Help Stop Virginia's 100th Execution - TAKE ACTION!

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 at
http://vadp.org/make-a-donation.html or by sending a donation to

VADP
P.O. Box 4804
Charlottesville, VA 22905

CASE INFORMATION

Learn more background on this case below and at the following links:

http://vadp.org/alerts/execution-alerts/percy-l.-walton-is-scheduled-to-beexecuted-june-10-2008.htm

http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/action10300.pdf

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.

********

SENT BY:

Abraham J. Bonowitz
Director of Affiliate Support
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
www.NCADP.org
"This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it!"
202-331-4090
561-371-5204 (Mobile)

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