Fighting for My Life

By Damon Richardson

 

This is my experience of living on Texas Death Row for seventeen years of my life for a crime that I did not commit and had no knowledge of whatsoever. When I was found guilty of capital murder in 1988 and sent to Abilene, Texas, for a change of venue related to my trial, it was the worst day of my life. My whole world had turned upside down and I could not believe this nightmare that I was facing, to be condemned to die for this crime. All of my witnesses came to the court to testify on my behalf to prove my innocence, but my attorney at the time said that I did not need to call any witnesses because the state did not prove the case concerning my guilt. That was the worst mistake that I ever made, listening to my attorney from Lubbock, Texas, who did not know what he was doing. My attorney from Houston, Mike DeGeurin, told me that we needed to call the witnesses to prove my innocence and show the jury that I did not have anything to do with this case. Right after the state rested their case against me, my attorney rested also. Then some District Attorney observing in the courtroom whispered in the District Attorney’s ear, and they asked the judge to let them reopen the case to tell the jury what kind of weapon was used to cause the death of the people who were murdered in this case. My attorney had let all of the witnesses go who were under subpoena to testify in my trial, and the trial judge would not summon them back to court to testify for me because they had already returned to different parts of Texas to live their lives. The jury took less than a week to come back with a guilty verdict and sent me to Death Row to die for the murder of the victims in my case. When I arrived at Ellis 1 Unit in 1988, I was sent to J-23 cellblock, two row, four cell, to do my time and wait to be killed by the hand of the state of Texas.

 

The first day I arrived at the unit, Captain West called me to his office, right next to the gym, to inform me that I was sent to this unit to be housed and wait to be executed by lethal injection when my time was up on appeal. He went on to say that I do not belong to the state of Texas, that I am only held here for the crime that I was accused of committing in Lubbock, Texas in 1987. While I waited on Texas Death Row, going through several of my appeals getting turned down by many courts and facing lethal injection from the state of Texas in 1995, I was given an execution date to die for this crime that I did not do. While I was waiting to die in Death Watch cell on G-13, one row, four cell, my attorney went into the District Attorney’s office, along with my private investigator, to go through the file of my case. They found a diary that had been kept by a police lady who guarded the witness. She lied on me, which helped me get sent to Death Row. That diary along with the rest of the evidence found in the District Attorney’s file, got me an evidentiary hearing in front of the judge to bring to light everything that was not submitted during my trial in 1988. The judge allowed my attorney to bring up all of the new evidence at this new hearing. The judge ruled in my favor and sent his answer to the court of criminal appeals, where all nine judges in Austin, Texas also ruled in my favor, and I was released from Death Row and that capital case was dismissed against me. All three of my co-defendants, accused of doing the murder on my behalf (Michael Stearnes, Cause No. 87-406,927, 72nd District Court, acquitted. Lambert Wilson, Cause No. 87-406,923, 72nd District Court, acquitted. Rodney Childress, Cause No. 87-406, 924, 72nd District Court; dismissed on motion by the state for insufficient evidence), had their cases dismissed too. 

 

All the people accused of committing this capital offense were acquitted by a jury of their peers in court. The third person never stood trial for that case. The state of Texas went after me because I was a young black man selling a large quantity of drugs in the inner city of Lubbock, Texas and other states.

 

I did not get caught with selling drugs until I was arrested for the capital offense that I did not do. Once I was put in the Lubbock County Jail in 1987, I continued to sell large quantities of drugs to pay for my legal defense and the legal expenses of my co-defendants, because that was the only means of revenue I had. So the State of Texas gave me a life sentence for selling drugs out of the county jail and seized all of the assets, money, and property that I made from selling drugs. 

 

When I was on Death Row I met a pen pal from Switzerland, a young girl in high school who was 14 years old. She was writing me for several years and came to know me well and became a good friend to me. I was able to give this child advice and share with her some of the mistakes that I made in my own life growing up in my dysfunctional household with no real guidance. My family had problems in their own lives, unfortunately, substance abuse and drugs. 

 

Norina and her mother came to my side, paid my legal defense team to handle my case and get me off Death Row to give me a new chance at life. This young girl from Switzerland who was corresponding with me was my guardian angel because when they gave me my execution date and put me in Death Watch, Captain West came to my cell and told me that I had a phone call from Switzerland letting me know that some people from overseas were going to hire an attorney for me, which was an enormous blessing.  Shortly after that evidentiary hearing, the court of criminal appeals ruled in my favor and I was getting off Death Row. I still remember that day like it was yesterday, because my attorney had told me earlier that if they came to see me, they had good news to tell me. If they called me on the telephone, it would be bad news, letting me know that the court had turned me down. That meant that I would be executed this time around. 

 

Major Cook came to my cell and told me that I had a visit earlier that morning on March 2, 2002. When I was sitting in the visiting room waiting, several of my good friend’s family members were all in tears because their son had just gotten an execution date and were going to be killed by the state of Texas real soon. After I had waited in the visitation room for about an hour for someone to come see me, my friend’s mother, Ms. Vadell Sterling, picked up the telephone and asked me if I was waiting for someone. I told her that I had been told someone was coming to see me but no one had shown up yet. I asked her to ask the officer to please find out what happened to my visit.  The officer went and got Major Cook, who told me that I had a phone call, and he rolled the phone in front of the visit cage and handed it to me. My heart was beating a hundred miles an hour and all I could remember was what my attorney had told me earlier that year, that if he called me dealing with my case, it was going to be bad news from the court of criminal appeals. So when I picked up the telephone to speak to my attorney, David L. Botsford, the secretary answered the phone and said, “How you doing, Baby?” I told her that I was doing quite well, and then she asked me if I had heard the news, I told her no. She told me that some of my family members and friends were at the law office and she was fixing to put me on speaker phone so that I could talk to everyone. I was sweating and could hardly breathe. I was nervous beyond anything you could imagine because in the back of my mind I knew that I was about to get a date and die. When the lawyer said, “All nine judges ruled in your favor and you are fixing to get off Death Row today,” tears started pouring down my face like a water fountain, and I could not stop crying. I told the secretary to please pick up the phone and she did, she said, “What’s wrong?”  I went on to tell her that a man isn’t supposed to cry. She said, “Hell no, you better cry, cause them are tears of joy!” She put the phone back on speaker so that I could talk to everyone in the room. That was one of the happiest days of my life. I felt that I had broken that shackle that had bonded me to Death Row for seventeen years of my life. I remember when Major Cook came to get me out of the visit cage to take me back to my cell block, I bent down to turn around from the back and stuck my hand out of this little cage to be handcuffed like every Death Row inmate has to do when they leave out of their cell or the visit area. He told me to rise up, that I was no longer on Death Row and I didn’t have to wear handcuffs anymore. The Major told me that my property had already been placed in a van and I was going to the Bird Unit to get me reclassified and sent to a new unit. He asked me if I would like to go back to my old wing and say goodbye to my fellow comrades who were still on Death Row and I told him, “Yes.” That was the first time I walked down the hallway of Polunsky Unit on Death Row without being handcuffed (note: by that point Death Row had been moved units from Ellis ! to Polunsky). When I got to the wing, all of the guards and inmates thought that I had gotten loose and was running around crazy, like some guys do. Major Cook was kind enough to let me go on every pod of my wing and say goodbye to all the men that I had come to love and respect as good human beings who made some bad choices in life. There are about four guys that I know who were actually innocent of their crime and did not deserve to be on Death Row or to die.

 

Before I got to Death Row I never thought about capital punishment because that is not something that crosses your mind every day when you’re in the free world living your life. I can tell you that the way the system works is not right because most people who are sent to Death Row are poor minority people who do not have the money to pay for a good legal team to handle their case. I do not believe in capital punishment myself because I think it is cruel and inhumane to kill another human being. If you have to, you can lock a man up in prison for a long time and try to rehabilitate him and change his thought process and the way he looks at life. The public will still be safe. 

 

When I got off Death Row most of my good pen pals who stuck by me all of those years passed away because they were old in their own lives. When I returned to population it was very hard on me to make it because all I had known was living on Death Row for seventeen years of my life. People on Death Row stood by one another and they were always willing to give a helping hand to help one another in a time of need in life. Since I’ve been off Death Row I have been struggling to fit into general population and the people overseas are not as willing to stand by you and support you in your struggle to try to attain your freedom and go free back into society. 

 

When I made parole in 2015 I knew I was I was finally going to be able to wake up from this nightmare and return back to society to try to unite with my children and my family, and come to know them again. They would help me reintegrate back into society as a contributing human being. The District Attorney’s office protested my parole in 2016, two days before I was to go home. They made a plea bargain agreement with me not protest parole again on my organized crime case (that is non-aggravated life sentence) that I have served seven years on. I have thirty-two years collectively on my sentences. I am up for parole again and I hope that I will be able to go home. By sharing my story I hope to show people in society that even though you get off Death Row, the fight is not over. Now I am fighting a bigger fight to not die in prison as an old man. I hope that someone with a heart and a little compassion can drop me a few lines and bring some sunshine into an old country boy’s life at the end of his rope. I want to thank you for your service and giving me an opportunity to share my thoughts with people in the world who love all human beings no matter what mistakes we have made in our past and deserve a chance to have a normal life one day in society.