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.

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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)