Irreversible Error: Death Penalty Report Release Webcast - Anthony Graves Remarks — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:01wow thank you um uh Sarah thank you for
2. 0:05inviting me um Governor white General
3. 0:09early thank you guys for allowing me to
4. 0:11sit on the panel with
5. 0:13you in case you all didn't know my name
6. 0:16is Anthony Graves and I'm am deathro
7. 0:19exonary number
8. 0:23138 there are 12 more like me that was
9. 0:26in Texas
10. 0:30I was 26 years old when I was arrested
11. 0:32and charged with capital
12. 0:34murder two years later I was found
13. 0:37guilty and sentenced to death by lethal
14. 0:41injection I turned 45 when I was
15. 0:45exonerated 18 and A2
16. 0:48years and I witness some of the worst
17. 0:51inhumanity that any man can witness and
18. 0:54I have to live with it every
19. 0:58day conditions on death roow
20. 1:01were horrible I seen guys hang
21. 1:06themselves guys slit their wrist guys
22. 1:09overdosing on their
23. 1:11medication guys dropping their
24. 1:13pills not so much because they was
25. 1:16guilty of what they was being charged
26. 1:18with but the conditions the conditions
27. 1:21were
28. 1:22unbearable when I first got out I had to
29. 1:26make this transition back into
30. 1:28society they took me from from sary
31. 1:32confinement and put me right on the
32. 1:34streets no
33. 1:36transition okay I was just lucky that
34. 1:40for some reason I was
35. 1:42saying not so many of them come out like
36. 1:45that I it's not like I
37. 1:51did this capital punishment that we're
38. 1:53talking about I don't care how many
39. 1:56rules we make
40. 1:58up how how close to getting it right we
41. 2:01think we
42. 2:02are we are never ever going to stop
43. 2:06killing innocent people as long as we
44. 2:08have the death
45. 2:10penalty there's just no
46. 2:12way I mean this this here I say that if
47. 2:16this had
48. 2:18been in place before when I had went to
49. 2:22trial I would not have probably went to
50. 2:25death
51. 2:26row okay because if they I practiced
52. 2:30these rules I wouldn't have went but I
53. 2:32don't always think that it is just the
54. 2:34word on paper that that we got
55. 2:37wrong it the people we're
56. 2:40entrusting that we're getting it wrong
57. 2:42we're their
58. 2:44bosses and we're hiring the wrong
59. 2:47people so as their boss we need to start
60. 2:51hiring people that really cares about
61. 2:53Seeking
62. 2:55Justice in Texas we have this model
63. 2:57tough on crime
64. 3:00I think it just changed the whole
65. 3:01landscape of our criminal justice system
66. 3:04because it gave him a green light to
67. 3:05take shortcuts to get a
68. 3:08conviction I know
69. 3:11this I walked into a courtroom full of
70. 3:14Hope because in
71. 3:17my years of learning high in school I
72. 3:20was told that we had the best criminal
73. 3:22justice system in the world so for the
74. 3:25first two years that they had me
75. 3:26incarcerated just holding me I kept
76. 3:28begging them please take me to trial
77. 3:31because from what I know that all I need
78. 3:33to do is get to trial let the truth come
79. 3:35out and I go
80. 3:37home unfortunately that's just not the
81. 3:39way it works that's not the way it works
82. 3:42because we're tough on crime in
83. 3:44Texas okay we have the green light to do
84. 3:47what we want to do to get a conviction
85. 3:50and then we have an appeal court that
86. 3:51will rubber stamp it for us okay that's
87. 3:55the truth that's my
88. 3:57truth it's it's not in here this my
89. 4:00truth I watched our system fall from top
90. 4:03to bottom from the initial arrest to my
91. 4:07conviction to my exoneration to going
92. 4:11back to jail well the reversal going
93. 4:14back to jail for 4 and a half more years
94. 4:17before I was finally
95. 4:19exonerated I watched the system Tred to
96. 4:21cover up their
97. 4:23mistake they kept coming to me after I
98. 4:26the case was reversed asking me to take
99. 4:28a deal
100. 4:30would he take a life sentence what would
101. 4:32he take and I had to tell them you kill
102. 4:36me or you free me because I'm not going
103. 4:38to compromise the truth and therefore I
104. 4:41stayed for a little over four more years
105. 4:44in solitary confinement in the local
106. 4:46jail trying to break my
107. 4:50will but see I'm here
108. 4:53today because I'm a voice for the
109. 4:56voiceless I watched those men I read
110. 4:59their cases it's
111. 5:02horrible guys are down now simply
112. 5:04because they couldn't afford
113. 5:06Justice that's it the worst of the worst
114. 5:08is not there it is those who could not
115. 5:11afford Justice unfortunately a lot of
116. 5:15them look like me because I couldn't
117. 5:17afford Justice I came from the projects
118. 5:20okay I believed in the law I was a law
119. 5:23Biden citizen but I didn't have the
120. 5:26resources so when they came and knocked
121. 5:29on my door
122. 5:30and told me that they was taking me
123. 5:31downtown to be
124. 5:33interrogated I cooperated
125. 5:36110% the chief Ranger got on the witness
126. 5:39stand and told them this man cooperated
127. 5:42with us
128. 5:44110% they still denied me a bun they had
129. 5:47no evidence on me the judge still said B
130. 5:50denied they said well is there anything
131. 5:52that this man that y'all have on this
132. 5:53man that connects him to the case the
133. 5:55chief Ranger said no the judge said Deni
134. 5:58bail
135. 6:00I seen the system fall from top to
136. 6:03bottom prosecutor accountability is My
137. 6:06Strong thing it is my pet PE because I
138. 6:10think they are the ones that drive our
139. 6:12system I'm not out to bash prosecutors
140. 6:15I'm for good
141. 6:17prosecutors I just want to weed out the
142. 6:19bad ones so that we can start Seeking
143. 6:21Justice again because that's what it's
144. 6:23about I'm not here to say hey we need to
145. 6:26free everybody on death row cuz I met
146. 6:28guys that I wouldn't want to live in my
147. 6:31neighborhood I am here to say that we
148. 6:33need to make this system
149. 6:35fair fair for if we're going to practice
150. 6:38the death penalty know who we
151. 6:40execute most of us don't even know their
152. 6:43names until they're in the
153. 6:45paper but but we've been supporting the
154. 6:48whole notion of executing it because we
155. 6:50have the death
156. 6:52penalty you have to get involved you
157. 6:55cannot do this from the sideline anymore
158. 6:57too much is at stake
159. 7:00I watch little kids come down there 17
160. 7:02years old there's a young guy named
161. 7:04Napoleon Beasley that came to death row
162. 7:06he his crime was when he was
163. 7:0816 he killed a federal judge
164. 7:11dad first time in his life he ever done
165. 7:14something wrong that we know of but this
166. 7:16kid was a valid dictor he was uh uh
167. 7:20great in
168. 7:21sports and he made one mistake for 5
169. 7:24minutes in his life and I watched this
170. 7:27kid come down there at the age of 18 17
171. 7:30so remorseful he spent his time writing
172. 7:33letters to young kids in Reformatory
173. 7:36schools sharing his story with them
174. 7:39pleading with them not to go down the
175. 7:41wrong
176. 7:42path and it wasn't good enough for
177. 7:45Texas we still executed this young kid
178. 7:48who mind hadn't even matured
179. 7:51yet wasn't even fully
180. 7:53developed but we took one act out of his
181. 7:5617 years of living and we murdered him
182. 7:59and that's what I call it let's get to
183. 8:02the heart of it we are murdering people
184. 8:05execution is just a nice way of saying
185. 8:07it we are murdering innocent people
186. 8:11people who are mentally ill people who
187. 8:14cases didn't even deserve a death
188. 8:16penalty but couldn't have couldn't
189. 8:17afford the
190. 8:19resources those are people we killing
191. 8:22and they look like
192. 8:23me and they look like
193. 8:26Latinos those are the people we're
194. 8:29killing
195. 8:30but had we had this in
196. 8:32place the makeup would look totally
197. 8:34different there wouldn't be a lot of
198. 8:36people on death row it just simply would
199. 8:38not be because this would have been a
200. 8:41stop
201. 8:43Gap we have to take this
202. 8:45serious if we really talking about being
203. 8:50fair and equal then we have to take this
204. 8:53serious because I am telling you there
205. 8:56are guys down there who are count on me
206. 8:58to let you you know that they are
207. 9:00innocent back there not all of them but
208. 9:04there are a few and if I don't get it
209. 9:06across to you guys to let you know that
210. 9:09this book is needed it should be adopted
211. 9:12in our legal system because if not those
212. 9:15guys who are count on me are going to
213. 9:17say I let them down because they're
214. 9:19going to be
215. 9:21executed and it's going to be on our
216. 9:23hands cuz as I said when I first came up
217. 9:26we are the
218. 9:28bosses we we elect we
219. 9:33select we have to take our role more
220. 9:35serious we just cannot be putting
221. 9:37somebody in office because they have a
222. 9:39name that sounds good when their
223. 9:42policies does not match
224. 9:46ours 18 and A2 years over
225. 9:50350 executions I
226. 9:53witness guys I was able to talk to 12
227. 9:57hours before they were executed
228. 9:59look me in my face with tears in their
229. 10:02eyes this is a grown man telling me I
230. 10:06didn't do this I didn't do
231. 10:11this but he was
232. 10:13executed he was executed anyway this one
233. 10:17guy I'm talking about his case was
234. 10:19reversed he had a reversal for two years
235. 10:23this man was ready to go home he was
236. 10:24happy he F he felt that Justice had
237. 10:27finally prevailed his name was char
238. 10:30board they took back his reversal and
239. 10:34executed this man and on his way to the
240. 10:37gr he was crying I didn't do
241. 10:41this that's what we have going on our
242. 10:43system a system without
243. 10:49this I had three
244. 10:53kids when this happened to
245. 10:56me one of my sons has siel
246. 11:00anemia and every time we would have to
247. 11:03take him to the hospital for blood
248. 11:05transfusion I would be there I would
249. 11:07spend nights with him at the
250. 11:10hospital so when they convicted me my
251. 11:12son
252. 11:14testified I need my daddy my daddy is my
253. 11:20strength it fell on death
254. 11:24is my son now is legally
255. 11:27blind he had a stroke while I was aake
256. 11:30fight for my
257. 11:32life so had shter memory
258. 11:37loss
259. 11:39and I should have been that with
260. 11:42him I could never get that back and
261. 11:46that's what happens when we get it wrong
262. 11:48we take things that no one can ever give
263. 11:52back I am
264. 11:54saying help us help those down there
265. 11:57that are innocent
266. 12:00and adopt
267. 12:01this adopt this make sure that these
268. 12:05things get into our system so that we
269. 12:07can start protecting innocent
270. 12:10lives thank you
271. 12:14[Applause]