STORY: "In last words, condemned man maintains innocence," by reporter Anita Hassan, published in the Houston Chronicle on November 15, 2012.
GIST: "Just before he received the lethal injection, Hughes turned toward his mother, Brenda Johnson, and sister, Celeste A. Perreo, who stood behind their mother. "You know I'm innocent, and I love you both," Hughes, 46, said in his final statement. "Please continue to fight for my innocence even though I'm gone.".........Thursday's execution also followed a failed attempt this week by Hughes' attorney to persuade the Texas Board of Paroles and Pardons to commute the inmate's death sentence to life in prison. In his petition to the board, Hughes' attorney, Pat McCann, argued that police lied when they told jurors Charles identified her attacker as "Preston" in her dying breath. McCann supplemented his argument with a sworn statement from a deputy Tarrant County medical examiner, who said Charles would have lost consciousness within 60 seconds of the attack. The policeman who claimed to have heard the statement arrived 13 minutes after Charles died, McCann said. McCann also argued that police checked items confiscated from his client's apartment into their evidence room about three hours before Hughes agreed to the search."
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Houston-man-executed-for-1988-killings-4042129.php
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
I have added a search box for content in this blog which now encompasses several thousand posts. The search box is located near the bottom of the screen just above the list of links. I am confident that this powerful search tool provided by "Blogger" will help our readers and myself get more out of the site.
The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog.
