Petition for Clemency to the
Honorable Don E. Siegelman, Governor of Alabama
On behalf of
FREDDI“é LEE WRIGHT
Freddie Lee Wright is scheduled to be
executed in Alabama’s electric chair on
March 3, 2000 at 12:01 a.m.
Attorney Contact:
Brian F. McDonough
DRINKER BIDDLE & REATH LLP
One World Trade Center
; 89°" Floor
New York , New York 10048
(212) 321-1812
(212) 466-0569 (fax)
Freddie Lee Wright is scheduled to be executed on
March 3, 2000, by order of the Alabama Supreme Court. Mr.
Wright, by his undersigned counsel, hereby applies to Don
Siegelman, the Honorable Governor of Alabama, for a reprieve and
commutation of his sentence of death by electrocution, pursuant
to Amendment No. 38, Section 124 of the Alabama Constitution of
1901.
Alabama law vests the Governor of this State with ‘the
power to grant reprieves and commutations to persons under
sentence of death. This power has been exercised by governors
of Alabama in times since 1887. Historically, clemency has
addressed elements relating to the crime or the offender that
courts are unable to consider in setting or reviewing sentences.
Freddie Lee Wright was convicted and sentenced to die
for a murder he did not commit. His first trial ended in a
mistrial, with the jury having voted eleven to one in favor of
acquittal. In order to win at all costs at the second trial,
the prosecution kept all blacks off the jury and produced a new
surprise witness in the form of a former ‘girlfriend who
testified that Freddie had confessed his role in the murders to
her. On the basis of her testimony he was convicted and
sentenced to death.
Clemency should be granted here for the following four
reasons:
de Freddie Lee Wright is innocent of these
murders, and has maintained his innocence from the
time of his trial until this day;
2 Mr. Wright did not receive a fair trial.
In addition to keeping all blacks off the jury at
his second trial, the State suppressed evidence
that its star witness Doris Lambert was a mentally
unstable and borderline retarded drug user who
suffered from auditory hallucinations (she believed
she had been talking to a father who had been dead
since she was seven years old), from homicidal
fantasies, and from suicidal ideations. As if this
were not enough, the State ‘also concealed evidence
of lenient secret deals in which one of the co-
defendants who testified against Mr. Wright would
not serve a day in prison for his role in these
murders, as well as evidence that someone other
than Mr. Wright had committed the murders;
3. In prison Freddie Wright has become a
devoutly religious man who was baptized and has
devotéd his life to Christ. He has been a source
of strength and inspiration to his loved ones and
others. He could heal and help others if his life
is spared; and
4, Both the manner in which Freddie Wright
was tried and the manner in which the death penalty
has been imposed in Alabama have been racially
unfair. Out of the 20 men executed in Alabama
since the passage of the 1975 Death Penalty Act, 17
of them have been black. The two men whom the
State of Alabama is presently trying to execute are
both | black. Although black people constitute
approximately 26 percent of the population of
Alabama, they constitute “85 percent of those
executed to date.
Freddie Lee Wright urges the Honorable Governor to
invoke his vested power, right, and duty as executive of this
state to authorize the commutation of his death sentence. Mr.
Wright makes this appeal for commutation based upon compelling
equitable and humanitarian grounds, many of which were not known
at the time of his sentencing in July 1979.
FREDDIE LEE WRIGHT’S LIFE AND BACKGROUND
7
Freddie Lee Wright led an impoverished and hard
childhood of which the sentencing court had no knowledge because
this information was not presented to it.
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He is an African American who was born on April 29,
1950. He and his six siblings grew up in poverty with their
mother in the Plateau section of Mobile. His father did not
marry his mother and did not live with ‘them. He gave them
little financial support and they rarely saw him.
Their house was a three room unpainted shotgun shack.
For most of their childhood it did not have running water or
plumbing. As children they spent much time fetching water from
a pump down the street for washing, cooking, and laundry. They
used an outhouse in the back. For food they usually ate
chickens that they raised and vegetables that they grew, as well
as what their brother Samuel could catch when he went hunting or
fishing. Six of the children (including Freddie) slept in the
same room while their mother slept in the other room with his
youngest brother.
JUNE 158 JUNE 1958
Freddie with his mother and siblings, 1958
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In 1964, when Freddie was about thirteen years old,
his mother died. Their father did not take them in. Instead
Freddie, two of his sisters (Hazel and Sadie), and his younger
brother went to live with their twenty five-year-old brother
Willie and his wife Dorothy in New Orleans. Dorothy was a
violent alcoholic who beat them and dragged them around to bars
and gin mills even though they were adolescents. She and Willie
beat them constantly with.hands, fists, and an extension cord
until they were bloody. To this day they have scars on their
bodies from these beatings.
Their home in New
Orleans was in a rough and
difficult area. Freddie was a
skinny, passive boy whom the other
boys would chase to school and
back home again. Although he
himself was always being harassed
and picked on, he did his best to
protect his siblings and keep
their..lunch = money from being
stolen from the other kids. One
day a couple of boys from the :
S £ 1962-63
neighborhood tried to rape his SCHOOL Paty
sister Hazel. Fortunately Freddie
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(along with Sadie and the younger brother) encountered them and
saved her.
After about a year in New Orleans the children
returned to Mobile. Freddie got a job washing dishes at the Sea
Ranch Restaurant. He then went on to learn to cook in the Job
Corps and became a chef at Constantine’s Restaurant in Mobile.
In 1971 Freddie’s sister Hazel married Willie Moore.
Willie was a Vietnam veteran who had been paralyzed in Vietnam.
They lived in Mobile. Shortly afterwards Freddie came to live
with them to care for Willie Moore. He would wheel him around
the house, lift him in and out of bed, and shave him. He
cleaned for them and kept the house neat, and cooked their
meals.
Freddie Wright eventually started getting into trouble
and hanging out with the wrong people -- including his
girlfriend. Doris Lambert. He was always a follower rather than
a leader. Perhaps it might have been different if he had a male
role model in his life but he never did. Whatever crimes he
committed were burglaries, minor thefts, and possession (not
use) of an unlicensed handgun. He never committed a crime
involving violence or even the threat of violence.
Indeed, his Pre-Sentence Report acknowledged that he
“had a nonviolent reputation. The only incidents of violence
included in his Pre-Sentence Report (the assaults of a Martha
Gs
Bass and Heard Granville) were later shown at Mr. Wright’s 1996
federal evidentiary hearing to have been committed by another
Fred Wright who had a criminal record with the police in
Prichard (a fact that was never brought to the attention of the
sentencing judge). It is against this backdrop that Mr. Wright
was arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in 1979
for a murder he did not commit.
THE CRIME AND FREDDIE LEE WRIGHT’S CONVICTIONS
On December 1, 1997, a Western Auto store in Mount
Vernon, Alabama was robbed. The owners of the store, Warren and
Lois Green, were tied up and fatally shot with a .38 caliber
handgun. Mr. Wright was not in Mount Vernon that day and he did
not kill Mr. And Mrs. Green.
Shortly after the robbery, the State indicted an
individual named Theodore Otis Roberts for these murders based
upon an eyewitness’s identification of Roberts at the crime
scene and of Roberts’ car as the robbery vehicle. In addition
to this eyewitness identification, the State also obtained a
ballistics report positively identifying Roberts’ handgun as the
murder weapon and an incriminating statement by Roberts’
girlfriend ito the police identifying Roberts’ handgun as the
Murder weapon.
The charges against Roberts were eventually dropped
and Freddie Wright was instead indicted for the murders based
upon the word of two ex-convicts named Percy Craig and Roger
McQueen who were themselves later found to be involved in the
crime. A third individual named Reginald Tinsley was also
arrested. Although he initially implicated Mr. Wright, he later
provided Freddie’s attorney with an affidavit exonerating him
and stating that he was not present at the scene of the crime.
Tinsley escaped from the Mobile County jail, was unable to
testify, and was not re-arrested until after Mr. Wright had been
convicted and sentenced to die.
The First Trial and Near-Acquittal
The case against Freddie Lee Wright initially went to
trial in April 1979. He was represented by Al Pennington, Esq.,
who has since been suspended from the practice of law due to
neglect of client matters. It was the first capital murder
trial for the new Mobile County District Attorney Chris Galanos,
who had taken office only two months earlier. The State’s case
rested primarily upon the testimony of Craig and McQueen.
In addition to McQueen and Craig, the State presented
testimony by a State toxicologist named James Small. to the
effect that a handgun traced to Mr. Wright was “consistent with”
the murder weapon -- though Mr. Small could not positively
identify it as such. (By contrast, he had positively identified
Theodore Otis Roberts’ handgun as the murder weapon). On the
basis of this evidence, the mixed race jury voted eleven to one
in favor of acquittal and a mistrial was declared.
This left the District Attorneys’ Office in an
embarrassing position. First, it had been in the awkward
position of having dismissed the charges against a previously
indicted suspect, Theodore Otis Roberts. Second, after having
dismissed the charges against Roberts, it had come within one
vote of losing the case against Freddie Wright.
The Second Trial and the Addition of
Doris Lambert as the State’s Key Witness
The second trial went forward about a month later.
Having come within one vote of acquittal before a mixed: race
jury, this time the State used virtually all of its peremptory
challenges to keep all blacks off of the jury at the second
trial. (Mr. Wright is black and the Greens were white). In
addition the State searched for some new evidence that could
spell the difference between victory and defeat. This new
evidence came in the form of a witness named Doris Lacey
Lambert, who had not testified at the first trial.
Ms. Lambert was a former girlfriend of Mr..Wright’s
who had borne him a child out of wedlock before he left her to
become engaged to another woman (whom he was planning to marry
=~9-
at the time he was arrested). At Freddie Lee Wright’s second
trial, Ms. Lambert testified that he had purportedly confessed
his role in the killings to her. Other than Lambert, the case
against Freddie Wright remained essentially the same as at the
first trial.
With Ms. Lambert being the only difference in the
presentation of the State’s case between the first and second
trials, the jury convicted Freddie of capital murder at the
second trial and he was then sentenced to death.
REASONS FOR GRANTING CLEMENCY
Clemency should be granted in this case for at least
four reasons: © (1) Freddie Lee Wright is innocent; (2) the
pervasive suppression and concealment of evidence rendered his
conviction unfair and unreliable; (3) his religious transformation
in prison has made him into a good and devout man who would be a
force for good if his life were spared; and (4) the racially
unfair nature of his conviction and the disproportionate use of
the sanction against African Americans in Alabama makes this case
an ideal one for clemency.
CLEMENCY SHOULD BE GRANTED BECAUSE
FREDDIE LEE WRIGHT IS INNOCENT
From the time he was arrested until this day Freddie Lee
Wright has insisted that he is innocent of these murders. He
=10-
personally proclaimed his Snnoeence at the time he was sentenced.
He has never wavered. With little time left before his execution,
he is fully aware that it would benefit him to show remorse and
contrition for any crime he may have committed. It would also
prepare him for his day of execution, when every one of us may
have to account to a God who may hold us accountable for such
denials if they are false.
Fellow Governors and Legislators are recognizing that
capital punishment is claiming innocent lives and have intervened
to correct this scandal. Republican Governor George Ryan of
Illinois -- himself an advocate of the death penalty -- has called
a moratorium on executions in Illinois after evidence demonstrated
that thirteen innocent people had received the death sentence in
Illinois (as many as were actually guilty). A similar moratorium
has been called for by the American Bar Association, as well as in
the States of Nebraska and Pennsylvania. It has also been
proposed in the Alabama Legislature, as well as in the States of
Connecticut, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri,
Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina,
Oklahoma, and South Dakota.
Freddie Lee Wright has been exonerated by two of the
three men who have admitted their role in these killings (Roger
McQueen and Reginald Tinsley). He was exonerated by Roger McQueen
in open court -- at a time when. McQueen had nothing to gain by
eli
recanting and could only have antagonized law enforcement and
correctional authorities by doing so. McQueen has just recently
confirmed his exoneration of Mr. Wright in a letter accompanying
this petition. He was also exonerated by Reginald Tinsley in an
affidavit which Tinsley gave to his attorney. Because Tinsley was
unavailable to testify at trial, the jury never heard this
evidence.
When Freddie Lee Wright’s execution date was set, he
collapsed emotionally and cried in a telephone conversation with
his sister Hazel Moore that he could accept death if he had in
fact killed the Greens. What he could not accept and reconcile
himself to was dying for a crime he did not commit. This
statement was conveyed to his sister spontaneously between the two
of them. Notwithstanding the private nature of this conversation,
its authentic and spontaneous nature (at a time when Freddie Lee
Wright could not possibly have thought it would do him any
tactical good) is yet further testament to his innocence.
There have been about twenty executions in Alabama since
the passage of the 1975 Death Penalty Act. In the overwhelming
majority of these executions the factual guilt of the accused has
been uncontested -- the only questions have gone to legal defenses
rather than guilt. Rarely has this State executed a defendant
whose guilt was at all in doubt, and who proclaimed his innocence
up until the eve of his execution date. This is such a case. [It
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is a case that calls for the rare, but just, exercise of this
Governor’s powers of clemency.
CLEMENCY SHOULD BE GRANTED BECAUSE
THE PROSECUTION SUPPRESSED EVIDENCE
THAT DEPRIVED MR. WRIGHT OF A FAIR
TRIAL, AND DEPRIVED THE CITIZENS OF
ALABAMA OF A VERDICT IN WHICH THEY
CAN _HAVE CONFIDENCE
The Suppression of the Psychiatric
Records of Doris Lambert
At the time Doris Lambert was called to the stand, the
State was in possession of information about her that would have
effectively destroyed her credibility. This consisted of five
years’ of psychiatric records about her which the District
Attorney’s office had in its possession. Rather than producing
the psychiatric records of its new star witness to a man who was
on trial for his life, the State concealed them in order to
assure a conviction at all costs. Had these records been
produced, they would have surely shown the jury who the witness
really was. Among other things, these records reflected that
e Ms. Lambert suffered from auditory
hallucinations, and believed she was having
conversations with a father who had been
dead since she was seven years old;
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. she had a history of entertaining homicidal
fantasies and suicidal ideations of her own;
° she had a history of drug use, including THC
and cocaine;
° she had been on psychiatric medication for
years;
° she had been described as being
“manipulative” by the professional that
treated her; and
. she had been diagnosed as borderline
retarded by the professionals treating her.
These records were not uncovered for another seventeen years until
August or September 1996, shortly prior to an evidentiary hearing
in Mr. Wright’s federal habeas corpus proceeding.
In addition to suppressing this evidence of the mental
instability of its key witness who was the sole difference
between the first and second trials, the State also suppressed:
(1) evidence of a secret and lenient deal between itself and Mr.
Wright’s co-defendant Roger McQueen; as well as (2) evidence
that Theodore Otis Roberts (who had been indicted prior to Mr.
Wright for this crime) had instead committed the murders.
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The Suppression of the Undisclosed
Deal With Roger McQueen
After Mr. Wright was convicted and sentenced to death,
McQueen was convicted of second degree murder, and received a
twenty-year sentence that was to run consecutively with a
thirty-year sentence for armed robbery which he was already
serving in Mississippi.
Three weeks after his conviction, McQueen filed a
notice of appeal and a diseien for a new trial. In his motion
for a new trial, McQueen claimed that the State had violated a
secret deal pursuant to which it would reward his testimony
against Freddie Lee Wright by prosecuting him only for robbery
(not murder), and by promising him that any sentence he received
on the robbery conviction would run concurrently with his
Mississippi sentence. Craig submitted a sworn. statement
corroborating McQueen and claiming that similar promises had
been made to him.
The State never opposed the motion. Nor did it claim
that any of McQueen’s statements were untrue. Nor did any court
rule upon the motion. Instead, less than a month after the
motion was filed, McQueen mysteriously withdrew both his notice
of appeal and his motion for a new trial for no apparent reason.
Thirteen years later -- in the summer of 1992 --
McQueen was released from prison in Mississippi after the
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completion of his sentence there without being returned to
Alabama to serve a day for his role in the murders of the
Greens. This was entirely consistent with what McQueen had
claimed in his motion that the State was promising him all along
-- a concurrent sentence for the killings.
At the federal evidentiary hearing on Freddie Wright’s
habeas corpus petition, McQueen affirmed the existence of this
deal. He also recanted his seventeen year old testimony against
Freddie Lee Wright. In one of the most dramatic moments of this
case, he told the Court on October 1, 1996 that Freddie Lee
Wright was innocent and that he had not murdered the Greens. He
also apologized to Freddie in open court from the witness stand.
The Suppression of the Evidence
Against Theodore Otis Roberts
Although it had been ordered by the trial court to
produce any evidence which could tend to negate the guilt of the
accused, the State suppressed: (1) the eyewitness identification
by Mary Johnson of Roberts as the lead member of the robbery
team; and (2) a statement which Roberts’ girlfriend made to
Mobile County Detective Albert Stroh which he then reproduced in
a Search Affidavit (the “Stroh Affidavit”) that Roberts’ handgun
was in fact the weapon used in the double murders. No mention
was made of Roberts at Freddie Lee Wright’s trial, and the jury
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which convicted Mr. Wright never heard this evidence implicating
Roberts as the killer.
The Former District Attorney
Admitted That This Evidence Should
Have Been Disclosed
Among the witnesses who testified at the federal
evidentiary hearing was former District Attorney Chris Galanos,
who had prosecuted both of the trials against Mr. Wright. He
admitted that Doris Lambert was the only significant difference
between the State’s case at the first and second trials. He
also admitted that her psychiatric records should have been
turned over to the defense.
In addition to that admission, he also agreed that any
deal between the State and Roger McQueen as well as the evidence
against Theodore Otis Roberts should have been turned over to
Mr. Wright and his attorneys.' Finally, he admitted that the
evidence against Roberts should have been disclosed as well.
Although the State later argued that it was free to hold back
some of this information because Roberts’ arrest had been
reported in the newspapers seven months before Mr. Wright was
arrested (and at a time when he and his attorney had no reason
to be saving stale press clippings of Roberts’ case), former
i
: Although former District Attorney Galanos contested the
existence of such a deal, the federal trial court never
explicitly ruled on the question of whether such a deal existed.
ays
District Attorney Galanos admitted under oath that the earlier
coverage of Roberts’ case in the newspapers did not relieve his
office of its obligations to produce this material.
This admission by the prosecuting attorney himself is
the most telling of all. As the prosecutor in both the first
and second trials, former District Attorney Galanos was in the
best position to appreciate what impact this evidence would have
had upon the jury which convicted Mr. Wright and the trial judge
who sentenced him to die.
It is hard to see how the former District Attorney
could have come to any other conclusion. The only impeachment
of Ms. Lambert on cross-examination consisted of a minor
shoplifting conviction and the depiction of her as a scorned
girlfriend. This alone was not enough to discredit so key and
central a witness who gave such damning evidence. Had the jury
at Mr. Wright’s second trial known that Ms. Lambert hallucinated
and heard dead people talking to her, they would more likely
than not have discounted her pivotal testimony that she heard
him confess to her. The jury’s doubts about Ms. Lambert’s
reliability would have been strengthened by the undisclosed
evidence of her own homicidal and suicidal fantasies, her
borderline i-retardation, her drug use, and her psychiatric
treatment.
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Had the jury disbelieved Lambert, that would have left
the State with essentially the same case that had ended in a
mistrial without Lambert’s testimony. That case had come within
one vote of acquittal.
Indeed, had all of the suppressed evidence been
disclosed, it would have left the State with a worse case in at
least two respects. First, the credibility of McQueen and Craig
would have been further damaged by the disclosure of a secret
deal that they had struck with the State and then lied about.
Second, the tenuous case against Mr. Wright would have been even
further weakened by all of the suppressed evidence demonstrating
that Roberts may have been involved in the murders, and that
Craig and McQueen had lied about his role. Only by suppressing
a mountain of exculpatory and impeachment evidence was the State
able to obtain this unjust and unreliable conviction.
The Courts’ Response
In the course of denying the habeas corpus petition, the
United States District Court was extraordinarily critical of the
State’s conduct. The court stated that “the apparent misfeasance
of the State in this case raises a good deal of concern.” The
court also wrote that “numerous imperfections in the state court
proceedings were revealed,” that “some of these imperfections --
like the State’s failure to disclose certain exculpatory materials
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-- do not in any way deserve the blessing of this Court,” and that
the State should feel “fortunate” it would not have to re-try this
case. However, because of its belief that a federal court was not
the proper forum in which to re-try this case, it felt constrained
to deny relief and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed.
The Eleventh Circuit held that virtually all of these
claims were procedurally barred from review because they had not
first been presented to the state courts. Thus they were immune
from federal review (no matter how egregious the errors) unless
Mr. Wright could establish “cause” and “prejudice” for any
procedural default.
The Eleventh Circuit held that ‘eause® had not been
shown because Mr. Wright’s prior attorneys had failed to take the
steps to protect him. The claim that the State had improperly
kept all blacks off the jury at the second trial was barred from
review because Mr. Wright’s trial counsel made no objection at the
time. The State’s concealment of evidence was also barred from
review because Mr. Wright’s prior attorneys never bothered to seek
this discovery (or any discovery whatsoever) from the State during
the state postconviction proceedings. Thus, through no fault of
his own, Freddie found these claims to be barred due to the
carelessness and ineffectiveness of his prior attorneys.
The federal courts also found that there was no
“prejudice” because it was not reasonably probable that the
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results of Mr. Wright’s second trial would have been any different
had the evidence been disclosed. The courts’ holding is blind to
the facts, to the laws of evidence, and to the laws of common
sense.
The State’s case rested almost entirely on the word of
Doris Lambert -- the only meaningful difference between an 11-1
vote for acquittal and a 12-0 vote for conviction.
Notwithstanding the crabbed and technical excuses offered by the
courts, no fair and competent Alabama state court trial judge
would have precluded a man on trial for his life from showing that
the State’s new star witness was a mentally unstable drug user who
had talked to a father who had been dead since she was seven years
old.
No one knows this better than former District Attorney
Galanos. That is why his office obtained these records in the
first place and why he admitted under oath that they should have
been disclosed to the lawyers for Freddie Lee Wright. Had this
evidence been coupled with the equally suppressed evidence of the
State’s secret deal with Craig and McQueen, as well as with the
evidence the State thought sufficient to indict Theodore Otis
Roberts for murder, any reasonable and open-minded person would
conclude that Freddie Lee Wright would not be on death row today.
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CLEMENCY SHOULD BE GRANTED
BECAUSE FREDDIE LEE WRIGHT HAS
UNDERGONE A RELIGIOUS
TRANSFORMATION THAT HAS MADE
HIM A DEVOUTLY RELIGIOUS MAN
WHO COULD HELP OTHERS
Prior to his conviction and imprisonment on death row
Freddie Lee Wright led a life of which he was not proud. Although
he is innocent of these murders, he did lead a life of petty
(albeit nonviolent) theft.
Since his imprisonment on death row, Freddie has
accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. He was baptized about ten
years ago. He believes that he is right with the Lord. Rather
than complaining and seeking support from the outside world, he
has been a source of support and solace to those on the outside.
Freddie Lee Wright being baptized in prison
=32-
His sister Hazel Moore has submitted a certification in
which she describes how Freddie has been a source of solace and
support to her over the years. In times of personal need and
problems, he has been a pillar of strength to her.
Another friend, Wendy Fancher of Birmingham, Alabama,
has written that:
The better I get to know Freddie, the
more reasons I find to like him. He has been
faithful in maintaining correspondences,
which I have grown to look forward to
receiving weekly. They are not filled with
flowery language, claims of innocence,
complaints about his living conditions or
anything like that, and he always manages to
include something beautiful that inspires me.
As part of my daily meditation I read a poem
he sent that seemed just appropriate for
that...
A poignant letter by Linda Towle of Duluth, Minnesota
demonstrates how Freddie helped her survive emotionally when her
son went to prison.
When my son went to prison in Minnesota
for “aiding and abetting,” it was Freddie who
helped me get through it . . . Freddie told
me things to write on his behalf and it was
Freddie who would say something funny that
would brighten up my day. Freddie is a true
friend. I want more than anything in this
world to get Freddie out of prison. He has
served far too much for a crime he didn’t do!
He’s a good person and deserves a chance in
life. I pray for the clemency for him.
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The life that you are being asked to spare is a good one and one
worth saving. Freddie Lee Wright and his friends hope that
clemency will be granted him.
CLEMENCY SHOULD BE GRANTED
BECAUSE OF THE RACIALLY UNFAIR
NATURE OF THE TRIAL AND MANNER
IN WHICH THE DEATH PENALTY HAS
BEEN IMPOSED IN ALABAMA
The role of race in this trial and sentence of death is
important. Freddie Lee Wright is black; the victims were white.
A mixed race jury almost acquitted him; an all-white jury
convicted him. Approximately seventeen out of the twenty men to
die in Alabama’s electric chair since 1975 have been black. The
two men Alabama is now seeking to execute are also black.
Although blacks only constitute approximately 26 percent of
Alabama’s population, they constitute 85 percent of its
executions.
The legitimacy of the death penalty rests in part upon
the premise that it will be applied fairly and evenhandedly
without regard to race. That is not what has happened. The fact
is that this ultimate punishment has fallen disproportionately --
almost exclusively -- upon the black male population of Alabama.
It is hard to have confidence in a conviction where a racially
mixed juxy” simoee acquitted Mr. Wright, and -- because of
counsel’s errors -- no subsequent reviewing court could do
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anything about the racially skewed nature of the jury. This
renders the notion of evenhandedness and equality in. the
imposition of the death penalty a hollow one. In the name of
fairness and equality, clemency should be granted to Freddie Lee
Wright.
CONCLUSION
The Governor is not bound by the same legal restraints
as the courts. His ability to right an injustice is constrained
only by conscience and equity. This clemency petition presents
the Governor with a chance to rectify a morally intolerable result
that the strictures of modern jurisprudence are unable to rectify.
The people of Alabama may have a compelling interest in
seeing that those who commit capital murder should pay the price.
However, they have an equally compelling interest in seeing that
their fellow citizens such as Freddie Lee Wright are not sentenced
to death where there are troubling questions about their guilt or
innocence. They also have a compelling interest in seeing that
prosecutors who are charged to uphold the law do not themselves
circumvent it in their haste to gain a conviction.
The execution of Freddie Lee Wright will not restore
Warren and ‘Lois Green to their family and loved ones. It will
only compound the tragedy by taking another innocent life in the
blind rush to inflict retribution for a crime that may forever
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remain unsolved. In your hands rests the power to right a
terrible wrong. Freddie Lee Wright humbly requests that you
exercise that power with wisdom and with mercy.
The story of Freddie Lee Wright has touched the
conscience of many concerned Americans. Over sixty citizens with
no relation to Mr. Wright have written on his behalf imploring the
Governor for clemency (fifty-six of these letters accompany this
petition). A dozen of them come from Alabama. Others have come
from Arkansas, California, Florida, Minnesota, Mississippi,
Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, and the United
Kingdom. They come from a former homicide investigator (Jim
Duncan of Montgomery), retired military servicemen (Dale Scott of
Montgomery) and decorated World War II veterans (Dave Silver of
New York), supporters of capital punishment (Charles Duval of
Montgomery), and an eighteen-year old schoolgirl who Freddie
assisted with a research paper (Tiffani Robertson of Colfax,
Washington) .
Clemency for Freddie Lee Wright would be a show of
strength. It would set an example for not only the citizens of
Alabama but of the nation as well. It would show how far we have
come as a people who prize truth and justice. It would be a
re
-26-
beacon and inspiration to all.
68101
Respectfully submitted,
DRINKER BIDDLE & REATH LLP
By: C fica? bac yaa
Brier’ F. McDonough
One World Trade Center
89° Floor
New York , New York 10048
(212) 321-1812
(212) 466-0569 (fax)
~o7-
INDEX OF EXHIBITS TO CLEMENCY PETITION
A. Certification of Hazel Moore
B. Certification of Sadie Green
Cc. Certification of Corstnell Green
D. Letter from Roger McQueen
E. Letters submitted in support of clemency
Ew List of others who have written directly to the Governor in
support of clemency
SFNY1 68610v1
CERTIFICATION OF HAZEL MOORE
I, Hazel Moore, certify the truth of the following
under penalty of perjury for willful misstatement:
I am a sister of Freddie Lee Wright. I am fifty years
old. I ama full-time tailor and work 40 hours a week. I ama
graduate of Mobile County Technical High School, Carver State
Technical Institute, and I studied for a year at Bishop
Community College in the field of general education. Iam
widowed with 2 children and four grandchildren. , I reside at
2530 Pleasant Valley Drive in Mobile, Alabama.
I have six bothers and sisters, including Freddie.
Three of my brothers have died and ‘Freddie is my final surviving
brother. I pray that the State of Alabama will not kill him.
we grew up in poverty in the Plateau section of
Mobile. Our father did not marry our mother and did not live
with us. He gave us little financial support and we rarely saw
him.
Our house was a three room unpainted shotgun shack.
For most of our childhood it did not have running water or
plumbing. As children we spent much time fetching water from a
pump down the street for washing, cooking, and laundry. We used
an outhouse in the back. For food we usually ate chickens that
we raised and vegetables that we grew, as well as what my
brother Samuel could catch when he went hunting or fishing. Six
of the children (including Freddie) slept in the same room while
my mother slept in the other room with my youngest brother
Famous, Jr., also known as “Cricket.” My mother was a strict
woman and most - our, days were spent at school, at church, or
doing chores. We had little time for play and very few
. i
possessions.
Freddie was a quiet and loving brother to us.
Although he had an impish side (he used to kid me by chasing me
with lizards), he was very protective of my sister Sadie and me
(we were very close in age).
In 1964, when Freddie was about thirteen years old, my
mother died. My father did not take us in. Instead Freddie,
Sadie, myself, and “Cricket” went to live with my twenty five-
year-old brother Willie and his wife Dorothy in New Orleans.
Governor, it was a horrible life that I’m sure you can’t
imagine. Dorothy was a violent alcoholic who beat us and
dragged us around to bars and gin mills even though we were
adolescents. She and Willie beat us constantly with hands,
fists, and an extension cord until we were bloody. To this day
we have scars on our bodies from these beatings.
Our home in New Orleans was in a rough and difficult
area. Freddie was a skinny, passive boy who the other boys
would chase to school and chase back home every day. Although
he himself was always being chased and picked on, he did his
best to Broeeck us and keep our lunch money from being stolen
from the other kids.
One day a couple of boys from the neighborhood tried
to rape me. Fortunately Freddie (along with Sadie and Cricket)
encountered us and saved me. I know how frightened my brother
was of physical confrontation and how scared he must have been.
I will always be grateful to him for saving me from being raped.
After about a year in New Orleans we could not take
the abuse any more and we left. Upon our return to Mobile we
lived in separate places. I insisted that my father take me,
Sadie and Cricket in., Freddie got a job washing dishes at the
Sea Ranch Restaurant and rented a room for himself. Although
Freddie now had his own place, he came by to see us all the time
and remained a loving and supportive brother. From
Freddie want on to learn to cook in the Job Corps and became a
chef at Constantine’s Restaurant in Mobile.
In 1971 I married Willie Moore. He was a Vietnam
veteran who had been paralyzed in Vietnam. We lived in Mobile.
Shortly afterwards Freddie came to live with us. He cared for
my husband along with me. Freddie would wheel him around the
house, lift him in and out of bed, and shave him. He cleaned
for me and kept the house spotless. He cooked for us too and I
still remember what a wonderful cook he was. He cooked
barbecued chicken, fried chicken, ribs, collard greens, sweet
potato pies - you name it, Freddie could cook anything.
Freddie eventually started getting into trouble and
hanging out with the wrong people - including his girlfriend
Doris Lambert. Freddie was always a follower rather than a
leader. Pérhaps it might have been different if he had a male
role model in his life but he never did. Whatever crimes my
brother committed were burglaries and sneaky thefts for drugs.
He never committed a crime involving violence or even the threat
of violence. I never saw him fight and I never saw him threaten
anyone. I never saw him with a gun or any other weapon.
I remember hearing it on the news when the Western
Auto store was robbed and its innocent owners were killed. I
never had any reason to suspect Freddie. He did not have any
stereo components or stolen merchandise, he did not have any
unusual amounts of money to spend, and he never gave the
-impression of somebody who had a guilty conscience or some
connection to the crime. I know my brother perhaps better than
anyone else does,. and I believe to this day that he did not kill
Mr.-and Mrs. Green.
I have been in constant contact with Freddie during
his twenty-one years on death row. He has always insisted on
his innocence and has never wavered. I have told him over and
over that, if he was guilty, he should accept it and repent.
But he has told me every time that he did not kill anyone and
that he is on death row for a crime he did not commit, and I
believe him.
Since he has been on death row Freddie has found the
Lord and became a deeply ‘religious man. He was baptized about
ten years ago and has told me that he is right with God. We
talk about the Bible and his religious convictions all the time.
I am amazed at the quiet strength and courage that Freddie has
.shown over the years. In fact, it is he that has helped me
overcome my personal problems and disappointments over the
years. He has been a source of comfort and sound personal
advice to me. It sometimes seems like a strange twist of fate
that it is Freddie, on death row, who is a source of strength
and support’ to me rather than the other way around. He could do
so much good for so many people if only you would spare his
life.
There is only one time I remember Freddie collapsing
emotionally. That is when the Supreme Court of Alabama set his
execution date. That night he called me and he wept
uncontrollably, as did I. He was devastated and broken. I will
never forget what he told me and I hope you will not either. If
he had killed the victims, he said, he could accept his death
and would meet it in peace. But he could not accept dying
.because he had not killed anyone. He could not prepare himself
to die for a murder he did not commit. These were the tears of
an innocent man, and they will always haunt me if his life is
not spared.
In closing, Governor, I know my brother is a good
person. I’ know that he is innocent. I beg you to give him
another chance and to find the real murderer, because it is not
my brother. I know my brother could be a help to society, just
as he has been a help to me. Freddie would not have even known
the type of criminals who falsely blamed him if he’d had a
stronger family and a male role model in his life. I wish I
could have done more for him.
But he was only thirteen or fourteen years old when my
mother died and our family fell apart, and there is only so much
a boy that age can take. He did not have the strength my
sisters and I did, and he let himself associate with people who
used him as a scapegoat for something he didn’t do - just as
stronger and meaner boys took advantage of him all his life.
I know that sparing my brother’s life would not be an
easy thing for you to do. I know the Green family has been
through unspeakable pain because their loved ones were taken
away from them for no reason. I know that because the State of
Alabama now wants to kill by beloved brother for no reason ‘90,
SENT BY:DRINKER BIDDLE & REATH; 2- 8- 0 ; 7:47PM’: S & F FAX ROOM~ 334 405 5942;#11/16
for a crime he did not commit. I am asking you to search your
heart and conscience and to spare my brother’s life. It is the
merciful thing to do and it is the fair thing to do.
Thank you very much.
fbigte M pee”
68440
| -10-
SFNY1 6844091774911. DOC
CERTIFICATION OF SADIE GREEN
SADIE GREEN hereby certifies the truth of the
following under penalty of perjury for willful misstatement:
I am a sister of Freddie Lee Wright. I am forty seven
years old and work 72 hours a week as a Manager. I am married
with one child and live at 3022 Farcott Court in Mobile,
Alabama. I graduated from Vigor High School and from Phillips
Junior College in Mobile with a degree in medical
administration.
I have read my sister Hazel’s certification and I
think it tells you what my brother Freddie and our lives were
like. It also tells you what kind of man my brother has become
in prison and what he is like today. I know that you are a very
busy man so I will not repeat what Hazel has said. But I would
i
-like to express my own feeling and my own appeal to you.
SENT BY:DRINKER BIDDLE & REATH: 2- 8- 0 ; 7:48PM S & F FAX ROOM 334 405 5942;#13/16
Freddie is the last living brother that I have. I do
not want to lose him. I know in my heart that he is innocent of
this murder. I know Freddie very well, and he does not have it
in him to have killed two people in cold blood. He was soft and
nonviolent as a child, and I know that nonviolent children do
not grow up to be violent adults.
Freddie did know people who were violent, and they
used him here to escape responsibility for their own crimes. My
brother would not have known such people if he had more
opportunities than he did in life. He is now a good, peaceful
and Christian man. He has led a Christian life in prison and he
would lead a Christian life if he were allowed to live. By all
that is good and right in this world, I ask you to spare my
brother’s life because he is innocent and to grant him clemency.
68441
SAT cae teen AR
SENT BY:DRINKER BIDDLE & REATH; 2- 8- 0 ; 7:48PM ; S & F FAX ROOM- 334 405 5942;#14/16
CERTIFICATION OF CORSTNELL GREEN
CORSTNELL GREEN hereby certifies the truth of the
following under penalty of perjury for willful misstatement:
I am the husband of Sadie Green and the brother-in-law
of freddie Lee Wright. I have known Freddie since the carly
1970s, before I met and married Sadie. [| love him and ask that
you grant him clemency.
I know Freddie well. He was always a quiet and
unspoken man. He was also a nonviolent man and a follower. He
never had it in him to initiate much activity at all (much less
illegal activity). At most he would quietly tag along with
other people who would lead him and set the agenda. I never saw
Freddie with a gun and I doubt he would even be able to use one.
Although he was a follower, he had good sense and would never
ye
have been depraved or foolish cnough to kill anybody.
SENT BY:DRINKER BIDDLE & REATH; 2- 8- 0 ; 7:49PM; S & F FAX ROOM? 334 405 5942; #15/16
1 also know Reginald Tinsley, Percy Craig, Roger
McQueen, and Theodore Otis Roberts. Fortunately for me, I
married Sadie in 1974 and did not spend much time with them
after that. Freddie was not so lucky.
Freddie did not have it in him to commit acts of
violence or murder, but some of these other people did. They
may have had it in them to commit this act but Freddie did not.
Reginald Tinsley still lives in the area, and he has told me
many times that Freddie did not commit these murders and that he
was wrongfully convicted.
It is wrong that the admitted participants in these
murders - Percy Craig, Roger McQueen, and Reginald Tinsley -
were released from prison and that Craig and Tinsley are free
mean today while my brother-in-law is on death row,
re
I do not know who committed these murders but I know
in my heart that it was not my brother-in-law. Let revenge be
‘
is)
‘
SENT BY:DRINKER BIDDLE & REATH: 2- 8- 0 ; 7:49PM ; S & F FAX ROOM 334 405 5942;#16/16
mine, said the Lord. Where the true killer is in doubt (as it
is here) then it is for the Lord - not man - to seek revenge.
Corstnell Green
68442
SFNY1 68442v1GT601!.DOC
February 4, 2000
Hi Wendy:
This is a response referencing to Freddie Lee Wright.
Wendy you’ve already heard everything providing after and during trial in Freddie Lee
Wright’s behalf.
That Freddie Lee Wright did not commit the Western-Auto Store murders of Mr. And
Mrs. Green.
Wendy I have stated while during trial in 1978, my testimony was all arranged by
Detective, Agent Larry Tillman, and District Attorney Chris N. Galanos. It was fabricated by the
above authorities.
Wendy, my attorney knows everything concerning Freddie Lee Wright, and the
arrangement with these agents.
I cannot call you Wendy, but you can set up a call through Administrative Warden, Mike
Adams, or A.W. C. Grammant, Administrative Program.
Peace, Respect.
Roger McQueen
SFNY1 68588v1
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