|
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.
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.
|
