Information
Provided By Marcus Cotton and His Supporters
Marcus Bridger Cotton was
born in Houston on September 28 1974. He was adopted by a couple as a two-weeks
old baby. His whole childhood was unsettled and very traumatic. As soon
as he was a teenager he decided to live on the streets.
A criminal career was hereby pre-ordained. In fact, Marcus spent a lot
of time in various institutions. In March 1996 he was discharged from his
last term of imprisonment. Marcus Cotton found himself an apartment and had
a regular job.
On September 18 1996 the promising prosecutor, Gil Epstein, and another
man were at the car park of the Jewish Community Center in Houston when
they were brutally assaulted and robbed by two men. While one of the men,
Sean Caruthers, could get away and raise the alarm, Gil Epstein was forced
to get into the back of his car, where he was then shot. After Sean Caruthers
had alarmed the police he got into his car and drove into Gil Epstein's
murderer, who was trying to escape by bicycle. Both culprits escaped. A
small piece of material from the murderers clothing was found on the headlight
of Caruther's car. With today's technologies and testing capabilities, a
fiber is just as testable and important as a whole shirt. However, this piece
of evidence,
which might have contributed to finding out the truth, was only glossed
over. The man who had attacked Caruthers was caught relatively quickly.
Sean Caruthers identified him. He was a dark-skinned African-American named
Lawrence Edward
Watson. On September 27 Marcus Cotton was arrested as a suspect. Sean
Caruthers and another witness, Carla Chisholm, were asked to attend line-ups
to identify the murderer. Their statements were contradictory and extremely
unsure. The
contradictions and uncertainty were particularly with respect to Marcus
Cotton's skin color, facial hair and stature. Sean Caruthers spoke of a
light-skinned man. He could not say if it was a Hispanic, a light-skinned
black or a white male. Carla Chisholm could not identify Marcus Cotton as
the offender until the second line-up that took place on February 17 1997,
nearly half a year after the crime took place, where Marcus was the only
light-skinned black person. Carla Chisholm was 50 to 60 feet away from the
scene of the crime and saw everything through a fence, but still claimed
that it was on account of his eyes that she could recognize Marcus Cotton
as the offender. There are also contradictory statements concerning
the wound on Marcus Cotton's left leg, which was supposedly caused by the
collision with Caruther's car. He himself claims that it was from
a broken step. His sister stated that
she treated the wound, and that was two days before the murder took place.
He was put on trial twice. The first trial ended without the jury agreeing
on a verdict. In the second trial two witnesses who had given evidence under
oath at the first trial that Marcus Cotton was not one of the men that they
had seen at the scene of the crime were not allowed to testify. It seems
incomprehensible that the importance and credibility of the evidence of these
two men should be played down to this extent. Instead, the accomplice, Lawrence
Watson, gave evidence in the second trial. He seriously incriminated Marcus
Cotton. Lawrence Watson testified to being a gang member of the 'Black Gangsta
Disciples' since his early youth. It is assumed the true murderer can be found
in the ranks of Watson's affiliates. All the other people, incidentally,
who testified that Marcus Cotton had spoken to them about the crime, were
members of this gang. Watson said that the gang enforced harsh punishments
to members who informed against other members. Marcus Cotton was not a member
of this gang. Interestingly, Lawrence Watson was offered a deal from the
state to shorten his sentence, he got ten years in prison in exchange for
his testimony against Marcus Cotton. This was just two days before the trial
against Marcus Cotton began. In the first trial, on the other hand, Watson
did not give evidence at all. In November 1997 Marcus Cotton was finally
sentenced to death by the trial jury. The judgment was reached above all on
account of Watsons testimony, although he was known to the police to
be a liar. Marcus Cotton has always protested his innocence, whereas he
admitted to all his other criminal offences. Unfortunately he has no alibi,
as he preferred to spend his time quietly at home after his term of imprisonment.
All his remedies of appeal have now been exhausted. The date for his execution
has been set for March 3rd, 2004.
There are many inconsistencies in this case and we ask for these to be
examined before such an ultimate judgment be enforced. The true offender
is perhaps still free and an innocent man could die in his place.
Marcus'
Penpal Request:
I find it rather difficult to write an 'open-letter' without a person
to direct my attention toward. Therefore I ask that the reader not be mislead
into believing me to be shallow or without depth...
I am a man incarcerated on the infamous Texas death row; am an indigent
prisoner who has no one able to procure the funds to assist my growth, mental-stability.
Of course, there are myriad of things needed on death row which lends to
one fight for life as well as emancipation, and his sanity. Even so, I am
a man of conscience and consciousness. This, which disallows me to simply
accept sympathy on-rewarded. I have often times attempted to reach out to
a person who could possibly aid me. To no avail.
I am an artist, of sorts. "Of Sorts, " because I am very limited by both
my mental state - from being here and facing what I do face, as well as being
surrounded with and by those whom have undergone a certain psychosis because
of the full conditions and the creative bloc that has prevented me from
producing good impinative works.
I draw mostly what I see-literally. I do add and subtract to make the
sight my own. Because of the low grade and quality of utensils here, I am
thus limited to ink-pen-art. Even-so I've been lauded as extremely talented
and worthy of better business by fellow constituents. Hopefully, this can
be established...
I'm asking now for both friendship as well as potential outlet and/or
person(s) willing to build a rapport, exchange ideas and eventually establish
a base whereby my talent may be showcased. My problem lies in not having
a portfolio of any size that would surely serve to punctuate this letter
and lend credibility to my claims of artistic value. This, of course can
be dealt with and worked around if only I had the assistance of someone
knowledgeable in the avenues of free-lance art sales. I'm reaching out and
I am asking that someone reach back.
Note: I tend to lean mostly toward Afro-cantric works in particular; historical/cultural
works in general. In other words, I would like that my work stand for something
worth teaching/learning or being used as a tool to do so with. In closing,
as well as my desire to reach out to anyone interested in the art works I
may offer, I also ask that anyone who believe they may help me in my plight
against injustice, blatant disregard for fairness under the law, classism,
racism in our court system.
I'm also asking for a chance...
Marcus B. Cotton
# 999252
Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston Texas
77351 USA
The CCADP offers free webpages to over 500 Death Row Prisoners
Contact us for more information.
"The Eyes Of The World Are Watching Now" This page was
last updated March 8, 2004
Canadian Coalition Against
the Death Penalty This page
is maintained and updated by Dave Parkinson and Tracy Lamourie in
Toronto, Canada
Marcus Cotton
