specifically to intimidate blacks, tens of thousands of African Americans were arbitrarily arrested, hit with outrageous fines, and charged for the costs of their own arrests. With no means to pay these ostensible debts,’ prisoners were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries and farm plantations.” The author's Web site is at http://slaverybyanothername.com/

  The Trouble with Black Boys… And Other Reflections on Race, Equity, and the Future of Public Education, by Pedro A. Noguera (Jossey-Bass, 2008). In this series of essays, Noguera illustrates the societal assumptions and pressures black boys face as they grow up and shows how these assumptions often lead to poor choices by the boys, choices that ultimately fulfill the low expectations society and the educational system set for them. A scholarly but very readable book that offers recommendations on how our educational system could better deal with this syndrome.

  Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment?, edited by Hugo Adam Bedau and Paul G. Cassell (Oxford University Press, 2004). A collection of essays by federal judges, lawyers, and philosophers consisting of four essays supporting the death penalty and four arguing against. The essays take into account race and economics, retribution and morality, the risks of wrongful convictions, the deterrence value of capital punishment, and closure for victims’ families.

  “A Deadly Distinction: Harris County Is a Pipeline to Death Row,” by Mike Tolson (Houston Chronicle, February 5, 2001). This article can be found at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/penalty/813783.html

  The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town, by John Grisham (Dell, 2007). A true story of routine injustice in our criminal justice system (this time in Oklahoma), by the famous author of legal thrillers.

  Dallas Morning News. Its investigative series on sexual abuse in Texas's juvenile institutions can be viewed at: http://www.dallasnews.com/investigativereports/tyc/

  Thomas Cahill's Web site. Additional information about Dominique Green, his case, and his world may be found at http://www.thomascahill.com/

  Bill Moyers Journal Part of an interview with Dominique Green can be found at http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2007/12/dominique_green_in_his_own_wor.html

  DPIC: Death Penalty Information Center. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/

  WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO MORE?

  Here are some organizations you may wish to join and/or support, or from which you may wish to seek assistance for your own community.

  Childhelp

  http://www.childhelp.org/

  Founded in 1959, Childhelp works to meet the needs of abused, neglected, and at-risk children. Services include residential centers and/or counseling programs in seven states, as well as national programs such as Good-Touch/ Bad-Touch, Children's Advocacy Centers, and the National Child Abuse Hotline, 1-800-4-A-CHILD (1-800-422-4453), which provides free crisis intervention and child abuse counseling from professional counselors twenty-four hours a day The hotline counselors also provide referrals to local agencies and adult survivor groups throughout the United States and Canada.

  Pro-Vision Ministries, Inc.

  http://www.provision-inc.org/index.htm

  Founded in 1989 by Roynell Young, a former defensive back for the Philadelphia Eagles, Pro-Vision is based in Houston with the mission, according to Young, to “interrupt the pipeline that is causing young men to go from the cradle to prison.” The organization runs three programs: Manhood Development, which provides life management and other skills; the Pro-Vision School, an all-male charter middle school with teachers trained in motivating at-risk kids to learn; and the Enterprise Academy, which teaches members financial and job skills with on-the-job training. Within each of the
se programs the families of members can also receive benefits, such as mental health counseling and job training.

  Perspectives

  http://www.perspectives-family.org/

  An award-winning, multiprogram human service agency based in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and providing comprehensive services to hundreds of homeless and at-risk families in the Minneapolis area. Its purpose is total family recovery through the breaking of cycles of social and psycho logical destructiveness. At present, its programs are unique in their comprehensiveness, but Perspectives could serve as a national model.

  The Annie E. Casey Foundation

  http://www.aecf.org/

  Founded in 1948 to meet the needs of vulnerable children and families and in the belief that all children need and deserve a family for life, the Annie E. Casey Foundation makes grants to states, cities, and neighborhoods so they may better meet these needs. The foundation works with youth who end up in the juvenile justice system from impoverished single-parent homes and have high rates of learning disabilities, mental health, or substance abuse problems.

  Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA)

  National: http://www.nationalcasa.org/

  Texas: http://www.texascasa.org/

  Trains community volunteers to speak for the best interests of abused and neglected children in court.

  Southern Center for Human Rights

  http://www.schr.org/

  Founded in 1976, the Southern Center for Human Rights's legal work includes representing prisoners in challenges to unconstitutional conditions and practices in prisons and jails, challenging systemic failures in the legal representation of poor people in the criminal courts, and representing people facing the death penalty who otherwise would have no representation. The center also opposes the privatization of prisons and correctional functions.

  The Innocence Project

  http://www.innocenceproject.org/

  Founded in 1992, the Innocence Project assists prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. As of July 2008, it has assisted in the exoneration of 218 people in the United States, each of whom served an average of twelve years in prison, including 16 who served time on Death Row.

  NCADP: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

  http://www.ncadp.org/

  Founded in 1976 in response to the Supreme Court decision in Gregg v. Georgia, which permitted executions to resume in the United States, it supports efforts to abolish the death penalty in this country and throughout the world.

  Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

  http://www.tcadp.org/

  An inclusive organization, founded by Dave Atwood, composed of human rights activists, crime victims and their families, Death Row prisoners and their families, persons working within the criminal justice system, persons opposed to capital punishment on religious and moral grounds, and other concerned citizens opposed to capital punishment.

  A portion of the author's proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

  A SUMMARY OF THE CASE OF

  DOMINIQUE GREEN

  This summary of Dominique's case, written by Andrew Lofthouse in early 2004 at Sheila Murphy's request, was intended to serve as an information sheet to be distributed to the press and other interested parties. I include it here because it is an admirably terse summary of Dominique's story.

  HOW RACISM AND A FLAWED LEGAL SYSTEM

  CONSPIRE TO EXECUTE DOMINIQUE GREEN

  Dominique Green is a 29-year-old African American who is nearing the end of his appeals on Texas Death Row. We believe that after a review of the facts of the case, you, like us, will see racism and a flawed legal system prevented justice from prevailing in Dominique's case.

  Dominique Green was an unloved, African American young man, who was poor in spirit as well as material goods. His parents were alcoholics and his father was addicted to marijuana. His mother was mentally ill and repeatedly tortured and physically abused Dominique and his younger brothers, going so far as holding their hands over a flaming stove.

  To save his fragile siblings, Dominique took their punishment. Once he took his brother to a homeless shelter where they lived to avoid the constant abuse at home. When Dominique, at age 15, and his younger brother Marlon were thrown out of their house by their mother, Dominique rented a storage shed for the two of them to live in and sold drugs to support Marlon and himself.

  One evening in 1992, when Dominique was 18 years old, he allegedly went out with a group of three men whom he knew. They were said to have robbed people at gunpoint. One man, Andrew Lastrapes, was killed by a single shot to the chest.

  There were no eyewitnesses or scientific evidence that indicated Dominique participated in this crime. The only evidence against him came from the other young men who all testified against Dominique. In return, the State dropped capital murder charges against them a few days before Dominique's trial. Dominique was also offered a deal in exchange for testimony about the other men, but Dominique refused, saying he was innocent.

  Two of the other men, the black men, went to prison, while the white man who admitted being present at the murder and sharing the proceeds from the robberies was not indicted or prosecuted at all. Indeed, prosecutors encouraged him not to speak to anyone about the case, even though he was never charged. This all occurred in Houston, a part of Harris County, Texas, a place that has sent more inmates to their executions than 47 states and has thus gained the infamous title “Death Penalty Capital of the World.”

  During the sentencing phase of the trial—when the jury was determining whether Dominique should live or die— his court-appointed lawyer chose psychologist Dr. Walter Quijano to testify in defense. To analyze Dominique's future dangerousness, Dr. Quijano took into account the fact that Dominique is African American. He did not, however, share this bias with the jury.

  Recently, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence of Victor Saldano after a former Texas attorney general, John Cornyn, admitted error in multiple cases in which prosecutors called Dr. Quijano, who had testified in a similar capacity as he had in Dominique's trial, saying Mr. Saldano was more likely to be violent because he was Hispanic.

  Racism again infected this phase of Dominique's trial when the prosecution construed the words of a rap song to be his own. While Dominique was locked up awaiting trial, he wrote a letter to a friend. At the end of the letter he quoted a popular rap song with the words “trigga happy nigga.” Dominique, who was only 18 at the time, meant this as a tongue-in-cheek reference to how he thought the police saw him, not to any future plans.

  The jury, which had no African Americans on it, was not informed the phrase was from a song. The prosecution argued Dominique should be executed because he is a “trigger-happy nigger” even though he had no prior convictions for violent crime and only one shot was fired after an apparent struggle where the victim pulled out a knife.

  The “defense” also put Dominique's mother on the stand even though her doctor told them she suffers from psychological problems, including multiple personality disorder, and was not stable. The defense lawyer [in this case, Diana Olvera is meant], however, told the judge that she knew how to determine which personality was testifying. The mother then stated that Dominique should be executed.

  The judge in Dominique's case, Judge Shaver, appointed the defense counsels to represent Dominique even though neither one had ever principally represented a defendant charged with the death penalty. In fact, the only other capital case the defense counsel had worked on was the infamous “sleeping lawyer” case that also was before Judge Shaver, who afterwards remarked to the Los Angeles Times: “The Constitution entitles you to a lawyer. It doesn't say that the lawyer has to be awake.”∗

  While this may seem like a comedy of errors, unfortunately in Harris County this comedy is performed routinely. No matter what view you may have of the death penalty, all must agree that those facing the ultimate
punishment should receive a fair trial, free of racism and incompetent counsel.

  Since being convicted, Dominique has grown and matured dramatically, making one wonder just what the state will achieve by executing him. He has helped numerous other inmates to survive the torturous nature of Death Row and has submitted his engaging artwork and poetry in various exhibits around the country and world.

  We hope you will find the space in your life to support Dominique as he fights for his life.

  ∗ Shaver's pronouncement has been reported in slightly different words by others (see p. 27) but the import is always the same.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I am grateful to many, many people who were helpful to me in the writing of this book, most especially to Sheila Murphy and Andrew Lofthouse, without whom I could not have written much of anything, but also to Jessica Tanksley and David Atwood, both of whose cooperation was invaluable in creating an accurate account. Besides Jessica and David, a number of Houstonians supplied me with important material and insights, among these Dominique's mother, Stephanie, his brothers, Hollingsworth and Marlon—now a sergeant in the U.S. Army, whom I interviewed in Anchorage prior to his second tour of duty in Iraq—and Sylvia Gonzales. Mary C. Schneider, a sympathetic psychologist who interviewed Dominique extensively, was generous with her time and insights, as was Pat Lofthouse with copies of the videotaped interviews she had made of Dominique and of relevant figures in his case. Gerald Kelly offered me his gracious hospitality at Maryknoll House; and my wife Susan Cahill, Bennett Ashley, Lynn Franklin, Walter Long, Mario Marazziti, James Morris, Michael Smith, Donald Spoto, and Brigid Wolff all read early drafts of the manuscript and offered exceedingly useful criticism. I could not have managed without the marvelous assistance of Sarah C. Palmer, whose research abilities quite surpass my own. As with all my books, there stands behind this one a large cast of essential dramatis personae: Nan A. Talese (always in first place) and her staff, Doubleday's publisher Stephen Rubin, Kathy Trager, Emily Mahon, Jessie Bright, John Pitts, Nora Reichard, Trent Duffy, the incomparable Jennifer Marshall, and the members of the sales force, without whose enthusiasm no author can hope to reach his intended readers. Nor can I omit mention of my preternaturally astute literary agent Lynn Nesbit and her able colleagues.