WASHINGTON - February 24 - The American Friends Service Committee, an international social justice group, and the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty applaud today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring that Delma Banks Jr. — who has been on Texas death row for more than two decades — was denied the right to a fair trial. The ruling means Banks finally could receive a full and fair hearing and raises further questions about Texas' death row system.

Banks was convicted and sentenced to death in connection with the murder of Richard Whitehead of Texarkana after prosecutors withheld critical exculpatory evidence from the defense and after his lawyer failed to mount a vigorous defense.

“Finally, after all these years, Delma will receive his day in an unbiased courtroom,” states AFSC National Criminal Justice Representative Tonya McClary, also a pro bono capital defense attorney. “Banks has never received an opportunity to present evidence vital to his defense in court. Prosecutors failed to inform defense counsel that one of its key witnesses was a paid informant and another key witness received a reduced sentence after testifying against Banks.”

McClary added: “So tainted was Delma’s trial that former FBI Director and U.S. District Judge William Sessions, a pro-death penalty Republican, said it has broad implications for the nation's criminal justice system because it directly ‘implicates the integrity of the death penalty in this country.’”

“Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun once wrote that the execution of a person who can show he is innocent comes perilously close to simple murder,” McClary said. “Simply put, Delma never had the opportunity or a forum to prove his innocence. Now, after years of appeals and shuffled paperwork, this man finally gets the review that he deserves.”

In writing for the majority, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsburg wrote: “When police or prosecutors conceal significant exculpatory or impeaching material, we hold it is ordinarily incumbent upon the state to set the record straight....A rule declaring 'prosecutor may hide, defendant must seek,’ is not tenable in a system constitutionally bound to accord defendants due process.”

Justices Anthony Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Since its inception in 1976, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (NCADP) has been the only fully staffed national organization exclusively devoted to abolishing capital punishment. NCADP provides information, advocates for public policy, and mobilizes and supports individuals and institutions that share our unconditional rejection of capital punishment.

The American Friends Service Committee Criminal Justice program works nationwide to eliminate the use of prisons, jails, and executions as a “solution” to crime and violence. The group challenges the morality and effectiveness of the “get-tough-on-crime” mentality. It believes taking the life of another human being is never justified. A main focus of the work has been through the Religious Organizing Against the Death Penalty Project (www.deathpenalty religious.org), which has galvanized and organized the religious community to be vocal and visible in the struggle for abolition. In 1947, the Service Committee and its European counterpart, the British Friends Service Council, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Quakers worldwide for humanitarian efforts.

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