A Scary Possibility

By Jenna Jackson

A man who has been on Death Row here in Texas for nearly 30 years could be getting out.

Jonathan Bruce Reed (pictured left) was convicted and condemned for the November 1978 rape-slaying, of Wanda Jean Wadle at her Dallas apartment. But, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled Dallas County prosecutors improperly excluded black prospective jurors from Reed’s trial and ordered him released unless prosecutors choose to retry him quickly.Prosecutors haven’t yet decided if they will re-try him. They say they need time to “dissect” the opinion, according to a story by Mike Gracyk of the Associated Press. The real question will be, CAN they re-try him? After 30 years, it’s hard to imagine what, if any, evidence remains preserved. Witnesses are probably dead or gone, and who knows if the victim’s family is even still around.

If they are—this is a terrible day for them. They probably thought this case was closed, even though the man a jury said was responsible hasn’t yet been executed.It seems it was pretty much the policy of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, at the time, to exclude black people from a jury in the belief that blacks empathize with defendants. Reed is white – but the Constitutional efforts remain the same.“Although we do not relish adding a new chapter to this unfortunate story more than 30 years after the crime took place, we conclude that the Constitution affords Reed a right to relief,” a three-member panel of the New Orleans-based court wrote in the ruling posted late Monday.

Reed has been on death row since September, 1979 making him among the longest-serving prisoners awaiting execution in Texas.

The 5th Circuit said Reed’s case mirrored the capital murder case of Thomas Miller-El, on Texas death row for nearly 20 years until the Supreme Court overturned his verdict, citing racial discrimination during jury selection. Miller-El last year took a life prison sentence as part of a plea deal.

In that case, the Supreme Court cited a manual—written by a prosecutor in 1969 and used for years later, that advised Dallas prosecutors to exclude minorities from juries. Documents in Miller-El’s case described how the memo advised prosecutors to avoid selecting minorities because “they almost always empathize with the accused.”

“Reed presents this same historical evidence of racial bias in the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office,” the 5th Circuit panel said.It is a sad statement on our culture at the time that racial bias would be all but policy in one of the state’s largest district attorney’s offices. And I’m certain it wasn’t the only office in the state that followed such ridiculous notions. Thankfully, at least in most sectors, that sort of racial bias and ignorance is no longer tolerated.It does seem clear that—based solely on the racial bias issue, the Court had no choice but to overturn this case. The scary part is that it doesn’t seem like there was much doubt that Reed was the guilty party.

Reed, now 57, was identified as the man who attacked Wadle and her roommate, Kimberly Pursley, on November 1, 1978. He’d apparently entered their apartment by posing as a maintenance man. Pursley survived an attempted strangulation by feigning unconsciousness. Two other residents identified Reed as the man they saw in the apartment complex just before the time of the attack.

I’m sure nearly everyone in Texas knows the story of when serial killer Kenneth McDuff (pictured left) was released. McDuff was first convicted of three rapes and murders that took place in 1966. He was given the death penalty, but his sentence was commuted in 1972 when the U.S. Supreme Court abolished capital punishment. He was released on parole in 1989 due to prison overcrowding.That release had disastrous consequences.

He began killing again a year after his release. He was arrested for the murder of 22-year-old Melissa Ann Northrup , and was suspected in at least three other murders. McDuff was eventually sent back to death row and executed November 17, 1998.

It seems to me that the only good solution in this case will be if prosecutors have enough evidence left to convince Reed to take a plea deal, similar to Miller-El’s, that will keep him locked up.I don’t know much of anything about Jonathan Reed, but anyone who has spent nearly three decades on death row has had to learn to adapt in order to survive. And those same adaptation skills don’t transfer into too many careers on the outside.

It’s a scary possibility that he could be released into the free world and left to his own devices.

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The Trophy Exchange

by Diane Fanning

Spending dozens of hours talking with a serial killer has a permanent impact. The experience often pops up in your mind at predictable, as well as, quite unlikely and inappropriate times.

So, of course, when I sat down to write my first police procedural, I just had to put a serial killer in it. Nonetheless, that is not the character in the book that fascinates me the most.

Lieutenant Lucinda Pierce, Homicide Detective, is my real focus. Life's been rough for her lately. She lost an eye and disfigured her face responding to a domestic violence call. She accidentally killed a small child in the middle of a shoot-out with his father.

Now she's up against a serial killer and her main suspect is a highly respected doctor known for his international relief work.

It's a good thing Lucinda doesn't mind bending the rules.

In a starred review, Kirkus wrote: "Fanning has produced an exciting, emotionally intense story with a complex heroine whose future adventures will be widely anticipated."

Library Journal "highly recommended" THE TROPHY EXCHANGE calling it a "near-perfect police procedural." And Booklist chimed in, too: "Fanning's true-crime experience gives the story added verisimilitude and she has made great strides in tightening her storytelling. She is one to watch." Verisimilitude? Now, that's a word you don't see in a sentence too often.

The first chapter is posted on my website so that you can sample the book.

I have a signing in Houston at Murder By the Book on Thursday, August 7 at 6:30pm. Check the calendar on my website for other signings in San Antonio, Austin and Round Rock.

So hurry up and read it. The next Lucinda book is already at the publisher. PUNISH THE DEED is scheduled for release in the UK in December and in the US in March 2009.

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Why A Man of Faith Lost Faith in the Death Penalty

Hunt for Justice by Cynthia Hunt

I spent my 27th birthday covering the execution of pickax murderess Karla Faye Tucker.

The Death Row Woman Who Divided a Nation

Her crime was sadistic. The jury that sentenced her to death heard a tape of Tucker bragging that she had orgasms as she and an accomplice hacked their two victims to death. Later, Tucker had a jailhouse conversion to Christianity that was so compelling even death penalty advocates like Rev. Pat Robertson pleaded with then Texas Governor George W. Bush to commute her sentence.

Leading up to the execution, I did emotional interviews with people from all sides of this case.

One Tucker juror cried as she told me she stood by her death sentence decision but that Tucker’s execution would be the second worst day of her life, second only to a loved one’s death.

Even the Victim’s Family Disagreed

I did an exclusive interview with the victim’s grown children who had never spoken publicly. They wanted to see Tucker die. During the interview, their father became so upset reliving his wife’s murder he had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance.

But even this victim’s family was split. The brother of this very same victim actually forgave Karla Faye and fought to have her life spared.

On February 3, 1998, that divided family witnessed Karla Faye Tucker (pictured left) die after a lethal injection. As I turned 27, I reported her death to an equally split nation.

Not since Karla Faye Tucker has there been a person who could capture the attention of both sides of death penalty debate and make them reconsider their position—until now.

Documentary Airs Tonight

Two documentary filmmakers will introduce us to such a person in their film, “At the Death House Door.” The documentary airs Thursday night on the Independent Film Channel.

The film tells the story of Pastor Carroll Pickett, a plain-spoken prison chaplain who witnessed ninety-five executions on Texas Death Row.

A Man of Faith's Conversion

Pickett, a Presbyterian minister, began his career as a prison preacher who believed in capital punishment because of his grandfather’s own murder and a prison siege that killed two people from his own congregation, but he never told anyone what he thought.

“If I said I was for capital punishment, the inmates would’ve never talked to me," Pickett says. "If I said I was against it, I’d been fired so I kept my mouth shut.”

But after fifteen years of watching executions, he decided capital punishment was not just, moral, or a deterrent. Now, thirteen years after his retirement, Pickett tells the story of the ninety-five executions he witnessed, a story he did not seek to tell.

The Death Tapes

After each execution, Pickett recorded his thoughts on a cassette tape. He says he needed to talk and the only thing in his house was a tape recorder. He never intended for the tapes to be used, but when he casually mentioned them to some filmmakers who were doing research, they persuaded him to share those tapes. Their focus of their film immediately changed to the post-execution thoughts of this pivotal man.

On these tapes, Pickett describes each execution in both large and small detail. He says what it is like to pray with the killers, what the condemned said to him, and what each man did as the lethal cocktail flowed into his veins. Pickett watched the execution of Ronald O'Bryan (pictured above). He was put to death for poisoning his son's Halloween candy with cyanide.

Preacher Accuses Texas Officials of Covering Up Botched Execution

Pickett describes how something had gone wrong with one of the executions. He says he watched the inmate die a slow, agonizing death that took eleven minutes.

"That’s not, to me, either Christian or American or Texan,” Pickett told a group. He says that Texas officials intentionally lie when they claim there has never been an execution with complications.

The film explores the case of Carlos De Luna, a man Pickett and many others believe was innocent. The documentary covers the facts of the case and shakes the confidence of citizens who think only the guilty make it to the death chamber.

Through Reverend Pickett, this film should raise new questions and concerns in the hearts of many Americans about capital punishment and how often we should use it.

A Texas Execution Few Opposed

When I think of this never-ending debate, my thoughts always drift to another case and the twin daughters of murder victim, Dr. Claudia Benton (shown below). Her little girls were only in the sixth grade when the so-called “railroad serial killer,” Angel Maturino Resendez, broke into their home, beat their mother to death, and raped her post mortem. Texas executed him in 2006. I think Benton’s daughters who are now grown must feel better knowing that monster is no longer on this earth.

At least Resendez died with a last meal, prison chaplain, and a final statement, which is a lot more than the good doctor, the school teacher, the preacher and his wife or any of the other almost dozen victims had when that monster executed them.

More Executions Expected in Coming Months

I’ll be tuning in tonight for Pickett’s story. In April, the United States Supreme Court upheld Kentucky’s method of capital punishment by lethal injection. That decision means more inmates will likely be put to death in the coming months.

Whatever side you are on, there is something to learn from a humble man of God who watched ninety-five convicted killers take their last breath.

"At the Death House Door" Premieres Thursday, May 29 Independent Film Channel 9:00 p.m. EDT

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