Texas Murder Victims’ Parents Seek Death Sentence Commutation for Paul Storey

Judy and Glenn Cherry (pic­tured), the par­ents of Jonas Cherry, have asked Texas state and local offi­cials not to exe­cute Paul Storey, the man con­vict­ed of killing their son. The state has sched­uled Storey’s exe­cu­tion for April 12. 

In a let­ter to Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson, Gov. Greg Abbott, state District Judge Robb Catalano, and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Cherrys ask state offi­cials to com­mute Storey’s sen­tence to life with­out parole. They write, ​“Paul Storey’s exe­cu­tion will not bring our son back, will not atone for the loss of our son and will not bring com­fort or closure.” 

Storey’s com­mu­ta­tion efforts have also drawn sup­port from one of the jurors in his case, Sven Berger, who has pro­vid­ed an affi­davit for the defense. Berger says the jury was unaware of evi­dence of Storey’s men­tal impair­ments at the time it ren­dered its ver­dict, and that, had that infor­ma­tion been avail­able, it would have affect­ed his deci­sion. He was also affect­ed by learn­ing that Tarrant County pros­e­cu­tors had agreed to give Storey’s co-defen­dant, Mike Porter, a plea deal for a life sen­tence. ​“It seemed clear to me that Porter was the leader,” Berger said. ​“It was infu­ri­at­ing to see Porter get life and Storey get death.” But most impor­tant­ly, Berger said know­ing the Cherrys’ stance would have led him to vote dif­fer­ent­ly because the pros­e­cu­tor had mis­led jurors dur­ing the tri­al that the Cherrys want­ed Storey to be sen­tenced to death. ​“If the fam­i­ly of the deceased did not want the per­pe­tra­tor exe­cut­ed, that would have been impor­tant for me to know, and I believe it would have been impor­tant to the oth­er jurors,” Berger wrote. 

The Cherrys have also released a video explain­ing why they oppose Storey’s exe­cu­tion and their desire to spare Storey’s fam­i­ly the pain they felt at the loss of their son: ​“We have nev­er been in favor of the death penal­ty. However, in the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion before us, it pains us to think that, due to our son’s death, anoth­er per­son will be pur­pose­ful­ly put to death. Also moti­vat­ing us, is that we do not want Paul Storey’s fam­i­ly, espe­cial­ly his moth­er and grand­moth­er, if she is still alive, to wit­ness the pur­pose­ful exe­cu­tion of their son. They are inno­cent of his deeds.” 

The Cherrys said they recent­ly learned that Storey had been offered the same deal as Porter, but had turned it down.