Executed in Oklahoma 

                Open Letter From Robert "Eagle" Clayton to Media
                                                        Sunday, November 5, 2000

To Whom It May Concern:
            Hi! My name is Robert W. “Eagle” Clayton, DOC #151195. I’m on death row in
McAlester, Oklahoma. My appeal was denied by the U.S. Supreme Court on October 1, 2000.
I have been asking the courts for two things: (1) DNA testing; and (2) A spray that you spray on
clothes, etc. . . and it shows if there was blood or anything even if you paint, or wipe off the clothes,
etc. . . . All the courts have denied my requests.

            I believe I have a right to have these tests done but the problem is Tulsa County. They say
they never received the evidence from the court reporter. She has a list of everything she turned over
and the list was signed by the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Department.

            These two tests will prove I’m innocent of the crime I am charged with. I am asking that the
evidence be turned over and these tests be done, if the State of Oklahoma is so sure I am guilty. It
will show I was wrongly convicted. I am not asking you to believe me since I know since you are a
reporter, guys ask people like you all the time to believe them to be innocent. Please help me get
these tests done and decide for yourself.

            I have nothing to hide what so ever. I only want justice and right now the very people we
look to do justice are denying me access to the evidence in my case. In addition, the Detective Fred
Parke openly stated under oath that he took notes of the alleged confession but when asked for
those notes, he said he threw them away.  However, when the District Attorney’s office asked him
he said that he must have misplaced the notes. But he can tell you word for word the alleged
confession from his written notes, which he doesn’t have.

     I’m asking why and how can any court who asks people to trust and believe them, who
claim to administer justice – how can this be true when they refuse tests that will and can prove that
I’m an innocent man? And how can they believe a detective who “misplaces” his own notes of an
alleged confession, but says he can repeat them word for word while on the witness stand?

            I’m writing to each of  you as a person, a human being, an honest person who likes your job
and wants to get to the bottom of the truth, so I ask your help. I would like to speak with anyone
willing to talk to me a.s.a.p. I know that once you hear from me you will see I have nothing to hide
about myself or this injustice that’s being done here. It seems to me that the courts are hiding behind
the laws. I want these tests done. I need this detective investigated. I have nothing at all to hide from
anyone.

            I will close and hope you will consider interviewing me on the issues of DNA and the other
test I wrote about.

                                                                                                     Madoe!
                                                                                                        Respectfully,
                                                                                                          Robert Clayton 

This is a conclusion I dislike mentioning because I like to think we will affect a "stay" for Robert, but Robert's family asked if I would tell everyone they are seeking financial assistance to take Robert's body home to Mississippi from Oklahoma. Funds are to be sent to his sister's address: Theresa Smith, 13412 Constitution Road, Moss Pointe, MS 39562. Robert's family thanks you very much for what you can do.

Eagle has been on death row in Oklahoma fourteen years. He is scheduled to be executed this Thursday, January 4. Eagle wrote for THE OTHER SIDE in our 1992 death row issue, and he has been in touch with The Other Side since. Almost every year, he has sent a special painting to THE OTHER
SIDE's auction as a contribution.

I believe Eagle is innocent. But the really awful part is that there IS DNA evidence from his trial. It has not been tested. If it is, I believe that  it will prove his innocence. I am asking each one of you to contact
the phones or emails below asking that his evidence be located and tested, and his execution stayed until it can be.

Call or email the following offices, asking them to request a delay in the execution so that they can find
and do DNA testing of the missing physical evidence in the case in order to be sure a horrible mistake isn't being made. (One of the following offices should have the evidence and needs to locate it.)

Tulsa Sheriff's Office 918-596-5601
sglanz@tcso.org

Tulsa DA's Office 918-596-4805
churd@tulsacounty.org

I think that it's important to say that while the governor is who can stay the execution, you are contacting this office because they can tell the governor that the office needs more time to find the evidence and
do the DNA testing.
 

Also: email the tenth district court
10th_Circuit_Clerk@ca10.uscourts.gov

The message to give is that you've heard that Robert Clayton is being executed based on evidence that should be found and DNA tested.  A stay of execution should be given until this happens.

Below, I've included some text from emails from Mark Olson and Elizabeth Killough. Both have been major supporters of Eagle over the years and have talked with him often in these last weeks. Elizabeth actually visited him some years ago. They have interesting information about Eagle
and his case.
From  Mark Olson "I've read the federal appeals court decision on his case, and it's really outrageous. Various things at his trial would have been unconstitutional had they occurred a week or two later, but certain rulings are deemed not to be retroactive.

By the state's own optimistic assessment, Robert is mentally retarded and he was represented at trial by an incompetent attorney who did little or nothing for him. He was a minority groundskeeper at an apartment building where a murder occurred, and he was the convenient one to arrest and convict on the shakiest of evidence.

In recent years, he has had more competent representation, and his current attorney thinks it's utterly clear that Robert is innocent. The attorney has reportedly said that from examining the evidence, he's almost sure who was responsible for the crime, and it wasn't Robert. Robert's innocence would likely be established with competent DNA testing, but as soon as his more recent attorney began asking for the evidence to be tested, the state began throwing up roadblocks. Some of the stories have been that they've "accidentally lost" the physical evidence. Other times it sounds more like they are simply saying that they can't be compelled to produce it. And the courts have upheld the state's "right" to say
that the evidence can't be tested.
His main hope of not being killed is if enough public pressure can be found to get the state to turn over the evidence for testing and then have that evidence show that he was wrongly convicted. How that will
ever happen, however, is not clear. He wishes that newspapers in Oklahoma would take an interest in him or something. But very few journalists have any real interest in people on death row. If you know of any way to get someone interested in his case, he would appreciate it.
As he said at the end of his last letter, "All I want is for the tests to be done to show everyone the system does make mistakes, as they choose to call them."
Incidentally, two days ago the city where the prison is located was hit by a major ice storm. The whole city and prison are without power. The prison has a small auxiliary system that is providing some emergency lights.
News reports say it may be 10 days before power is restored. So far, prison officials want to go ahead with the execution anyhow, but there is a possibility that it will have to be delayed because of the electrical problem. Yesterday, the warden attempted to put Robert into the usual "last week" solitary
cell that they use before a person is killed, where he would have been in total darkness 24 hours a day because of the power outage. Robert was saved from this only by outside protests.
 

From Elizabeth Killough:
As at least two of you know, my death row penpal, Robert "Eagle" Clayton, is scheduled to be executed on 1/4/01.  As this date has come closer and I have learned more about his case including that Eagle was convicted largely on evidence that has been lost by the Tulsa Sherrif's Office or Police Office.
This evidence could now be DNA tested.  It is not even clear that the evidence was ever tested for blood type. The prosecution referred to the blood type on the evidence during Eagle's three trials, but records of
this 14 year old case do not indicate that the test for blood type was ever really done!

Thanks for your help.
Dee Dee

Dee Dee Risher, Coeditor
THE OTHER SIDE
300 W. Apsley St.,Philadelphia, Pa. 19144
phone: 215-849-2178
fax: 215-849-3755

"God bless The Other Side!" - Robert "Eagle" Clayton death row prisoner.

Journalist Mark Olson filed this report:
Date: Wednesday, January 03, 2001 7:16 PM
Subject: Miracles

"Robert Clayton just called me -- in both tears and in ecstacy.
He was to be killed tomorow (Thursday, Jan 4). Today (Wednesday), the last
court request for a stay was denied, with declarations that there was no point
in delaying the execution since the evidence was clearly lost and would never
be found.

Simultaneously, his pessimistic lawyer filed a request for a
temporary reprieve with the governor so that maybe perhaps the evidence
problem could be cleared up. I talked to the lawyer (Wednesday) afternoon. He
seemed to have little or no hope. The governor (Frank Keating) has been
trying to build an impressive record of killings, and this was going to be his
triumphal month, with 9 executions scheduled within a 30-day period.

(Lt. Gov. Mary Fallin acted on the request because Governor Frank Keating was
in Florida for O.U.'s appearance in the Orange Bowl.)

Meanwhile, almost simultaneously, one of God's "miracle workers" talked
someone at the Tulsa police department into making further searches for the
evidence which was desperately needed for DNA testing which Robert is convinced
will show his innocence.

The woman stayed to see what would be found, even though there wasn't much
hope. After all, for years, everyone in Tulsa had been saying the evidence
was lost -- and that someone else must have lost it. Again, a miracle -- they
stumbled onto the missing evidence, and it seemed even more complete and more
extensive than anyone had dared hope.

Robert's lawyer was stunned. He said he had never ever had any of his clients
ever get a last-minute stay in Oklahoma before. And he had all but given up
on the evidence ever really being found. "You've got some power behind you,"
the lawyer said. "You're right about that," Robert replied. "God said 'ask
and you shall receive it,' and when I asked, I had no doubt that I would
receive it. I knew it was coming. I knew it!"

Indeed, Robert had called me twice last night, before any real hope had
appeared on the horizon. And he just saying, "I know I'm going to
be freed.
I know God is at work. I can feel it, feel it deep inside. I'm
not going to be killed. I know it." I hoped he was right, but I didn't see how
it could be.

Another lawyer, who Robert trusts even more than his current one and who has
befriended him for years (though he no longer lives or works in Oklahoma)

will be talking to Barry Scheck at the Innocence Project in New York City in
the morning. The Innocence Project had earlier expressed a willingness to
help with DNA testing in this case if the evidence could only be found.

Robert has been on death row for 14 years. He was naturally in tears because
he's now convinced that he's eventually going to be released.
That will depend on a court believing the DNA testing, of course, and so
prayer is still needed.

Robert came within less than 24 hours of being killed. Twelve of his family
had come to say goodbye, a real hardship for this large, very poor family
from southern Mississippi. They had all been staying at a hospitality house
for prisoners' families, and Robert said tonight that he feared that they
might be tearing the place apart.

This is amazing, truly amazing. If this isn't a miracle, I don't know what is.

By: Mark William Olson

 When I was young, I used to be passionate about national politics. I thought there
     was life there. But over the years, I've come to realize that there is no soul in that realm.
     There is no touch. Those who speak for compassion, those who embody a gentle
     caress--they are beaten down. They are ridiculed and excluded from the very halls
     where real decisions are made.
        Perhaps compassion and politics are logical inconsistencies. Perhaps we only fool
     ourselves if we think otherwise. For the "principalities and powers" that Scripture
     speaks of have always been driven more by the clink of a coin than the touch of a
     finger.
        Whether it's in bullying and bombing other nations (as the United States is so fond of
     doing) or in inflicting new terrors on those who cling to welfare rather than joining the
     "triumph of capitalism" by submitting to the grinding poverty of part-time, underpaid,
     no-benefit employment, the "principalities and powers" strive to deny the touch of love,
     the touch of God. They aren't about to take off their shoes and feel holy ground. They
     aren't about to reach out and touch the hem of Jesus' garment. They aren't about to
     greet their neighbor with a holy kiss. And they aren't about to "pass the peace" from
     hand to hand or arm to arm.
        While political and theological conservatives were busy worrying about the poorly
     funded, always timid United Nations, global capitalism snuck in and crowned itself. If
     ever there was a lavishly funded, get-out-of-my-way "world government," this is it. It's
     power with a vengeance, money in pursuit of money, violence begetting violence.
        Global capitalism has no time for touch. To touch is to link soul to soul, flesh to flesh,
     heart to heart. That creates a different set of values, a different aura, a radically different
     mentality that doesn't fit with working for yourself and destroying whom you will. To
     touch and be touched doesn't fit with individual self-sufficiency. It doesn't fit with
     me-first and you-last. It doesn't fit with exploitation on a rampage.
        In fostering a mentality of winners and losers, global capitalism does its best to keep
     poor folk pressed to the ground. It's like a giant lottery. Without seven million losers,
     there can't be a winner. And in the fantasies of global capitalism, those seven million
     losers don't lose "by luck of the draw." They lose because of an innate deficiency or
     their own failure to adopt the proper capitalist mentality.
        If this din of social denigration is designed to drown out the gentle voice of Jesus, it
     wouldn't surprise me, for the "principalities and powers" that rule our world have no
     interest in a God who reaches out to touch all who have been beaten down. God and
     the principalities are on opposite sides of the touch continuum. The principalities work
     as hard as they can to break whatever glimmers of touch might remain. The last thing
     global capitalism wants is for the one lying beside the road--the one beaten by
     thieves--to gently feel the embrace of another.
        Yet all of us, like my father-in-law, sometimes need to have an old, green plaid sport
     coat lovingly wrapped around our shoulders. All of us, whatever our circumstances,
     sometimes need to feel the hand of God, reaching out to touch us, reaching out to
     steady us, reaching out to support us as we struggle to stand anew.
        Whether we are ravaged by the rich or betrayed by an employer or beaten down by
     depression or crushed by an unfaithful family member, all of us sometimes find ourselves
     crying, in the words of Thomas Dorsey's classic hymn, "Precious Lord, take my hand,
     lead me on, help me stand!"
        For Isaiah, the hand was accompanied by a voice. It said, "Fear not, for I am with
     you." When fear is broken, we stand up. We stand tall. Redeemed and renewed, we
     begin to reach out. And as we reach out, we share the touch of God with others.

        It's a warm night in July. My friend Robert "Eagle" Clayton calls from Oklahoma's
     death row. He has bad news, he says. His legal appeal, the one he has placed so much
     hope in, has been turned down.
        Initially, according to his lawyer, the judge had seemed remarkably sympathetic. But
     in the end, when a decision was needed, Robert suspects that public pressure took
     hold. He wonders if the judge simply didn't want to risk the political ramifications of
     overturning a death sentence, no matter the facts. After all, in a nation like ours, the
     overturning of a death sentence can mark the end of an otherwise promising judicial
     career.
        On the phone, Robert seems discouraged, depressed. I can't blame him. He's
     locked away in a windowless, subterranean cell. The few visitors he sees are granted no
     direct contact with him. Do the authorities fear that the hand of God will somehow make
     it through walls of steel and set the captives free?
        Robert's case is being referred to a higher court. There the political pressures will, if
     anything, be even more intense. But maybe, by some miracle...
        After the call, as I pray, my mind wanders to those Roman soldiers, putting Jesus to
     death. I see them doing all that they can to strip from him any sense of touch. They want
     him to feel powerless, forsaken, abandoned. And if the Gospel accounts of Jesus'
     execution have any validity, that's exactly how he feels. It may not have been plaid, and
     it may not have been green, but even the cloak from his back is auctioned off to his
     tormenters.
        And yet, at the end, just before death overwhelms him, we're told that the violence
     of those who won't "reach" and those who won't "touch" falls under the awesome
     shadow of a darkened sun. Those who, in their fury, think themselves so successful are
     foiled again. For the death of Jesus demonstrates that there is a God who reaches out to
     all who are pressed down. A God who calls in love to all those whom the world
     despises. A God who says, "Stand up, stand tall, and never be afraid."
        In that horrible scene, as painted by the Gospel of Luke, Jesus looks to heaven and
     says, "Into thy hands, O God--into thy holy touch--I commend my spirit." Here is our
     home. Here is our life. In God's own hands, we're strengthened and upheld. In God's
     own hands, we're freed to share the divine touch with others.
        Do not fear, for I am with you.

        My father-in-law was a character. And there are many things about him that I hope I
     never forget. One of them, of course, is his old, green plaid sport coat, that coat in
     whose lining he felt the touch of love.
        But I also hope I never forget the words that were in that coat's pocket when Albert
     passed from us. Words about God's holy touch. Words that call me--and all of us--to
     be on the side of the One who reaches out with a righteous hand, to strengthen and
     uphold all who are weak, all who are beaten down, all who are excluded, all who know
     the oppressive power of fear.
        Most of the time, I don't know where to begin. My feeble efforts feel like that old,
     green plaid sport coat: worn and ragged and held together with little more than safety
     pins. But this I know: We who have even the slightest inkling of God's presence are to
     be people of the touch. The holy touch.
        We are to be people who call to each other--and embody for each other--the
     liberating touch of God. A touch that allows us to cast aside all that binds. A touch that
     overcomes the din of human arrogance and greed. A touch that skips over walls and
     crosses oceans and breaks over all that divides. A touch that speaks in a gentle, loving
     whisper, "Stand up, stand tall, and never be afraid."
 
 

Robert Eagle Clayton's Writ of Habeas Corpus

From 'Justice Denied'  - Info on his case

Jesse Jackson's Letter to Governor Keating

From ECADP: stay of execution lifted

                The CCADP offers free webpages to over 500 Death Row Prisoners
                                               Contact us for more information.
                                                  info@ccadp.org
            
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