Nearly 70 years after a Texas Black man was executed in a case that prosecutors now say was based on false evidence and was riddled with racial bias, officials have declared that he was innocent of the killing of a white woman in Dallas.
Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.
At the time of the trial, prosecutors had alleged Walker attacked Parker, a store clerk who was on her way home, on the evening of 30 September 1953. Parker’s killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a so-called peeping Tom believed to be a Black man was terrorizing women, according to the Dallas county criminal district attorney’s office.
Nearly 70 years after a Texas Black man was executed in a case that prosecutors now say was based on false evidence and was riddled with racial bias, officials have declared that he was innocent of the killing of a white woman in Dallas.
Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.
At the time of the trial, prosecutors had alleged Walker attacked Parker, a store clerk who was on her way home, on the evening of 30 September 1953. Parker’s killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a so-called peeping Tom believed to be a Black man was terrorizing women, according to the Dallas county criminal district attorney’s office.
But an extensive review of Walker’s conviction by the DA’s office, along with the help of the Innocence Project of New York and Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, found multiple problems with Walker’s case.