My name is Freddie Lee Wright. I have spent the past 20 years fighting for my life here
on Alabama's Death Row. My last appeal for a rehearing in the United States Circuit
Court (11th Circuit) was denied. I now have until July 20 to file my final appeal to the
United States Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court lets stand the ruling from the 11th
Circuit, my appeals will become final and I will have no chance to prove my innocence.
I am accused of committing two murders during a robbery. I was said to have been the
trigger man of a four-man robbery team. It took the State of Alabama two separate trials to
convict me of these murders I did not commit. The first trial was held before a mixed jury--
seven whites and seven blacks -- and ended in a mistrial. After the two alternate jurors
were excused, a vote of 11-1 for acquittal was returned, causing a mistrial. The one juror, a
white female who held out voting to convict and causing the mistrial, admitted several
years later in an interview with my appellate attorneys that she did not believe I was
guilty, but she felt "someone must be severely punished for such a senseless crime," and
I was "the only one left that could receive the level of punishment deserved" so she held
out causing the mistrial.

The second trial was presented to an all-white jury and the State put on one additional
witness, then suppressed her mental health records. I was convicted and sentenced to
die in Alabama's electric chair.

Now I will go back to mid-November 1977 and tell you my story. I am a native of Mobile,
AL and had returned there to find an apartment for my fiancée, Hazel Craig, and our two
daughters (one eight, the other just over a year) who were then living in Long Beach,
California. In Mobile, a friend of mine, Reginald Tinsley, whom I had known for 5 or 6
years and with whom I had worked on several jobs, introduced me to Percy Craig (no
relation to my fiancée) and Roger McQueen. I met those two men during the week of
Thanksgiving, 1977, and, on Thanksgiving Day, Roger McQueen and Percy Craig came over to my sister's home in Craig's car to invite me back to Craig's house for
Thanksgiving dinner. I accepted the dinner invitation.

McQueen and I then drove to Prichard, Alabama, to pick up my ex-girlfriend, Doris Lacey
Lambert (mother of my 29 month-old son), and McQueen, Doris, and I drove back to
Craig's apartment, where we had dinner with Craig and his girlfriend, Donna Lockett. This
was on Thanksgiving Day 1977 -- I believe the date was November 24.

The next time I saw Percy Craig was on the night of November 30, 1997. He and I spent
most of that night at a local gambling house. On December 1, I spent the morning at my
sister's house with Carl Harrington and Barbara Brazelton. While I was there, a gentleman
from the insurance company arrived. I paid my sister's insurance with part of an $80 or
$86 rebate check from the phone company. I used the rest of that check to buy an
additional insurance policy for my son. If this insurance agent could have been found at
the time of my trial, he could have verified that I was with him at the time that Craig,
McQueen, and the State claimed I was with the robbery team on the way to Jackson,
Alabama.

At approximately 10:00 a.m. on December 1, 1977, Barbara, Carl, and I left my sister's
house and went to the Ebony Club, where we stayed until between 1:45 and 2:00 p.m.
Earlier that morning (before I went out to the Ebony Club with Barbara and Carl), Craig,
McQueen, and Tinsley had stopped by my sister's house.

Craig wanted to borrow money, and asked if I had anything "to get high on." I gave him
$25 and three "hits" of THC. Before he left, Craig asked to borrow my gun -- a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver. I gave it to him. He was a friend of my friend, Tinsley, and I
did not question him. I had been out with Craig the previous night gambling and I figured
that Craig, McQueen, and Tinsley were going back to the gambling house to try to win
back some of the money Craig had lost the night before.

As a point of information, I should say that guns were a way of life for most of us, and
the gambling house was in a rough area. Everyone in there gambling would either have
his gun out on the table or on his person where it could be seen. Because carrying a gun
most of the time was our way of life, I thought nothing of it when Craig asked to borrow
my gun. I had no idea before or after the fact that they were going to commit a robbery
and double-murder.

Shortly after Carl, Barbara, and I returned from the Club to my sister's house, Craig and
Tinsley showed up again. They said they had stopped by earlier but had left when they
found no one home. I noticed that Tinsley was extremely nervous and agitated, but I
attributed this to his probably being high. Craig did not return my gun at that time, nor
did I ask for it. I was busy getting ready to go out to dinner, after which I would be on my
way to Tallahassee with Carl, who played for the Bishop State Community College
basketball team and was considering a transfer to FSU (Florida State University). We
were making the trip so he could talk to the FSU coach.

Craig left Tinsley at my sister's house when he left. Before going out to dinner, I called a
cab for Tinsley and after he left in the cab, I went with Carl, Barbara, and Carolyn Miller,
to Piccadilly Circle for dinner, then went shopping. One of the items I bought that day
(Dec. 1) was a pair of shoes for my son.(The robbery and murder of which I was accused
happened in Mt. Vernon, Alabama, around 11:30 a.m. or 12:00 noon. This was exactly the
time I was at the Ebony Club with Carl, Barbara and Carolyn.)

After leaving the mall that evening, Carl and I dropped Barbara and Carolyn off at their
homes, then went to Prichard, Alabama, to Doris Lambert's house for a short visit and to
drop off the shoes for my son. We then returned to my sister's house. I borrowed several
hundred dollars from her to insure that Carl and I had money for gas, motel, food and
other expenses. Carl and I left Alabama around midnight Dec. 2nd, and arrived in
Tallahassee early Friday morning. We checked into a motel near the FSU campus. Friday
evening we attended a basketball game between Jacksonville State University and Dillard
University. My nephew played on the Dillard Team and Carl knew several of the other
players, so after the game we went to the motel where the Dillard players were staying in
to visit with some of them.

On the afternoon we returned to Mobile (Saturday, December 3, 1977), I visited Percy
Craig at his apartment. As I was leaving, he walked outside with me, opened the trunk of
his car, and returned my gun to me, wrapped in some sort of cloth. When I inspected the       weapon I saw that it was fully loaded with five .38 caliber "hollow point" bullets and,
from the coating of oil on it, I saw that it appeared to have been freshly cleaned. I returned the
  pistol to my shoulder holster. I failed to ask, as in retrospect I realize I should have, why my gun had been freshly cleaned; the only reason would be if someone had fired it.
Later that week, maybe the 4th or 5th of December, I contacted my fiancée in Long Beach,
California and told her I had found an apartment.We moved into the apartment (in the
same complex where Craig and McQueen lived) between the second week and the end of
March,1978. Six days after the December 1, 1977 robbery and murder of Mr. and
Mrs.Warren Greene, in Mt. Vernon Alabama, Theodore Otis Roberts was charged with
the crime after being identified by Mary Johnson.

A .38 caliber, blue-steel, Smith and Wesson revolver, identified by Roberts' girlfriend,
Sharlene Tipton, as belonging to Roberts, was recovered. Ballistics tests later resulted in
Roberts' gun being positively identified as the murder weapon. Ms. Tipton also led police
to property Roberts had allegedly traded for drugs, but which belonged to the Western
Auto Store. All this was reported to Mobile P.D. Detective Stroh and was reported in an
affidavit by Detective Stroh, but it was never presented at either of my trials.

Ms. Mary Johnson's identification of Roberts:

On the morning of the crime, as Ms. Johnson was exiting the Mt. Vernon Western Auto
Store, she "bumped into" a man -- later identified as Roberts -- as he was coming into the
store. She also observed a light blue car in the parking lot with one person in the front
passenger seat and three people in the back seat.When Ms. Johnson saw the news
report about the robbery and murders, she immediately called the police with information
of what she had seen.

After Roberts was arrested, Ms. Johnson was called back to the police department to
view a "line-up." As she was entering the police station she recognized the same blue car
she'd seen at the Western Auto Store -- a light blue Buick Riviera with an angel hood
ornament. The car belonged to Theodore Otis Roberts. Ms. Johnson not only identified
the car, she also positively identified Roberts, first in a photo layout, then in a live police
line-up.

In February, 1978, Roger McQueen was arrested and sent to prison in Mississippi for
unrelated robberies. While at the Parchman State Prison, McQueen talked of the Mt.
Vernon, Alabama murders to another prisoner who went to the Warden with what
McQueen had told him. The Warden, in turn, contacted the Alabama authorities. The
Alabama authorities, along with the FBI, removed McQueen from the Parchman prison
grounds, took him to a motel and interviewed him. He gave statements implicating
himself, Tinsley, Craig, and me, with me being named as the trigger man.

When at the trial the Courts were presented with the eyewitness evidence of Ms.
Johnson against Theodore Otis Roberts, they declared that Ms. Johnson had made a
mistake in her identification "due to a striking resemblance "between Roberts and
McQueen. This opinion was reached based solely on a statement to that effect made by
Roberts' attorney. There is no evidence to show that this man or the Courts had ever
seen Roberts and McQueen at the same time, viewed photos or other likenesses, or used
any other means of comparison to reach this conclusion -- other than its being in his
client's best interest. The only physical similarities between Roberts and McQueen are
that they are both African-American and both wore "Afros," a hairstyle very common
among black men in the late '70s.

Some time in the early part of 1978, I heard from Doris Lambert that she had heard a rumor
that Craig, Tinsley, McQueen and I were involved in the crime. I told Doris that the only
knowledge I had of the crime was what I'd heard on the news reports, and that someone
had been charged with it. This was the one and only conversation I had with Doris Lambert about the murders until after I was arrested.

I later confronted Craig and Tinsley about the crime. Both denied any involvement,
although Tinsley again became agitated and nervous. On several occasions after that,
conversation about the crime came up, but there was never any mention of my being
involved, nor did they admit their involvement. On the morning of July 28, 1978, Mobile
police officers went to Craig's apartment and arrested him, then came to my apartment and
arrested me. Tinsley was taken into custody later that day.

I was told by Detectives that I could be placed at the scene of the crime based on
statements given by Craig and McQueen. This, despite the fact there was never any
eyewitness identification of me (other than Craig and McQueen claiming I was the
shooter). No fingerprints of mine were ever found at the crime scene, and no other
physical evidence linked me to this crime. A man named Joe Nathan Berham did,
however, testify that some time in January 1978 he was given a watch by someone in the
car in which he was riding. He also admitted that it was passed to him over the seat back,
and that he couldn't say who had handed him the watch. This watch was later recovered
from a pawn shop and identified as the Seiko brand watch belonging to Mr. Warren
Greene (murder victim). Pawn shop records indicated that it had been pawned by Berham.
Still no tie to me.

While I was incarcerated at the Mobile County Jail awaiting trial, I called Ms. Lambert an
estimated 44 times -- once a week for the eleven months I was there. During those
conversations she repeatedly expressed her belief that I was innocent because she knew
me as a person not in the habit of lying to her about anything, no matter how serious the
situation.

After the first trial began, she spoke to my attorney, asking if there was anything she
could do to help prove my innocence. After my attorney had this brief conversation with
Doris, he returned to the courtroom and asked me if there was anything she could testify
to that would help prove me innocent. I told him I wasn't aware of her having any
knowledge of anything helpful other than her firm belief that I was innocent. She was
never called to testify. The trial ended in a mistrial. Shortly thereafter, I was rescheduled
for a second trial. I spoke again with Ms. Lambert, telling her of my anticipation of an
acquittal and my plans for my life after I was acquitted.

Those plans were to take my two daughters and fiancée back to California and get on
with my life. This plan didn't sit well with her. Ms. Lambert told her mother she would see
me dead before she saw me with another woman, and her mother testified to that at the
second trial. Doris was jealous even though she was married to someone else and trying
to get a divorce at the time. She was also very dependent on me as a friend she could
"pour her heart out to" about anything without fear of judgment for her drug use, and for
financial support. If I went back to California, she would lose all of this. I believe this is
the reason she made the complete turnaround from telling my attorney she believed me to
be 100% innocent, before she heard my plans to move back to California, to claiming that
I had confessed to her right after the murders had occurred.

According to Lambert's testimony, I confessed the murders to her in June 1977 -- six
months before the murders were even committed. My attorneys were not allowed to
present Ms. Lambert's mental health records. The records showed Ms. Lambert to be
"manipulative," a pathological liar, a drug addict (cocaine and THC), had homicidal and
suicidal fantasies, had borderline retardation, and heard the voice of her father (who'd
been dead since she was about 13 years old) speaking to her. The mental health records I
am speaking about are not a few remote incidents, nor are they from Ms. Lambert's
distant past. They cover the years from 1973 up to within months of her testifying at my
second trial.

Another problem with Ms. Lambert's reliability as a witness is the fact that she was
pressured by the State. They told her that if she didn't testify, she would never regain
custody of her children. The state had removed the children from her custody and put
them in the care of her family or her husband. Before she testified against me, she was
placed in a shelter for battered women, although she never claimed to have been battered.
At one time, she changed her mind and refused to testify. This resulted in her being taken
from the shelter and locked up in the County Jail.

After testifying against me, full custody of her children was restored, and the State
provided services such as transportation for her children to and from school. My fiancée,
Hazel Craig, had similar pressure applied to her.

She had gone back to California and, after returning to visit me in jail, was detained at the
jail after visitation on a "trumped-up" charge of having left a damaged apartment when
she moved. The claims that Ms. Craig was responsible for "leaving behind a damaged
apartment" and that being the reason she was placed in the Mobile County Jail are
ludicrous.

First, all damage to the apartment was caused by the Mobile County deputies in their
search for my gun, and the security deposit Hazel and I had paid had already been
withheld. There is just no justification for her incarceration. (The police found my gun on
the morning of my arrest, July 28, 1978, and it was implicated in the crime.) Helen Craig
was later asked about testifying against me, but at that time she said she knew nothing
and would not testify. She was returned to the County Jail where she remained until the
first trial was declared a mistrial. She was then immediately released.

During both trials, Reginald Tinsley -- the only person to give a statement exonerating me
-- had escaped and was known to be staying in New Orleans, Louisiana. Deputies at the
county jail mentioned to me on several occasions that they were going to New Orleans to
observe Tinsley's last known address because the State was keeping him under
surveillance. They knew enough about his whereabouts to go and arrest him in New
Orleans within a few days after I was found guilty and sentenced to death. I could be
wrong, but I think they did know exactly where he was. If he had been arrested we could
have stopped my trial until he was back in Mobile to testify on my behalf that I wasn't
with them and I didn't kill the Greens. His testimony would have hurt the State's case.

Craig and McQueen both attempted several times to recant their statements implicating
me, but were not allowed to do this. The District Attorney told them that if they "didn't
give us Wright" they would be charged with capital murder and would also face the
death penalty. Craig and McQueen had no choice but to comply by continuing to
implicate me. The D.A., Chris Galanos, is now a judge in Mobile. He shouldn't have been
handling my case because he was Tinsley's attorney before he was appointed D.A.

The State was also granted its motion to prevent any mention of Roberts' being initially
charged with the murders. The state's purpose in filing the motion to get any and all
evidence suppressed that had to do with Roberts' being initially charged with this murder
and robbery was to build a stronger case against me. If the jury had heard all the
evidence the state had against Roberts, which was a much stronger case than the one
against me, the jury would most likely have believed that Craig and McQueen were lying
when they said I was with them and I killed the Greens after robbing their store. If the
evidence against Roberts had been given to the jury, my acquittal would have been
likely.Where are they now?

Percy Craig: sentenced to ten years for his part in the above crime. Status unknown.

Roger McQueen: Given plea agreement in which he would do no time in Alabama upon
completing Mississippi 30-year sentence for unrelated robbery. Presently incarcerated in
federal prison for robbery/kidnapping committed after his release.

Tinsley: Sentenced to 25 years. Granted parole and released. Presently residing in Mobile, AL.

The foregoing is true and correct to the very best of my knowledge. Some of these facts
do however require me to rely on memories after spending these past 20 years on death
row.                                 -    Freddie Lee Wright May 29, 1999

Freddie Wright has trouble writing or reading for long periods because of diabetes and is
losing sight because of a cataract in one eye. He's been on death row 20 years.