Don't execute Tony E. Ford!

To:  Rick Perry, Governor of Texas and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

We are turning to you because we are deeply concerned about Mr. Tony E. Ford, a death row inmate at Polunsky Unit in Livingston.
On December 18, 1991, two people broke in to the home of Myra Concepcion Murillo in El Paso, Texas. During the incident one of the men shot and killed Ms. Murillo’s eighteen-year-old son, Armando, then shot Ms. Murillo and her two daughters. Ms. Murillo and her daughters survived.
The prosecution’s case at trial turned on the daughters’ identification of Tony Ford from a photo array as the one who did the shooting. Tony Ford denies any involvement, says that he was outside in the vehicle and that he did not know that the men planned to break in to the house and kill people.
A man named Van Belton was charged along with Tony Ford with the crime. Belton was the only person initially identified by Ms. Murillo’s daughters. After Van Belton was arrested, he told the police that Tony was the other person. In Tony’s statement he confirmed that Van Belton was one of the perpetrators, but he testified that the second man was Belton’s brother Victor.
The Murillos’ could have mistakenly identified Tony. The booking sheets for Tony and for Victor Belton show that as of December 19, 1991, both young men were 5’8” tall. Victor Belton weighed 156 pounds, while Tony weighed 150 pounds. Tony was 18 years, 6 months old; Belton was 17 years, 8 months old. As the photographs of Victor Belton and Tony show, they also looked very similar. Therefore it would easily be possible that an eyewitness/victim could have mistakenly identified Tony Ford as Victor Belton.
This is supported by the fact that NO other evidence connected Mr. Ford directly with the crime: In a search of Tony’s home after the crime, nothing at all relating to the crime was found. By contrast, property taken from the Murillos’ house was located at Van and Victor Belton’s home.
The only physical evidence suggesting a link to Tony was inconclusive. Three wool fibers found on Armando Murillo’s shirt were determined to be similar in color, size, and appearance to the wool fibers from Tony’s trench coat. The state’s expert testified that the fibers “could” have come from the coat. In her lab report, this witness was even more equivocal. She reported that “the three dark gray wool fibers were similar in color to some wool fibers in the overcoat and could have originated in the coat or any wool garment of a gray/purple color.”
This coat also had a small stain on the inside of a pocket too small for typing or testing. The prosecution’s forensic examiner identified this stain as blood, but acknowledged that it was “consistent” with someone cutting a finger and putting his hand in the coat. Even this testimony was overstated. In the lab report, the witness expressed doubt about whether this stain was even blood: “The coat was treated with luminal reagent, resulting in a positive presumptive reaction for blood. Subsequent analysis using Takiyama, a confirmation test for blood, indicated no detectable blood present.” Thus, this witness’s testimony failed to link Mr. Ford’s coat to the crime at all.
We feel deep sympathy with the Murillo family and think the state owes them to call to account the real perpetrators in this crime. Therefore we, the undersigned, are asking you to reopen this case to give Mr. Ford a fair chance to prove that he was not responsible for the crime that claimed the life of Armando Murillo.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Don't execute Tony E. Ford! Petition to Rick Perry, Governor of Texas and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was created by and written by Petra E. Herrmann, ALIVE e.V. (info@alive-gegen-todesstrafe.de).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

Send this to a friend