The Texas Board of Pardons ands has refused to stop its two scheduled texecutions this week, inlcuding that of Delma Banks, who is likely innocent and who has the support of former FBi Director General William Sessions, former US Court of Appeals Judges Timothy Lewis and John Gibbons (3rd Circuit) and former US Attorney for Chicago and co-chair of the Illinois Governor's Commission on Capital Punishment Thomas Sullivan, who have filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court asking it to review Banks's case. The brief, which focuses on critical questions regarding prosecutorial suppression of evidence and ineffective assistance of counsel at Banks' trial, can be read here [PDF].

In Banks's case, the Board said his current lawyers filed his petition 7 days late and therefore it wouldn't even consider it. So because his new lawyers were a week late, the Board won't review whether he is innocent--or whether he was denied effective assistance of counsel at this trial (how ironic) or whether there was prosecutorial misconduct.

The National Coalition Against the Death Penalty says,

The conviction and death-sentencing of Delma Banks Jr. by the state of Texas violates three U.S. Supreme Court rulings and constitutes the most severe form of constitutional error and gross injustice, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said today. On Monday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Banks' appeal on a six to three vote.
Banks was convicted and sentenced to death in connection with the murder of Richard Whitehead of Texarkana after prosecutors struck all black prospective jurors from the jury pool and withheld critical exculpatory evidence from the defense.

"It is most unusual for a conviction and death sentence to stand when it violates not one, not two but three U.S. Supreme Court rulings," said Steven W. Hawkins, NCADP executive director. "But that is precisely what has happened in Delma's case. His conviction violates the high court's decisions in Batson, Brady and Strickland."

The Brady ruling requires prosecutors to reveal potentially exculpatory evidence. In Banks' case, prosecutors knowingly allowed key witnesses to perjure themselves at trial, withheld evidence from the jury that would have discredited key witnesses and then argued to the jury that it should believe witnesses they knew were lying.

The Batson ruling bans prosecutors from striking prospective jurors on the basis of race. In Banks' case, prosecutors excluded all African American jurors from the jury pool and he was convicted and death-sentenced by an all-white jury. Banks is African American.

The Strickland ruling addresses the issue of competency of legal counsel. A federal judge characterized the performance of Banks' trial attorney as "dismal" and reversed his sentence. That decision itself was reversed by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which has a track record of not seriously considering the claims of people on death row.

Hawkins said if courts fail to intervene to prevent Banks' execution, Gov Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons ands must do so. "This case represents an unusual convergence," Hawkins said. "It is a convergence of everything that is wrong with the death penalty. When prosecutors misbehave and when defense counsel is incompetent, the reward should not be an execution by the state."

Well, we now know the Texas Board of Pardons ands won't intervene. Mr. Banks execution is set for Weds.