Anthony Graves

We received the following article from a reader yesterday.  We have not had time to research this case.  But since Anthony has a pending execution date of April 26th, we decided to post the article immediately.  If you are moved by the contents of this article, you may wish to contact the Compassionate Conservative before he gives a final nod to this execution.  

Governor George Bush    Phone  (512) 463-2000

P. O. Box 12428            Fax     (512) 463-1849

Austin, Texas   78711

 Anthony's Story

    Imagine that you are an average 27 year old, African American man working 
in a factory as a machinist to try to support three children. It is August of 1992. Your life consists of the usual problems, too many bills, long hours at work, used cars and all the other things that go along with being a working class American. You are close to your children and see them often although you were not married to their mothers. 
    Returning home from work one day, the police are waiting for you at your house and tell you that you are being taken to the police station. You are now in the back of the police car trying to think what has just happened. You feel so disoriented as you try to imagine what you have done. You try to remember not paying a ticket, but, no that can't be it. You have always taken care of anything that would result in more problems for you. At the police station, still feeling so confused, you are booked for murder. You think to yourself, "Murder? Oh, my God these people think that I have killed somebody!!" Now your head is spinning and you are trying so hard to focus on what they are saying as they tell you that you have brutally murdered a family of six and then burned down the house to try to cover it up. You are shaking and scared and screaming, "No, I didn't kill anybody! I didn't kill anybody!" They tell you that Robert said you did it. You can't think straight, "Who is Robert?" You ask them, "Who is Robert? I don't know a Robert!" The police tell you that it is Robert Carter. 
    You have a cousin who was very close to you while you were growing up and as adults the two of you had even been roommates at one time. Her name is 
Theresa, but goes by "Cookie". She married a few years back and you met her husband, but didn't know him at all. His name is Robert Carter.
    You are questioned for hours and continue to tell them that you don't know anything about it. One of them tells you that unless you give them a story about how Carter did it, they will put the whole thing on you and "I can see the needle going in your arm," he says. "Oh, my God. They want to kill me!"
    The police book you and take you to a holding cell. As the cell door closes, you notice that there, directly in front of you is the man who brought you here, Robert Carter. You are screaming at him, "Why did you do this to me? Why did you tell them that I murdered these people?" Robert motions to you that there is a microphone in your cell. 
    You say to him, "I don't care about who's listening! I am innocent! I have done nothing wrong! I am innocent! Why, Robert? Why?" Three weeks later Robert testifies to the Grand Jury that you are innocent. He tells them that he was scared and that one Texas Ranger told him that if he told who did it they would let him go. He knew now that they weren't going to let him go because when they arrested him after he attended the funerals, he was covered in burns and bandages.
    He stated that he had gone there to kill. The youngest victim was his own son, four years old. Robert was upset because the child's mother was increasing child support and it would ruin his credit. He felt that the only way to remedy this situation was to kill the child and his mother, but his mother was not in the house and there were several other people there, so he had to kill all of them.
    Your name is Anthony Graves and now you have been incarcerated for seven years. You have been on death row for five years in America's execution capital, Texas. You live in a cell that is 9'X9' with two vertical slit windows in the solid steel door. These windows have plexiglass in them and the cells are staggered so that looking out, you can only see a brick wall. 
    You have a horizontal slit in the door that has a hinged cover on it that is locked from the outside. This one is for your meals to be put through by the guards. You have a window to the outside that is three inches tall and three feet long, but it is up along the ceiling, so you can't see out of it. You are in this cell twenty three hours each day. The other hour is for recreation and a shower. Recreation means that you are taken, by yourself, to the yard which is like a narrow dog run, and allowed to exercise. There is nothing there except the fence and the guard that brought you. Your shower is ten minutes long. 
    Anthony has spent this seven years trying to get someone to hear him. He is innocent. Because he could not afford his own attorney, he has used ones appointed by the court. Neither of them had ever been involved in a capital case and because of their inexperience his case was never presented properly. The prosecutor ran his alibi witness out of the courthouse by saying that he was going to make her a suspect. She was there to testify that Anthony was with her on that night at his mother's house. 
    Anthony's younger brother was there, also, but they would not accept his testimony because he was Anthony's brother and according to them brothers will lie for each other. 
    Anthony now has an excellent attorney with thirty years of experience who is trying to unravel all the years of wrongs. Robert Carter has made a video tape and a written statement where he tells that Anthony was not with him on that night and that he only had said that because he was scared and thought they would let him go if he said that Anthony did it. Anthony's appeals are still at the state level for now and hopefully his nightmare will end soon, but in the meantime he has been robbed of seven years of his life with his children and family. He remains hopeful that each day is a new opportunity for justice to prevail, but for this to happen the prosecutor and the courts will have to admit that they were wrong. It is like a game of chess and Anthony is a pawn, small and defenseless in a world of powerful pieces waiting to take him out of the game, but this game is his life. Robert Carter was scheduled to be executed on April 26 of this year, but that has been put on hold for now as the prosecutor, Anthony's attorney and the courts try to figure out what should be done next. 
    Anthony's mother visits him often, but she has some serious health problems and can't go each week as she would like. I am Anthony's friend and visit when she can't. He is only allowed one visit each week up to two hours long. 
    Sometimes his little brother goes with his mother to visit, he is twenty nine now. Anthony is thirty four and facing his own death unless something is done soon. 
    When you think that someone else can take your freedom, and possibly, your life so easily, it makes you wonder what is wrong with the system that we have felt was so just and honest. Anthony may very well be one of many in this same circumstance and unless we are able to reevaluate each case individually, we may never know how many innocent people we are locking up and murdering.
    For more information on contacting Anthony or about his case, you may contact:

Nickie Greer 
ngreer6918@aol.com

Please read the other Innocence article that tells the story of Freddie Lee Wright, a man who was executed by Alabama on March 3rd, 2000.

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