Willie Pondexter is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in Texas on March 3 despite a civ­il suit filed by his attor­neys alleg­ing inter­fer­ence by the state in the attor­neys’ inves­ti­ga­tion into Pondexter’s mod­el behav­ior and reha­bil­i­ta­tion dur­ing 14 years on death row. In Texas, the key fac­tor in deter­min­ing whether a defen­dant is sen­tenced to life or death is whether he rep­re­sents a future dan­ger to soci­ety. Pondexter’s attor­neys from the Texas Defender Service had received infor­ma­tion that cor­rec­tion­al offi­cers from death row were will­ing to for­mal­ly attest to Pondexter’s excel­lent record and the attor­neys sent rep­re­sen­ta­tives to obtain state­ments. Those rep­re­sen­ta­tives were detained by the local sher­if­f’s office and told not to return to death row. The suit claims that Texas prison offi­cials inter­fered with the work nec­es­sary to pre­pare a clemen­cy peti­tion for Pondexter. He is seek­ing a stay of his execution date.

(“Court rejects inmate’s request to delay exe­cu­tion,” Houston Chronicle, Feb. 26, 2009). See Clemency.

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