Nearly seven decades after his execution, Tommy Lee Walker, a young Black man, has been formally exonerated in Dallas County, Texas. He was just 21 years old when the state put him to death, a consequence of a wrongful conviction for a horrific crime he did not commit.
The case, the oldest examined by the Dallas County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit, centered around the 1953 rape and murder of Venice Parker, a 31-year-old White woman. Walker, then 19, was accused and swiftly became the focus of a racially charged investigation.
On the night of the murder, Walker was with his girlfriend, Mary Louise Smith, who was nine months pregnant. Witnesses corroborated their alibi, confirming he was miles away from the crime scene. Yet, he was relentlessly pursued by authorities.
The investigation quickly devolved into a pattern of racial bias, with hundreds of Black men questioned solely because of their race. Walker endured hours of interrogation without legal counsel, facing the looming threat of the death penalty unless he confessed.
Under immense pressure, Walker signed a confession, only to immediately retract it. Crucially, no other evidence linked him to the crime. Despite this, the state presented misleading evidence at trial, and the prosecutor himself took the stand to declare Walker’s guilt.
“I feel that I have been tricked out of my life,” Walker declared at his sentencing, a chilling premonition of the injustice to come. His words echo the desperation of a man facing a fate he didn’t deserve.
He was executed by electric chair on May 12, 1956. The district attorney now acknowledges that, with today’s understanding of constitutional rights and scientific evidence, Walker would never have been prosecuted.
The case was reopened after Walker’s son, Ted Smith, brought it to the attention of the DA’s office and the Innocence Project. Smith, now 72, testified at the posthumous exoneration, sharing his mother’s final words about his father’s innocence.
“He told my mother and she told me. He said, ‘You give me the chair that belongs to someone else. I am innocent,’” Smith recounted, his voice heavy with emotion. “This exoneration means the world to me.”
The resolution acknowledging Walker’s innocence affirms Dallas County’s commitment to justice, regardless of time. It recognizes a moral obligation to confront a dark chapter in its history and to ensure such injustices never happen again.
In a remarkable display of grace, Venice Parker’s son, Joseph Parker, attended the hearing and embraced Ted Smith, offering a heartfelt apology for the loss of his father. It was a poignant moment of reconciliation, decades in the making.
The exoneration serves as a stark reminder that justice has no statute of limitations, and that the pursuit of truth must continue, even long after a life has been tragically lost.
