Gretchen Sween was hired a month before Holiday was executed. This is what she saw.
On Nov. 18, 2015, at about 8:30 p.m., the state of Texas declared Raphael Holiday dead while I sat alone sobbing in a parked car. He was executed for the deaths of three children, including his own, in a house fire.I am a civil litigator in private practice. I began representing Raphael a month before his execution, after his lawyers sent a letter informing him: “This marks the end of work for your appeals I regret.” The letter acknowledged the option to submit “a clemency petition to the Texas governor,” but they did not recommend that because, in their view, “a clemency petition just gives an inmate false hopes.”
Although the letter made clear that his lawyers were “not going to file further appeals for you,” it also stated that Raphael was free to write to law firms or public interest organizations to see if he could find someone else willing to take on his case. The lawyers even promised to cooperate and provide his file if he could find anyone to do the work.So Raphael sent out desperate letters from death row — to lawyers as far away as California — trying to find someone willing to help him.Meanwhile, in August, Texas set an execution date.Because his efforts to obtain new lawyers on his own had failed, Raphael wrote the following to the court on Sept. 14: “Your honor, I beg you to consider new appointment of effective counsels to my case. They have refused to help me and it is a disheartening conundrum I am not fit to comprehend.” His lawyers filed a response, opposing their client’s request. They admitted that they did not intend to pursue clemency on his behalf, writing, “given political realities, there is no chance at all that a clemency petition would be granted.” At this point, Raphael was on his own. Click Here For Entire Article By Attorney GRETCHEN SWEEN
