Garcia White is scheduled for execution in Texas on October 1, 2024 for the 1989 murders of Annette and Bernette Edwards.

Garcia is not a threat to anyone around him. He fell into a drug addiction when a severe knee injury derailed his plans to play football in college and experienced a brain injury after being hit by a baseball bat. He confessed to the murders after detectives used his intellectual deficiency from the brain injury to circumvent him requesting legal representation. The confession should have never been entered into evidence. The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty has this background.

QUESTIONS CURRENTLY (9/30/24) BEFORE THE US SUPREME COURT

QUESTIONS PRESENTED

Garcia White was convicted of capital murder and sentence to death in 1996. His state and federal habeas corpus litigation was complete in 2014 after which he received a stay of execution in 2015 to litigate a subsequent state habeas application pursuant to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 11.073, which permits the filing of a subsequent application that presents a claim based on previously unavailable scientific evidence that shows the applicant should not have been convicted.

The state court dismissed that application in 2016. Prior to his currently scheduled execution date, White filed his fifth subsequent application for state habeas relief, which challenged the state court's interpretation of Article 11.073, raised a claim of intellectual disability under Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), and asserted a right to reweigh the aggravating and mitigating evidence in his case.

The state court dismissed White's application as an abuse of the writ.

1. Does this Court have jurisdiction to review an untimely challenge to the state court's interpretation of its postconviction relief statute?

2. Does this Court have jurisdiction to review the state court's dismissal of two of White's claims where the dismissal was based on an independent and adequate state law ground?

3. Did the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals err in dismissing White's fifth subsequent application as an abuse of the writ pursuant to Texas Code of Criminal Procedure Article 11.071, § 5?

Please call Governor Abbott at 512-463-2000 to urge that he halt tomorrow's scheduled execution of Garcia White, a man whose claims of intellectual disability deserve court review.

The following background is from this 2015 article in the Austin Chronicle:

Appeals of White's sentence have painted him as a "kind, gentle soul" and "caring parent, devoted son and sibling" who fell into drug addiction after a knee injury derailed his college football prospects (and led to his departure from Lubbock Christian University). They note the brain damage White suffered after being hit by a baseball bat, and his below-average IQ, as well as the ways in which a detective used White's intellectual deficiency to circumvent his requests for legal representation during the interrogation in which he confessed to the killings. White's attorney Patrick McCann said during a 2002 application for writ of habeas corpus, that the confession should never have been entered into evidence. He added that six years of good behavior (and a clean record before his introduction to crack) suggested that White was no longer a threat to society. McCann has accused the Court of Criminal Appeals of being apathetic and suggested that the trial jury's conclusion that White might be a future threat could not be considered as factual, because the jury cannot foresee the future – although consideration of future dangerousness is one of the state's legal standards for capital punishment.

Successive appeals on many of the same grounds – and McCann's claim that new DNA testing could suggest the presence of another person at the murder scene – have all been denied.

Texas' aggressive execution schedule marks it as an outlier in its use of the death penalty while the majority of other states are on a downward trend of executions. In the last few years, Texas has been one of only a handful of states that have carried out death sentences - and it continues to do so targeting the poor, the mentally ill and people of color.

Please sign the petition asking Governor Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to do everything within their power to stop this execution, including issuing a stay, and seeking a path to clemency in the case.

Additionally, you may reach out now to the Board at bpp_clemency@tdcj.texas.gov and the Governor at https://gov.texas.gov/contact/and (512) 463-1782. You can simply leave a voice message, or choose to speak to a representative if you prefer.

Please note: In Texas, the Governor does have limited power when it comes to the death penalty. But the story we are told that "it's out of the governor's hands," is only true if we allow it to be. Yes, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles must recommend clemency in that state in order for the Governor to grant clemency (mercy) by commuting a death sentence. But the fact is that the governor appoints the members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles. He can choose to appoint members who will take valid claims and concerns more seriously, instead of acting like rubber-stamping gate-keepers. He can still use his position of power and influence to enact justice in the State of Texas