Help
Stop Virginia's 100th Execution - TAKE ACTION!
Please
Forward This Message
Greetings All,
Percy
Walton is scheduled to be killed by the people of Virginia at
9pm on June 10, 2008 for his murders of Jessie Kendrick,
Elizabeth Kendrick and Archie Moore. Background
information highlighting Percy Walton's severe mental illness
is below.
At a time when much of the country is turning
away from the death penalty, Virginia has four executions
scheduled in the coming months. Second only to Texas in
the number of prisoners killed since 1977, next week's
scheduled killing of Percy Walton could be Virginia's 100th
execution. Please take a few minutes right now to say
"Enough!" and help stop this execution.
Please take one or more of the following actions -
Details below:
#1 - Contact Virginia Governor Tim Kaine
and ask him to stop the execution #2 - Forward
this and ask people you know to also contact Governor Kaine
#3 - Attend the execution protest and vigil
#4
- Support VADP's Efforts
#5 - Review the background
information on Percy Walton below
ACTION
#1
Contact Gov. Tim Kaine RIGHT NOW by telephone and/or
fax and politely ask him to grant clemency (show mercy) to
Percy Walton by commuting his death sentence to life without
the possibility of parole. If you live in Virginia, be
sure to start by stating your name and the place where you
live.
Gov. Tim Kaine Phone: (804) 786-2211 Fax:
(804) 371-6351
NOTE: You can e-mail Gov. Kaine
via his web page, but in order to stress the urgency of this
matter we are urging more personal/tangible contact at this
time.
ACTION
#2
Calls may be made and faxes may be sent as late as
8pm on June 10th, so please forward this action to others.
Ask people you know to also contact Governor Kaine, including
people at religious services or other activities you attend
this weekend and on Monday and Tuesday. Print it out so
that you have the information with you when you bump into a
friend who might call.
ACTION #3
If
no stay or commutation has been granted by Tuesday afternoon,
attend the execution protest and vigil outside Greensville
Correctional Center at Jarratt. Because this is
execution #100, we urge all who can to attend the vigil at the
prison. Jarratt is about 50 miles south of Richmond on
I-95.
If you cannot travel to the prison, please attend
a vigil closer to where you live. Details on scheduled
vigils are at http://vadp.org/attend-a-vigil.html
For
last minute information about whether a stay has been granted,
please call VADP Board member Betty Gallagher at
434-825-1860. You can also check the web page at
www.VADP.org
ACTION #4
Please support VADP's
efforts on-line HERE
or by sending a donation to
VADP P.O. Box
4804 Charlottesville, VA 22905
CASE
INFORMATION
Learn more background on this case below,
HERE,
and HERE.
Percy
Levar Walton
At 9 p.m. on Tuesday evening, the
Commonwealth of Virginia will inject a lethal substance into
Percy Walton with the intention of ending his life. If
he is executed, he will be the 100th person executed since
Virginia resumed executions after 1982. Percy Walton was 18
years and one month old at the time of his crime. He was
sentenced to death in 1997 for the murders of an elderly white
couple, Elizabeth Hendrick, aged 81, and Jesse Hendrick, aged
80, and a 33-year-old black man, Archie Moore, in Danville in
November 1996.
Walton suffers from schizophrenia
and his illness has gone untreated for over a decade. Over the
past several years, prison personnel, including a
psychiatrist, have described him as being floridly psychotic
and appearing severely mentally retarded. Two independent
psychiatrists state that Walton has chronic schizophrenia and
does not understand that he has a death sentence. Prison
guards refer to Walton as "Horse", short for "Crazy
Horse," and stay at arms length to avoid his stench (a
classic symptom of schizophrenia). However, a June 16,
2003 hearing ruled that Walton had a reported IQ as high as 90
on previous tests, and his retardation had not been apparent
before the age of 18, thus missing another gauge for mental
retardation.
Since Mr. Walton was first sentenced to
death the US Supreme Court has ruled in Atkins v Virginia the
execution of the mentally retarded to be prohibited as "cruel
and unusual punishment." Since that 2002 ruling
approximately 50 death row inmates who suffer from mental
retardation have been removed from death rows across the
United States and had their sentences remanded to life in
prison without parole. Five of the most recent grants of
clemency to death row inmates nationally have been based on
the inmate's extreme mental illness. These commutations
reflect a greater understanding of the ravages of severe
schizophrenia, its biological cause, and the need for
compassion and treatment rather than condemnation for
sufferers.
********
SENT BY:
Abraham J.
Bonowitz Director of Affiliate Support National
Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty www.NCADP.org abe@ncadp.org 202-331-4090 561-371-5204
(Mobile)
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