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Status: Executed
by lethal injection in Texas on January 20,
2000
Summary:
At her home outside of Teague, Texas, eighty-eight year old Ocolor
Hegger was found dead, lying in a pool of blood, in her kitchen at
approximately 9:15 a.m., on April 26, 1988, by a neighbor.
Her head had been hit by repeated blows with a blunt instrument, and
she had been sexually assaulted. The night before the body was found,
her grandson, David Hicks, visited her home.
A hammer, which family
members knew hung on the inside door of Mrs. Hegger's kitchen
cabinet, was missing, but later found in a neighbor's yard.
An autopsy of the victim revealed massive blunt force injuries to
her head and neck. At least eight blows were indicated. In addition,
there was a superficial stab wound to the neck, numerous abrasions
and contusions to the body, and evidence of a sexual assault.
Presumptive testing revealed blood on clothes taken from Hicks's
car. DNA testing excluded all suspects except Hicks. Three inmates
who were in the Freestone County Jail while Hicks was awaiting trial
testified for the State.
Hicks was previously convicted of
Aggravated Assault (1979), False Imprisonment (1984), and Burglary
(1986 - paroled in 1987 after serving 15 months of 10 year sentence).
One of the first DNA prosecutions in 1989, a subsequent test was
performed in 1999 and confirmed guilt.
Texas Attorney General
Media Advisory
David Hicks Scheduled to be Executed.
AUSTIN - Wednesday, January 19, 2000 - Texas Attorney General
John Cornyn offers the following information on David Hicks who is
scheduled to be executed after 6 p.m., Thursday, January 20th:
FACTS OF THE CRIME
At her home outside of Teague, Texas, eighty-eight year old
Ocolor Hegger was found dead, lying in a pool of blood, in her
kitchen at approximately 9:15 a.m., on April 26, 1988, by a neighbor.
Her head had been hit by repeated blows with a blunt instrument, and
she had been sexually assaulted.
The night before the body was found, David Hicks, who was Mrs.
Hegger's grandson, was visiting Mrs. Hegger in her home with his
cousin, Lester Busby. Before entering Mrs. Hegger's house,
Hicks
talked with Eddie Branch, another grandson, who was leaving after
his daily visit with Mrs. Hegger. Shortly thereafter, Hicks and
Busby went inside Mrs. Hegger's house, talked with her, and then
left ten to fifteen minutes later at approximately 7:15 p.m.
When
they left, Mrs. Hegger was watching television. Hicks and Busby went
directly to the Porter home, one and one-half blocks away from Mrs.
Hegger's house, and visited with Ethel and Robert Porter, and Jessie
Gibson. Shortly after arriving at the Porters' home, Hicks left to
go eat at his father's house.
When Hicks returned, Hicks, Busby, and
Gibson went to buy beer. After purchasing the beer, the men returned
to the Porters' house and visited for a little while longer.
Eventually, Hicks and Busby left.
They went to Busby's house,
located next door to Mrs. Hegger's home, where they continued to
drink beer and talk. At approximately 9:30 p.m., Hicks left Busby's
house and told Busby that he was going home. Busby went inside his
house and did not watch Hicks leave.
After Mrs. Hegger's body was found the next morning, the police
conducted a thorough search of the area and gathered evidence. A
hammer, which family members knew hung on the inside door of Mrs.
Hegger's kitchen cabinet, was missing.
Two weeks later, on May 8,
1988, Busby found the missing hammer in his yard. He was certain
that it had not been there at the time of the police search.
Hugh
Whitaker, a Deputy Sheriff for Freestone County, also testified that
he had searched Busby's yard the day after the murder and that the
hammer had not been there. Subsequent forensic tests on the hammer
revealed blood, although the blood could not be typed as either
human or animal.
An autopsy of the victim revealed massive blunt force injuries to
her head and neck. At least eight blows were indicated. In addition,
there was a superficial stab wound to the neck, numerous abrasions
and contusions to the body, and evidence of a sexual assault. Death
was caused by the blows to the head and neck.
The sexual assault
occurred at or near the time of death, which was placed at
approximately 8:00 p.m. to midnight on April 25, 1988.
The doctor
who performed the autopsy testified that, from the condition of the
body and an examination of the crime photographs, it was possible
that Mrs. Hegger was initially attacked in her bedroom and left
unconscious for a couple of hours. At that time, the attacker could
have returned and delivered the fatal blows.
Presumptive testing revealed blood on clothes taken from Hicks's
car. DNA testing excluded all suspects except Hicks. Three inmates
who were in the Freestone County Jail while Hicks was awaiting trial
testified for the State.
Two of them, Patrick Comalander and Roger
Dale Johnson, testified that Hicks had asked them if they knew how
to get blood out of clothes and how many times clothes had to be
washed in order to get all traces of blood out.
Another inmate,
Carter Kirven, testified that he had asked Hicks if he had killed
his grandmother. Hicks told Kirven that he had but threatened to
hurt Kirven if he told anyone. Kirven also testified that Hicks told
him that he had used a knife during the murder, a fact not commonly
known at that time.
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Hicks was indicted in the 87th Judicial District Court of
Freestone County, Texas, for the murder of Ocolor Hegger, his
grandmother, while in the course of committing and attempting to
commit aggravated sexual assault, a capital offense.
Hicks pleaded
not guilty to a jury, but was convicted on January 30, 1989. On
February 1, 1989, the trial court sentenced Hicks to death. Because
he was sentenced to death, appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals was automatic.
The Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the
conviction and sentence in a published opinion on March 31, 1993.
Hicks's petition for writ of certiorari was denied by the United
States Supreme Court on June 20, 1994.
After his first federal application for writ of habeas corpus was
dismissed for failure to exhaust state remedies, Hicks filed his
state habeas petition.
Prior to the trial court entering any
findings of fact and conclusions of law, however, the Court of
Criminal Appeals denied Hicks's request for state habeas relief on
March 26, 1997.
Hicks filed his second application for federal
habeas relief on September 2, 1997. The district court, at the
request of Hicks, ordered additional DNA testing of the remaining
available evidentiary samples.
On January 11, 1999, the district court denied the writ, and then
denied permission to appeal on February 12, 1999. The United States
Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit likewise denied permission to
appeal. Hicks then filed a petition for writ of certiorari, which is
pending before the Supreme Court.
PRIOR CRIMINAL HISTORY
Hicks's criminal record includes felony convictions for
aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in 1979, false imprisonment
with substantial risk of serious bodily injury in 1984, burglary of
a vehicle in 1986, and burglary of a habitation in 1986.
There was also evidence of several unadjudicated offenses,
including numerous assaults, both in and out of the penitentiary,
resisting arrest, two escapes, fleeing from a peace officer, evading
arrest, and misdemeanor thefts.
DRUGS AND/OR ALCOHOL - There was evidence of possible alcohol use
connected with the instant offense.
ProDeathPenalty.com
David Hicks had previous convictions for aggravated assault and
burglary, kidnapping and fleeing from a police officer. He had been
on parole for just 8 months when he raped and murdered his own
grandmother.
Ocolor Hegger was 87 years old and was sexually assaulted and
then beaten to death by her grandson, Hicks on April 25, 1988. The
murder occurred at her home near Teague, Texas. Ocolor was killed by
being beaten in the head with 8 to 10 blows with a ball-peen hammer.
A neighbor found Ocolor Hegger sprawled on the kitchen floor of
her small frame house in Teague on the morning of April 26, 1988.
Her head was crushed, her blood splashed onto the walls. "It's the
most vicious case I've ever tried,'' said Freestone County District
Attorney Bob Gage. "It was absolutely sickening.''
On death row, Hicks continued to insist he is innocent. "I've got
to get my name back,'' he said recently.
Hicks was an unemployed 26-year-old
in 1988, released from jail and hanging around the rural community
where he grew up. There was a highway nearby and not much else.
Hicks and his cousin Lester dropped by his grandmother's house on
the night of the murder.
Lester handed Mrs. Hegger some money,
settling a debt between the two. Then the cousins took off, leaving
their grandmother watching television in her housecoat.
Later that
night, prosecutors believe, Hicks returned to Mrs. Hegger's house
with plans to steal the money. Instead, he beat the elderly woman
unconscious and left her for dead in the bedroom, Gage said.
Hicks
spent that evening drinking beer with his cousin and three friends.
He left after a few hours, but returned to his grandmother's house
on the way home, Gage said. "She'd dragged herself to the kitchen,''
Gage said. "I think she was laying there injured for two or three
hours before he came back to check.'' Hicks then raped the elderly
woman, beat her viciously and shattered her skull with a wooden
doorstop, Gage said.
DNA tests revealed Hicks' semen in his grandmother's body and
smeared on her robe. Introducing genetic material as courtroom
evidence was still a revolutionary technique in 1989, when Hicks was
found guilty of the murder.
His conviction set off a flurry of
articles in scientific journals. DNA was inconclusive in Hicks'
case, some scientists argued, because his hometown was inbred and
isolated, and because he shared some genetic patterns with his
grandmother. Those arguments were silenced last year, when a Waco
judge agreed to reevaluate the evidence.
For the second time,
scientists pointed to Hicks. The DNA match was even more conclusive.
"So we're not hearing any more about his innocence,'' Gage said. "They
dropped all that.'' However, some supporters still claimed he was
innocent and the DNA match was related to voodoo.
David Hicks
Texas Execution Center by David Carson
Txexecutions.org
David Hicks, 38, was executed by lethal injection
on 20 January 2000 in Huntsville, Texas, for the rape and murder of
his grandmother.
One evening in April 1988, Hicks, then 26, and
his cousin, Lester Busby, visited their grandmother, Ocolor Hegger,
88, in her home. On their way in, they saw and talked to another
cousin, Eddie Branch, who was just leaving after his visit with
Hegger. After Hicks and Busby left, they want to a neighbor's house
and drank beer for awhile. They then went back to Busby's house,
which was next door to Hegger's. At about 9:30 p.m., Hicks left
Busby's house and told Busby that he was going home.
The next morning, Ocolor Hegger's body was found
in her home. She had been raped, and she died from eight to ten
blows to the head and neck with a blunt instrument. She also had one
superficial stab wound to the neck and had numerous abrasions and
contusions on her body.
Police searched Hegger's house. Family members
noticed that a hammer, which they commonly knew hung inside a
kitchen cabinet, was missing. Police searched the area, including
Busby's yard, but did not find the hammer. Two weeks later, Busby
found a bloody hammer in his yard. Both he and the police later
testified that they were positive the hammer was not in Busby's yard
on the day of the search.
The murder remained unsolved until August 1988,
when David Hicks was arrested on an outstanding misdeamenor warrant
for theft. Blood was found on clothing taken from his car. A DNA
sample was taken, and it matched the semen found in the victim's
body.
At Hicks's trial, a jail inmate testified that
Hicks told him he killed his grandmother, and that he used a knife,
which was not common knowledge at the time.
Hicks had a prior prison record consisting of a
3-year sentence for aggravated assault and a 10-year sentence for
burglary, kidnapping, and fleeing a police officer. He served nine
months for the former offense from 1982 to 1983. He began serving
the 10-year sentence in May 1986 and was paroled in August 1987. (At
the time, early release was common in Texas due to strict prison
population caps imposed by U.S. District Judge William Wayne Justice.)
A jury convicted Hicks of capital murder in
January 1989 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in March 1993. All of
his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.
On death row, Hicks complained about his court-appointed
attorneys, who he said were indifferent and unresponsive. He also
said that other potential evidence was found, including a second
bloody hammer, that was never introduced at trial. Hicks also
implied that his cousin, Eddie Branch, had a motive to kill his
grandmother, in the form of an insurance policy, and said that
Branch was never made to give a DNA sample.
Hicks's execution was delayed for about 75
minutes becuse of a last-minute appeal to the U.S. Fifth Circuit
Court of Appeals. Just before his execution, Hicks released a
written statement proclaiming his innocence. In his last statement,
he expressed love to his family. The lethal injection was then
started, and Hicks was pronounced dead at 7:29 p.m.
Fight the Death Penalty in the USA
David Hicks, 38, 00-01-20, Texas
A man was executed Thursday for beating his elderly grandmother,
then returning to her house, raping her and fatally shattering her
skull. David Hicks was 26 and recently released from jail when he
left 88-year-old Ocolor Hegger for dead, her skull shattered with a
wooden doorstop, a prosecutor said.
Semen found at the scene was
matched to Hicks. A neighbor found Mrs. Hegger sprawled on the
kitchen floor of her small frame house in Teague on the morning of
April 26, 1988.
Hicks and a cousin went to Mrs. Hegger's house on the night of
the murder because the cousin owed her money, Freestone County
District Attorney Bob Gage said.
The pair left her watching
television, but Hicks returned to rob Mrs. Hegger. He beat her and
left her in the bedroom, Gage said, then spent the evening drinking
beer with friends before returning. "I think she was laying there
injured for 2 or 3 hours before he came back to check," Gage said.
Hicks raped Mrs. Hegger and severely beat her. He continued to
assert his innocence in an interview late last year. "I've got to
get my name back," he said.
Introducing genetic material as courtroom evidence was a
revolutionary technique in 1989, when Hicks went on trial. His
conviction touched off a flurry of articles in scientific journals.
DNA was inconclusive in Hicks' case for a variety of reasons, some
scientists argued. A Waco judge agreed to re-evaluate the evidence.
For the 2nd time, the DNA test pointed to Hicks.
Hicks becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this
year in Texas and the 202nd overall since the state resumed capital
punishment on Dec. 7, 1982.
(Sources: Associated Press & Rick Halperin)
CCADP - David Hicks Homepage
I'm a death row prisoner in Texas with about 6 weeks to live. My
execution date is set for 1/20/00. I learned of my execution date in
September from the Unit Chaplain. I learned of my 5th Circuit Appeal
being denied in August from another prisoner here. I do not have a
lawyer, and the lawyer "of record" has not been in contact with me
now for over six months. No letters, no phone calls, nothing! I am
unable to contact him by any means, even in light of my serious date
for next month. Six months, six months without any word at all from
the lawyer "of record".
I phoned the Texas Defender Service and made this matter known to
Jim Marcus and several other individuals at that particular office.
I phoned them three times, the last resulting in them simply telling
me that there is nothing they can do. Now I read this essay in your
paper about how much they care, etc. Well, I'm a living example that
people are using the suffering and pain of death row prisoners for
their own personal gains. The lawyer who has vanished from my
connection does not give a damn about my life. This is obvious.
Certain people don't want to consider claims of innocence
anymore. Even some lawyers. Evidence found at the crimes scene over
ten years ago that establishes my innocence is constantly being
neglected and ignored. Witnesses with testimony that corroborates
the evidence found at the crime scene and helps establish my
innocence in a concrete manner are being intimidated and threatened
by the very people who committed the crime.
The latest series or
brutal assaults, threats, and intimidations were inflicted upon my
wife, who is a valuable witness in this case. The police aren't
going to do anything because they think I'm guilty anyway. She's had
her throat cut, teeth knocked out, she's been beaten against the
head with the butt of a gun, her jaw sliced, and her lips busted.
All of this is taking place by members of the "Branch" family to
keep her from testifying on my behalf.
I have made these facts known to all that I possibly know, but
does anyone care? Hardly not, because with the testimony she has
that helps prove my innocence, why isn't someone doing something to
preserve it? Why hasn't this evidence located at the crime scene
been tested and entered into my appeal? this is exactly why Texas is
able to get away with executing so many people so swiftly. Here I
sit on death row with evidence of my innocence but can't find anyone
caring enough to take out the time to look into my claims, not a
lawyer anyway.
I have been pleading and pleading for someone who
cares, especially a caring lawyer, to look into my claims so they
can establish for themselves whether or not I'm innocent. No one
cares, regardless of what their pre-formed speeches may indicate. I
have not been able to find one Texas organization to help me, or to
even look into my allegations.
It's a sad day when Texas lawyers can
go to other countries and talk about how horrible the justice system
is when they refuse to even help those with concrete proof on their
innocence. In their own backyard. Because no one cares for or about
me, David Hicks, evidence of my innocence is going to die right
along with me.
DAVID'S ORIGINAL PENPAL REQUEST
I come to you today with a very heavy heart. Is there anyone out
there with the time and resources who would be willing to come and
visit me? I have struggled this ordeal for over ten years alone and
without family support, and now it seems that the end to my life has
come. I now dread even waking up to face another day inside this
place because nothing seems to matter anymore. Whats the use in
trying anymore, whats the use for anything now that such bad news
has come my way. I haven't been receiving visits from anyone, except
for the ones from my lawyer, which are very scarce. I would at least
like to have some type of excitement in my life for the last months
I have to live, and I would be very thankful if you could find
someone who would be willing to come down and see me before I am
executed. I am 36 years old, black, and a guy who loves the outdoors.
I have no feelings today, none that would authentically express the
way I feel inside today. It is a very numbing feeling to have
received this news, so many questions do I have, but no answers to
satisfy my mind as to what's happening to me.
All of my dreams have once again been shattered. The dream of
ever being free again, the dream of finally having life to live and
enjoy the many things that the world has to offer. I now look back
on my life and try to find what I could have done so serious that
would warrant this type of fate, but I can find nothing. We read so
many things, and we think we understand whats being said. Well, I
can tell you that I know what it feels like to have a lifeless soul.
Today, life has been taken away from me completely. For over 10
years, I have been fighting this matter, this senseless and wrongful
conviction, hoping that in the end justice would come my way. But in
a land where justice is dead and the constitution is upside down I
have received the short end of justice, wondering how I could have
been convicted of this crime from the start. I am tired today, I am
mentally exhausted because the life seems to have been sucked out of
me at this point. Well I won't take up anymore of your time today, I
just wanted to send in this request to see if you could help me
locate someone willing to come and visit me. Thank you for your time
and understanding, and with best regards, I remain
David Hicks
Abolish Archives
The following is a letter from David Hicks that he asked me to
send to everyone who took the time to sign his guestbook.
I hope this communication finds you well and in good health. It's
not so good down this way for me. I read your guest book entry and
although I am not bale to reply personally in the same manner,
through the help of Connie, I contact you today. I am really having
a difficult time here in Texas.
Evidence found at the crime scent
during the time I was in jail that consists of a hammer with traces
of blood on it, a large size syringe containing traces of human
bodily fluids, and foreign body hair, all to this very day have been
overlooked and ignored by those representing me. I'm not an attorney,
true enough, but I do know that this case has taken a path that's
totally out of line with what the truth is about what happened in
this case. Those who have handled my appeals thus far are doing what
they think is best and what they have done has done nothing but led
me closer to my death.
DNA evidence and DNA alone is what has linked me to this crime.
And since that seems to be the case, everyone has stopped there. No
one wants to explore facts as to how and why my DNA came to be found
at the crimes scene in the first place. Several pieces of my
clothing.. pants and shoes... were introduced during trial by the
prosecutor as being the items worn by me when the crime allegedly
took place.
The prosecutor even said that blood was found on those
items. I challenged the prosecutor and even my paltry court
appointed lawyers to have those items tested also but no one has
taken me seriously enough to have any testing preformed on those
items at all. Why am I being denied the opportunity to have this
evidence tested if it could possibly support my claims of innocence?
It has been over 10 years since this evidence was found but not one
single person has bothered to consider it, or bring this matter up
on my appeal.
My family has been trying to contact the lawyer but he will not
return any of their calls. It has been 6 months now since the lawyer
has been in contact with me and my constant efforts of trying to
reach him by phone have all been fruitless. Even in light of my
serious execution date, the lawyer refuses t contact me by any
means. Witnesses with potentially valuable and helpful information
about this case have also found it very difficult to contact this
attorney.
Two cells from me, there's another guy with an execution date.
We're in the same recreation group, and we're at the same serious
stages of our appeals. We discuss legal issues about our situation
at length. Last month, he phoned his lawyer 4 times, his lawyer
being the initiator of 2 of those calls. His lawyer has been to see
him twice last month alone.
His legal team are keeping him aware of the status of his case,
of his LIFE. Me... I have not heard anything from my attorney in 6
months now! My case was denied in the 5th Circuit on 8/23/99. I had
to learn of that news from another prisoner, and when the courts set
my execution date, I had to learn of that information from the
Prison Chaplain. All of this serious information has come to me from
other sources that the one who is supposed to be representing me!
And people wonder why I want to give up. At this stage, this
critical stage of my appeal, I have been getting nothing but a lot
of indifference from the attorney. Another month has gone and I
still have heard nothing from him.
I'm just tired. Tired of all these legal games, with me being
used as some type of pawn. The search for the truth about what
happened in this case has now been set aside and is no longer a part
of this situation. Since the DNA purports to link me to the crime,
that's all the legal heads care bout.
They refuse to listen or
consider anything else. The right to search for truth implies also a
duty. But, the fact of the matter in this case is that what people
have recognized to be true... (and it seems this is an attitude of
the lawyer supposedly handling my case) they are containing to
conceal. In my case, people have all simply surrendered to the test
results.
I don't know what can be done now, if anything, to save my life.
But, as I mentioned, All the evidence found at the crime scene might
have the potential to same me, coupled with witness testimony, has
been and continues to be disregarded. What has happened to this
evidence and why are lawyers ignoring it?
These are some of the
pressing questions I have, but receive no answer to them at all from
the lawyer ro anyone else. I simply cannot understand why no one
thinks it's important enough to have this new evidence tested if it
could possibly help same my life! The lawyer continues to ignore me
on this matter.
Sincerely, David
David Hicks
San Antonio Express-News
The death chamber here is equipped with 2 witness rooms - one for
the family of the condemned killer, one for the family of the murder
victims.
At tonight's scheduled execution, there will only be one
family. Whether David Hicks' kin will come to watch him die remains
to be seen. Hicks is set to receive a lethal injection tonight for
raping and bludgeoning his 88-year-old grandmother to death in 1988.
A neighbor found Ocolor Hegger sprawled on the kitchen floor of
her small frame house in Teague on the morning of April 26, 1988.
Her head was crushed, her blood splashed onto the walls. "It's the
most vicious case I've ever tried," said Freestone County District
Attorney Bob Gage. "It was absolutely sickening."
On Jan. 11, the
87th Judicial District Court denied Hicks' writ of habeas relief. An
appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court still is pending. Hicks is to be
the 202nd condemned killer to be put to death in Texas since capital
punishment resumed in December 1982. His would be the 3rd execution
this year.
On death row, Hicks continued to insist he is innocent. "I've got
to get my name back," he said recently. Hicks was an unemployed 26-year-old
in 1988, released from jail and hanging around the rural community
where he grew up. There was a highway nearby and not much else.
Hicks, along with his cousin Lester Busby, dropped by his
grandmother's house on the night of the murder. Busby handed Mrs.
Hegger some money, settling a debt between the two. Then the cousins
took off, leaving their grandmother watching television in her
housecoat.
Later that night, prosecutors believe, Hicks returned to
Mrs. Hegger's house with plans to steal the money. Instead, he beat
the elderly woman unconscious and left her for dead in the bedroom,
Gage said. Hicks spent that evening drinking beer with his cousin
and 3 friends. He left after a few hours, but returned to his
grandmother's house on the way home, Gage said.
"She'd dragged herself to the kitchen," Gage said. "I think she
was laying there injured for 2 or 3 hours before he came back to
check." Hicks then raped the elderly woman, beat her viciously and
shattered her skull with a wooden doorstop, Gage said.
DNA tests revealed Hicks' semen in his grandmother's body and
smeared on her robe. Introducing genetic material as courtroom
evidence was still a revolutionary technique in 1989, when Hicks was
found guilty of the murder. His conviction set off a flurry of
articles in scientific journals.
DNA was inconclusive in Hicks'
case, some scientists argued, because his hometown was inbred and
isolated, and because he shared some genetic patterns with his
grandmother. Those arguments were silenced last year, when a Waco
judge agreed to reevaluate the evidence. For the 2nd time,
scientists pointed to Hicks. The DNA match was conclusive. "
So we're not hearing any more about his innocence," Gage said. "They
dropped all that."
David Hicks: Executed on January 20, 2000
Deathrow.at
I'm a death row prisoner in Texas with about 6 weeks to live. My
execution date is set for 1/20/00. I learned of my execution date in
September from the Unit Chaplain. I learned of my 5th Circuit Appeal
being denied in August from another prisoner here. I do not have a
lawyer, and the lawyer "of record" has not been in contact with me
now for over six months. No letters, no phone calls, nothing! I am
unable to contact him by any means, even in light of my serious date
for next month. Six months, six months without any word at all from
the lawyer "of record".
I phoned the Texas Defender Service and made this matter known to
Jim Marcus and several other individuals at that particular office.
I phoned them three times, the last resulting in them simply telling
me that there is nothing they can do. Now I read this essay in your
paper about how much they care, etc. Well, I'm a living example that
people are using the suffering and pain of death row prisoners for
their own personal gains. The lawyer who has vanished from my
connection does not give a damn about my life. This is obvious.
Certain people don't want to consider claims of innocence anymore.
Even some lawyers. Evidence found at the crimes scene over ten years
ago that establishes my innocence is constantly being neglected and
ignored. Witnesses with testimony that corroborates the evidence
found at the crime scene and helps establish my innocence in a
concrete manner are being intimidated and threatened by the very
people who committed the crime.
The latest series or brutal assaults,
threats, and intimidations were inflicted upon my wife, who is a
valuable witness in this case. The police aren't going to do
anything because they think I'm guilty anyway. She's had her throat
cut, teeth knocked out, she's been beaten against the head with the
butt of a gun, her jaw sliced, and her lips busted. All of this is
taking place by members of the "Branch" family to keep her from
testifying on my behalf.
I have made these facts known to all that I possibly know, but
does anyone care? Hardly not, because with the testimony she has
that helps prove my innocence, why isn't someone doing something to
preserve it? Why hasn't this evidence located at the crime scene
been tested and entered into my appeal? this is exactly why Texas is
able to get away with executing so many people so swiftly. Here I
sit on death row with evidence of my innocence but can't find anyone
caring enough to take out the time to look into my claims, not a
lawyer anyway.
I have been pleading and pleading for someone who
cares, especially a caring lawyer, to look into my claims so they
can establish for themselves whether or not I'm innocent. No one
cares, regardless of what their pre-formed speeches may indicate. I
have not been able to find one Texas organization to help me, or to
even look into my allegations. It's a sad day when Texas lawyers can
go to other countries and talk about how horrible the justice system
is when they refuse to even help those with concrete proof on their
innocence. In their own backyard. Because no one cares for or about
me, David Hicks, evidence of my innocence is going to die right
along with me.
