Texas
July 28, 2005
6:00 PM CST
The state of Texas is scheduled to execute 29-year-old David Aaron Martinez, a Hispanic man July 28th for the July 27, 1997 slaying of 24-year-old Kiersa Paul, a white female in Travis County. Martinez was 21 when the crime was committed. He was charged with intentional murder while committing a robbery and aggravated sexual assault.
Like many on death row, Martinez comes from a troubled background. His attorneys said that he moved from Texas to Iowa and back to Texas, living with one parent or the other. While Martinez lived in Austin during his early to mid-teens, his father was “heavily involved” in making sadomasochistic paraphernalia. For some time before his arrest, Martinez lived on the street. In his case file, a March 1997 form from the Salvation Army lists him as homeless.
The death penalty is an arbitrary punishment that is more likely to be distributed to those who come from poor upbringings and economic backgrounds, and is less likely to be the punishment for those who commit the worst crimes. This penalty also punishes those who are convicted for killing whites more than any other race. In cases that result in a death sentence, four out of every five murder victims are white, despite the fact that blacks make up about 50 percent of this country’s murder victims.
Do not let the state of Texas carry out a punishment that is inherently unequal. Please take a moment to write Governor Rick Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend that Martinez’s life be sparred.
