From Alberta Phillips' Austin Statesman column, Seek the truth, and let it set a wronged man free:

When Ellean Banks heard the news that a federal judge overturned her son's death sentence, she danced and shouted in her home in Nash, near Texarkana. The family prayed and wept. Laughed and made plans for a home-coming for Delma Banks Jr. that seemed just around the corner. That was in 2000.

Now, Mrs. Banks, 67, is preparing for her son's execution in three days.

After nearly 23 years, she still doesn't fully comprehend how things got this far. How her son could end up on death row based on dubious testimony. There was no physical evidence — no DNA, no fingerprints, no blood and no murder weapon. Delma Banks didn't confess. In fact, he turned down a plea that would have made him eligible for 15 years ago. When a judge urged him to bargain with prosecutors, he told them he couldn't plead guilty to a crime he didn't commit. Mrs. Banks said a lawyer urged her to create an alibi for Delma, but that meant violating her Pentecostal beliefs.

What makes Delma Banks case most unusual is those who are supporting halting his execution:

Facts in the case, especially evidence uncovered by Delma Banks' appeals lawyers, are so disturbing that U.S. District Judge David Folsom overturned the death sentence in 2000. The behavior of police and prosecutors was so unconscionable, it prompted former FBI director and U.S. District Judge William Sessions (of San Antonio) to file a friend of the court brief with the U.S. Supreme Court requesting it halt Banks' execution. "The prosecutors in this case concealed important impeachment material from the defense," Sessions said in the brief, joined by two other former federal judges and a former federal prosecutor. All are staunch death penalty supporters, but even they could not stomach the apparent misconduct by police and prosecutors.

This will be the 300th Texecution since 1976. Here's more on Delma Banks and his likely innocence.

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