Please note - T.J. Jones has instructed his attorney not to seek clemency or file further appeals on his behalf.

TJ Jones is scheduled to be executed on August 8, 2002, for an offense he committed when he was barely 17 years old. He was sentenced to death in October 1994 for the carjacking murder of Willard Lewis Davis, a 75-year-old white man, in Longview, Texas, on February 2, 1994. The State's evidence showed that Mr. Davis was confronted by TJ, who was armed with a pistol, and three other youths at the end of his driveway. Mr. Davis complied when TJ ordered him to get out of his car, and TJ shot him once in the forehead before getting in the car and driving away with his accomplices. TJ did not have a license or know how to drive and, after careening through the neighborhood a short distance, wrecked the car. The police, having been alerted by Mrs. Davis when she found her husband, and neighbors who observed the suspicious trajectory of the vehicle, ultimately captured all four accomplices.

In custody, TJ gave a written statement admitting that he shot Mr. Davis, while alleging that he only intended to scare the victim. The ballistics evidence ruled out a close range gunshot (2 to 4 feet). Interestingly, two of the three accomplices tested positive for apparent gunpowder residue on their hands. In order to defeat TJ's accident defense, the prosecutors put on testimony from a "jailhouse snitch" witness, a cell mate of TJ's, who asserted that TJ told him that Mr. Davis said he would not relinquish the car unless TJ killed him.

At the punishment phase, the State revealed that TJ was also facing charges of attempted murder for the shooting of a Smith County Texaco station attendant during a robbery with other youths four days prior to the capital offense. The victim testified that TJ oddly started to shoot him before indicating at all that a robbery was taking place. In fact, he apparently fired upon the man before a female shopper (and later witness) had made it out of the store and back to her car. The actions TJ allegedly took during the robbery -- firing without warning, conducting the offense without waiting until he would not be observed, and taking small bills while leaving the large -- seemed impulsive and entirely lacking sense or control. The two offenses within the same week were the only acts of violence that the State alleged TJ had committed against others.

The State also put on evidence of TJ's prior arrests for vandalism of a school and participation in the burglary of a sporting goods store. With respect to every crime for which TJ was arrested, he had been acting in concert with and under the influence of other juveniles. Although TJ may have been the shooter in the two ultimate offenses, witnesses testified that TJ, an only child, was generally a passive follower with great need for the enhancement of his self-esteem that peers could supply. TJ was living in a house with several other youths. The weapon used was supplied by an older young man who apparently expected to benefit from the spoils of TJ's latter offenses without having to directly participate.

At the time of trial, TJ was evaluated for the defense by Dr. Craig Moore, a clinical psychologist. Dr. Moore previously had been chief psychologist at Rusk State Hospital, where he conducted several hundred forensic psychological evaluations. He was proficient in neuropsychological testing, which detects cognitive deficits and brain damage, and had previously taught Texas Department of Corrections personnel in such methods. Dr. Moore undertook a comprehensive battery of tests on TJ, including several personal interviews. TJ was born to parents who divorced when he was very young, leaving him with no recollection whatsoever of his father. TJ's mother testified that his father beat her while she was pregnant with TJ. As TJ was growing up, the only men he knew were his mother's boyfriends. At least one of these was abusive. This left TJ without a father image and with a somewhat distant relationship to his mother.

He was diagnosed generally by the defense expert as schizoid, unable to relate to people, to properly participate in the give and take of relationships. The only person with whom he apparently had a close relationship was his grandmother, who died a few years before his capital offense. Due to his disabilities, TJ found it very difficult to relate to anyone else with the same degree of intimacy. He acted out his frustrations, usually under the influence of other juveniles. As a result, in 1991 and 1992 he had the two above-mentioned juvenile arrests for non-violent offenses. The juvenile system did not pick up on these early signs of problems in TJ's life. Dr. Moore noted that, despite these problems, TJ never indicated any propensity to violence until the two shootings he committed within a week of each other. He observed that this strange occurrence might implicate a neurological problem. However, no testing ever has been done on TJ to determine if that was the cause.

Dr. Moore found TJ to be a "very poorly socialized immature adolescent, a boy who [was] mostly puzzled by how the world works, who bluff[ed] his way through, who used marijuana and alcohol as an analgesic to his psychic pain only complicating his lack of judgment -- his grossly poor judgment." TJ, along with his peer group, began using alcohol at an early age. His drinking was well established by age 13 or 14. He also began using marijuana and speed or amphetamine type substances. He and his associates used a street drug called Whack, which often is marijuana laced with PCP. This leads to a quick and intense high and is relatively inexpensive. TJ believed that the version of Whack he used, which produced hallucinations, was laced with small amounts of embalming fluid. If true, this drug probably caused damage to the developing frontal lobes of his brain. Another sign of possible neurological damage was TJ's propensity to rock himself to sleep. TJ dropped out of school in the ninth grade and tested as having a full scale IQ of 78 at the time of trial. He was overwhelmed by the questions in the psychological testing performed by Dr. Moore. For recreation, TJ played video games and liked to pillow fight. At the age of 17, he continued to like to watch cartoons on television and play with toys more appropriate to smaller children.

Dr. Moore found TJ to be socially isolated, passive in the face of others, and functioning at the level of a ten-year-old in terms of acquiring the standard behaviors for his culture. "This is a boy that may look seventeen, but on the inside, psychologically, he is probably more like a ten or twelve year old. . . . Every part of interacting with his environment, even when he is watching T.V., will be that of a child who is ten or twelve years old." Dr. Moore asserted that the prosecutors misread TJ when they maintained he should be held criminally responsible because he was self-centered. "Please appreciate," he emphasized on cross-examination, "It isn't just a case of adult selfishness. It really is I don't understand the world out there. All I understand is when I'm hungry or when I want something." Despite his communication disabilities, TJ did express guilt and remorse for his offenses, expressing worry that God would forgive him for what he had done.

Dr. Moore opined that TJ should not be judged for the offense in the same way that a 25 year old would be, because of his immaturity. Recognizing that the Texas death penalty statute requires a jury to make a finding on future dangerousness before the death penalty can be returned, Dr. Moore noted that it would appear that TJ posed an immediate future risk, but found that there also was no way to reliably predict future dangerousness in a juvenile offender like TJ. "A person at seventeen, particularly a person that is this immature cannot, should not be judged . . . on the same basis as [an adult]. Development is still taking place in this boy. And we really don't know what's in his future in terms of final and completed development. . . . [T]he brain is not even through developing. The brain continues to develop all the way into the early twenties. . . . Given the data that I have now, I'd say he's certainly a significant risk, . . . [b]ut it's the issue beyond age twenty-five that I have difficulty with. I don't think there's anyone nor any technology that can tell us how this boy will end up maturing at that point." Moore also pointed out that all of the data that supported statistical studies of future dangerousness was drawn from adult populations. The results of these studies, then, could not reasonably be applied to a 17-year-old. In short, the jury could not reliably predict future dangerousness, certainly not beyond a reasonable doubt, in an underdeveloped juvenile such as TJ.

Dr. Moore pointed out that, because of a juvenile's slow biological maturation, psychological science refuses to diagnose 17-year-olds as having an anti-social personality. "If they are a normal or highly matured individual, we can do that at eighteen. If they are immature, the preference in my field is to wait until they're twenty-five." Moore noted that many factors which had led to TJ's situation had been out of his control: his lack of access to a father, the abusive step-father, his failure to develop a warm, emotional bond with his mother, and his slowness to mature. He found him treatable and argued that the system had failed TJ. Early psychological intervention and better supervision of TJ would have prevented the conditions that led to his assaultive offenses.

Dr. Moore reported that, at TJ's developmental level, it had been important for him to receive prompt consequences for his prior misbehavior. The prosecutor pressed Dr. Moore on the issue of individual accountability, asking him if it did not have some place in his analysis. Moore responded that, if he felt that he was faced with a mature 17-year-old or a twenty-five year old, he would have a different orientation toward accountability. Urged to recognize that Texas law would treat a 17-year-old as an adult, Moore replied that from a psychological point of view, there was a "discrepancy between the seventeen year old being seen as an adult and the psychological data that suggests he functions more like a twelve or a ten year old."

In punishment argument, T.J.'s counsel fell on their own sword, conceding that TJ posed a future risk of danger to others, even though their own expert had concluded that no such prognostication was possible. The best defense TJ got at trial was from Dr. Moore, but even his acute observations were gutted by the defense. In addition, the jury became distracted with issues not in evidence. Inter alia, at the behest of a juror who wanted to be sure that TJ would be on death row long enough to come to find God before execution, some of the other jurors speculated during deliberations that the time period for his appeals would be anywhere between 7 and 20 years. Indeed, it has been about seven years and, if executed on August 8th, TJ will leave behind a seven-year-old daughter.

The execution of a juvenile offender is contrary to fundamental principles of American justice which punishes according to the degree of culpability and reserves the death penalty for the "worst of the worst" offenders. By their very nature, teenagers are less mature, and therefore less culpable, than adults who commit similar acts but have no such explanation for their conduct. Adolescence is a transitional period of life when cognitive abilities, emotions, judgment, impulse control, identity -- even the brain -- are still developing. Indeed, immaturity is the reason we do not allow those under eighteen to assume the major responsibilities of adulthood such as military combat service, voting, entering into contracts, drinking alcohol or making medical decisions. This is not to say that juvenile offenders do not know right from wrong and should not be punished, but that we as a society and a legal system have deemed that juveniles are simply different from adults.

A number of organizations such as the American Bar Association, The American Psychiatric Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the Children's Defense Fund, the Youth Law Center, the Juvenile Law Center, the Coalition for Juvenile Justice, the American Society for Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Academy for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the National Mental Health Association, and the Constitution Project have come to oppose executions for crimes committed by offenders under the age of 18. Similarly, the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, the European Union, the Council of Europe and the Vatican have expressed their strongest opposition to the execution of juvenile offenders.

Of the 38 states that permit the death penalty, only 22 permit the execution of persons who were under the age of 18 at the time of their crimes. Among these 22 states, only 15 have juvenile offenders on their death rows while only 7 have carried out actual executions of juveniles since the death penalty was reinstated in 1973. In 2002, Indiana abolished the juvenile death penalty while Florida came extremely close (a bill passed the Senate unanimously but died in the House, which had passed a bill the previous year, only because it ran out of time). In 1999, the State of Montana abolished the juvenile death penalty while the Florida Supreme Court raised the age of eligibility from 16 to 17. A growing number of states are considering legislation to abolish the execution of juvenile offenders, including: Arizona, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, South Carolina, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas. Indeed, in the Texas 2001 legislative session, a bill to eliminate the death penalty for offenders under 18 passed the House and gained significant support in the Senate before it was procedurally barred from reaching a vote on the Senate floor. Moreover, a recent national poll conducted by the Houston Chronicle indicated that solid support for the capital punishment of juvenile offenders has fallen to only 26%.

In continuing to execute juvenile offenders, the United States acts in defiance of international law and almost complete agreement among nations. Indeed, such executions have all but ended around the world, except in the United States. The death penalty for juvenile offenders is expressly prohibited by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the American Convention on Human Rights and the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The United States and Somalia (which has no recognizable government) are the only two countries that have failed to ratify the CRC -- 191 nations have adopted the fundamental standards articulated in this treaty.

In the last decade, the United States has executed more juvenile offenders than all the world's nations combined. Since 1990, only seven countries are reported to have executed prisoners who were under 18 years of age at the time of the crime: The Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The nations of Pakistan, and Yemen have since abolished the juvenile death penalty, while Saudi Arabia and Nigeria deny that they have executed juvenile offenders. In the last three years the number of nations that execute juvenile offenders has dropped significantly to only three: Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and the United States. Moreover, just this past year, Iran stated that it no longer executes juvenile offenders while the leader of the Democratic Republic of Congo commuted the death sentences of four juvenile offenders.

The execution of TJ Jones would further alienate the United States from the international community, thus damaging our legitimacy as a leader on the protection and promotion of human rights, particularly the rights of children.

Under Texas law, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has the exclusive power to commute a sentence of death to life in prison. As long as TJ Jones refuses to allow his attorney to file a clemency petition with the Board, they cannot act. The Governor, though, does have the ability to issue a one-time thirty day reprieve.

Please write to:

Governor Rick Perry
Attn: Office of General Counsel
fax: 512/463-1849
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711-2428

Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
Attn: Executive Clemency Section
fax: 512/463-8120
8610 Shoal Creek Blvd.
Austin, Texas 78757

July 18

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
URGENT ACTION APPEAL

TEXAS:

18 July 2002

EXTRA 55/02 Death penalty / Legal concern

USA (Texas) T.J. Jones

T.J. Jones (m), black, aged 25, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 8 August for a murder committed when he was 17 years old. International law, respected in almost every country of the world except the USA, prohibits the death penalty against people who were under 18 at the time of the crime.

T.J. Jones was convicted in October 1994 of the car jacking murder of Willard Lewis Davis, a 75-year-old white man, in Longview, Gregg County, east Texas on 2 February 1994. T.J. Jones was also facing charges of attempted murder in relation to a robbery in neighbouring Smith County committed four days before the Gregg County crime. During the robbery, T.J. Jones allegedly shot and seriously wounded a man. Prior to these shootings, T.J. Jones had no record of violence against people, although as a younger teenager he had been involved with acts of vandalism and burglary.

A death sentence can only be passed in Texas if the jury unanimously agrees that 'there is a probability that the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society' - so-called 'future dangerousness'. The state presented evidence of T.J. Jones's short juvenile burglary and vandalism record. It also presented detailed evidence of the Smith County shooting, including testimony from the victim.

The state presented a psychologist who testified that T.J. Jones was a future danger. He had, however, never spoken to or examined the defendant. In contrast to a 1982 US Supreme Court opinion that 'chronological age of a minor is itself a relevant mitigating factor of great weight', the expert testified that T.J. Jones's young age was an aggravating factor. He also stated that his 'lack of education' and consequent lack of 'job skills' made him likely to commit future acts of criminal violence.

The defence presented a psychologist who had interviewed and tested T.J. Jones over several visits. He found that T.J. Jones had an IQ of 78, in the borderline retardation range, and had begun using drugs and alcohol at age 13, his continuing use of which exacerbated his 'grossly poor judgment'. The psychologist found that T.J. Jones was 'typically a very passive person' and had the emotional and psychological maturity of a 10 to 12 year old. The expert stated: 'A person at 17, particularly a person who is this immature cannot, should not be judged, I think, on the same basis that you would judge a 25 or 30-year-old. And the reason is simple. Development is still taking place in this boy. And we really don't know what's in his future in terms of final and completed development.' He also stated that T.J. Jones could now be offered rehabilitative treatment, as he could have been if the authorities had offered appropriate intervention when he had come into contact with the juvenile justice system as a younger teenager.

Not long before the shootings, T.J. Jones had been living in a house used by alleged gang members, who had access to guns and were allegedly involved in criminal violence. T.J. Jones was the youngest male in the house. The gun used in both offences was given to him by one of the others in the house, a 22-year-old, who allegedly participated in the Smith County robbery and the planning of both crimes. Two other older male teenagers and a 17-year-old female were also involved in the Gregg County crime.

Various relatives testified on T.J. Jones' behalf at the trial. His 16- year-old girlfriend, who two months earlier had given birth to their daughter, suggested that 'peer pressure' lay behind the crimes. His grandfather stated that T.J. Jones had always been a 'follower'. His mother testified about the beatings she had been subjected to by his father, including when she was pregnant with TJ. They separated when TJ was a baby. She lived with another man for about two years when TJ was about 11 to 12. His violence against her, witnessed by TJ, caused him evident distress. She testified that she had sought official help with her son when he quit school at 15 and began to stay away from home, but to no avail.

The unequivocal international prohibition on the death penalty for people under 18 years old at the time of the crime is enshrined in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the latter ratified by all countries except the USA and Somalia. The prohibition stems from the recognition of a young person's immaturity, impulsiveness, vulnerability to peer pressure, and capacity for rehabilitation. Since 1998, there have been 15 executions of child offenders documented worldwide, 10 in the USA (six in Texas).

T.J. Jones has asked his lawyer not to seek clemency or any further appeals.

RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly as possible:

To all addressees:
- expressing sympathy for the family and friends of Willard Lewis Davis, and explaining that you are not seeking to condone the manner of his death;
- expressing deep concern that Texas is intending to kill T.J. Jones, in violation of the fundamental principle of international law prohibiting the death penalty for people who were under 18 at the time of the crime;
- pointing out that this prohibition, respected across the globe, stems from a recognition of a young person's immaturity and capacity for change;
- noting expert evidence that T.J. Jones was a particularly immature teenager, that he had an IQ of 78, was involved with older people who provided the gun used in the crimes, and that his mother had sought state help.

To the Gregg County officials:
- calling on them to take a stand against this violation of international law originating in their county and to ask the Board of Pardons and Paroles to consider the case and recommend that the governor commute the sentence;

To the Governor:
- calling on the governor to do all in his power and influence to stop this execution, in the interest of decency and the reputation of his state.

PLEASE INCLUDE T.J. JONES' PRISONER IDENTIFICATION NUMBER IN YOUR APPEALS - (TDCJ#999133).

APPEALS TO:
Bill Jennings, District Attorney
Gregg County Courthouse
101 E. Methvin, Suite 333
Longview, TX 75605
Fax: 1 903 236 8490
Email: stevie.mclaughlin@co.gregg.tx.us
Salutation: Dear District Attorney

Maxey Cerliano, Sheriff
Gregg County Courthouse
101 E. Methvin, Suite 559
Longview, TX 75601
Fax: 1 903 753 3560
Email: Ken.Hartley@co.gregg.tx.us
Salutation: Dear Sheriff

Governor Rick Perry
c/o Bill Jones, General Counsel
PO Box 12428, Austin, Texas 78711
Fax 1 512 463 1932/1849/0039
Salutation: Dear Governor

COPIES TO:
Please also send a copy of your appeals to, or write a letter to the editor of, the newspaper below. Letters should be under 300 words, and if emailed should not be sent as attachments but as straight email messages.
Editor, Longview News-Journal, P.O. Box 1792, Longview, TX 75606
Fax: 1 903 757 3742. E-mail: lnjletters@coxnews.com
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.

Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement that promotes and defends human rights.

Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
PO Box 1270
Nederland CO 80466-1270
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 303/258-1170
Fax: 303/258-7881

Please read a letter from Texas Representative Lon Burnam to Governor Perry requesting he issue a thirty day stay in T.J. Jones' case so that it can be examined in further detail and that he recommend Texas place a moratorium on the execution of juvenile offenders.

Please read a selection of clemency letters:

• American Bar Association
  July 29, 2002

• Amnesty International
  August 2, 2002

• Ross Byrd
  August 2, 2002

• Child Welfare League of America
  July 30, 2002

• Children's Defense Fund
  August 6, 2002

• Coalition for Juvenile Justice
  July 25, 2002

• Corpus Justice
  August 2, 2002

• Council of Europe
  July 15, 2002

• Human Rights Watch
  August 1, 2002

• National Center for Youth Law
  July 29, 2002

• National Mental Health Association
  July 29, 2002

• Physicians for Human Rights
  August 6, 2002

• Prairie View A&M University
  August 1, 2002

• Stand Down Texas
  August 6, 2002

• Susan Sarandon
  July 31, 2002

• Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
  August 1, 2002

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