TEXAS
November 4, 2004
The state of Texas is scheduled to execute Robert Brice Morrow Nov. 4 for the April 3, 1996 murder of Lisa Allison, a 21 year-old white college student in Liberty County.
According to the prosecution, Allison took her car to a local carwash where an eyewitness watched a man fitting Morrow’s description approach her and pin her down in the front seat of her car. The witness believed it appeared Allison and the man knew each other and so he was not alarmed. Later Allison was found dead and there were samples of both Allison and Morrow’s blood in the car.
Morrow first maintained this blood was the result of a drug-related fight he was in, in which the person he says is the killer picked him up in Allison’s car after the crime took place. Morrow’s supporters had also claimed there was another blood sample found in the car which has not been tested to determine whether it matches the man Morrow contends is the killer. However, recently Morrow has confessed to killing Allison.
Other problems with Morrow’s case have arisen including possible ineffective assistance of counsel. Morrow’s trial attorney failed to object to numerous improper remarks at several key moments of the trial. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel. The attorney who wrote his 1998 state habeas petition failed to include any actual habeas claims in the brief, leading one to seriously question the quality of legal representation he has received.
Please take a moment to write Gov. Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles requesting clemency for Robert Morrow.
