Tommy Lee Walker was declared "innocent" by a Dallas court on Wednesday, 70 years after he was executed for the rape and murder of Venice Parker. The court said his 1954 conviction and 1956 execution were "profound miscarriage of justice."
Walker, a Black man who was 19 years old at the time of his conviction, was found guilty in the rape and murder of Parker, a white woman who was killed in 1953 near Dallas Love Field airport.
In the Wednesday order, which was reviewed by ABC News, the Commissioners Court of Dallas County affirmed Walker's "innocence" and acknowledged "the harm caused to him, his family, and the community by this wrongful conviction."
Parker -- a store clerk and mother of a young son -- was raped and fatally stabbed while she waited at a bus stop on her way to get back home, according to The Innocence Project.
A police officer who arrived on the scene claimed that he heard Parker identify her attacker as a Black man, the legal advocacy organization said. In the wake of her murder -- and without forensic evidence or new leads -- hundreds of Black men were detained and interrogated, according to The Innocence Project. Months later, the organization said, police got a tip identifying Walker as a suspect.
Walker, who had no criminal record, maintained his innocence and said that when Parker was killed he was witnessing his girlfriend give birth to his only son -- Edward Smith -- an alibi corroborated during the trial by 10 witnesses, The Innocence Project noted.
In the absence of forensic and circumstantial evidence, prosecutors relied on an alleged confession that Walker made, according to the group. Walker later recanted his confession, according to the Innocence Project.
"The only direct evidence connecting Tommy Lee Walker to this offense is a confession obtained through the use of coercive tactics," the court's declaration stated.
Wednesday's declaration was attended by Smith and Parker's son Joseph Parker, who embraced and met for the first time, according to the office of Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot, which released photos of the encounter.
"In a moment that transcended generations of pain, Tommy Lee Walker's son and Venice Parker's son were both present and met for the first time. Parker's son affirmed what the evidence makes clear: Tommy Lee Walker was innocent," Creuzot's office said in a statement.
Creuzot noted that injustices must be addressed regardless of how long ago they occurred.
"Justice does not expire with time," he said.
ABC News has reached out to Parker's family for comment.
The court declared in the order that Walker's arrest, prosecution, conviction and subsequent execution were marred with prosecutorial misconduct; that he was denied a jury of his peers and that the case was "fundamentally compromised by false or unreliable evidence, coercive interrogation tactics, and racial bias."
This came at a time when the U.S. was "marked by racial segregation, systemic injustice and inequality within the criminal justice system," the order said.
The declaration of Walker's innocence by the court was the culmination of a review of Walker's case that was collaboratively launched by the Conviction Integrity Unit of the Dallas County District Attorney's Office in partnership with the Innocence Project of New York and the Northeastern University School of Law's Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project.
The findings of the review, including evidence and testimony, were presented to the Dallas County Commissioners Court during a meeting on Wednesday
Smith -- Walker's son -- is represented by attorneys at the Innocence Project and Margaret A. Burnham, who is the director of the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ) at Northeastern University School.
"It was hard growing up without a father," Smith said in a statement released by the Innocence Project on Wednesday. "When I was in school, kids talked about their dads, and I had nothing to say. This won't bring him back, but now the world knows what we always knew -- that he was an innocent man. And that brings some peace."
According to the Innocence Project, the review was initiated after Chris Fabricant, one of Smith's attorneys, and Burnham discussed the case in 2022 and then utilized the expertise of Northeastern Law students and staff. In the years since, they conducted "meticulous historical research" and found evidence of prosecutorial misconduct, constitutional violations and coercive interrogation tactics that led to Walker's conviction and execution.
In a statement, Fabricant said Smith "carried the generational trauma" of what happened to his father.
"Acknowledging what we know to be truth -- that false evidence, misconduct, and overt racism led to the execution of an innocent man -- albeit 70 years later, is essential to the integrity of our legal system, the historical fabric of this country, and most importantly it is an acknowledgment of the unspeakable burden Mr. Smith and his family have carried for decades," he said.
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Link:
https://abcnews.go.com/US/tommy-lee-walker-exonerated-70-years-after-execution/story?id=129465114
