State-administered death is always a greater horror than any other by virtue of the methodical reasoning that precedes it. French philosopher Albert Camus wrote that "capital punishment is the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal's deed, however calculated, can be compared. "For there to be an equivalency, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date on which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at his mercy for months. Such a monster is not to be encountered in private life."

Sunday, Oct. 04, 2009

Michael Roy Toney died one month after his release !!

By ALEX BRANCH

Michael Toney died Saturday in a one-vehicle rollover crash in Cherokee County in East Texas.

Michael Roy Toney died one month after his release from jail after the state’s decision not to retry him in the 1985 bombing deaths of three people in a Lake Worth trailer.

A spokeswoman for O’Melveny & Myers, the California law firm that handled Toney’s successful appeal, said Sunday night in a written statement that lawyers are saddened by his death.

"Our thoughts are with his family and many friends who supported him in his fight for justice," the statement said.

The accident occurred at 11:05 a.m. as Toney, 43, drove south on Farm Road 347 in a 2000 Ford F-250 pickup, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. The truck veered off of the east side of the road and rolled.

....

In December, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Toney’s conviction, saying his trial was unconstitutional because Tarrant County prosecutors improperly withheld evidence.

The Tarrant County district attorney’s office recused itself from the case. In September, the Texas attorney general dropped the charges against Toney but retained the option to retry the case after further evaluation of the evidence.

Toney was released from jail Sept. 2.

An official with Autry Funeral Home in Jacksonville confirmed Sunday that it is handling Toney’s funeral but that no dates have been set.

On Sunday, a supporter wrote in an e-mail that in his one month of freedom Toney was painting his house in Rusk. He had also bought a pickup and gotten a dog from an animal shelter.

"Michael really enjoyed living out in the country, and he was a country boy at heart," the e-mail said. "His future looked very promising."

ALEX BRANCH, http://www.star-telegram.com/metro_news/story/1660752.html

WITNESS THE EXECUTION OF AN INNOCENT MAN

 MURDER 

§§§TEXAS STYLE§§§

Why do I believe anyone would donate money to be a witness to my execution [MURDER]? Because society is sickly obsessed with death and murder! People line up to watch horror films that have no plot other than same character with a mask on his face running around chopping people up with an axe, chainsaw or perhaps just a big knife but never the less brutally murdering people. They buy videos called "FACES OF DEATH" that depict nothing but death scenes end dead bodies. They buy coffee table picture books that show crime scenes end more dead bodies. They watch programs on cable television such as "Autopsy" just to see dead bodies being opened for the camera.

Society is sickly obsessed with death! When Timothy McVeigh was executed three hundred people witnessed by closed circuit television while others were saddened by the fact that they didn't get to witness his goverment sanctioned murder. Those three hundred end the others that desired to witness his death will tell you that it was their way of obtaining "closure" but I submit to you now that forgivness is the only thing that creates closure. I know that for a fact from first hand experience. Journalists end television networks went to court attempting to get a court order to video tape McVeighs execution. If they had been able to tape it and present it to viewers by "pay per view" it would make some people very wealthy. 

When executions were public events spectators would show up in droves as if they were attending a blockbuster movie. Its an absolute unrefuted fact that people in general are obsessed with death...the more gruesome the better. Think about it the next time you're driving down the highway and come across a traffic accident. There will be a traffic jamb because of the "rubber neckers" wanting a glimpse of the carnage. Why is society so obsessed with blood, guts, death and murder; who knows for sure. Maybe its because the one sure thing about life is that it ends in death. People have been witnessing executions tor thousands of years. More than two thousand years ago an innocent man was executed as hundreds watched. 

That was Jesus, you know Him don't you? He's the same One that says forgive and Love your enemy. Society would probably execute Him again if He was to come back today because society and mankind in general are slow to leam. Society is still virtually void of compassion, empathy and the forgivness He preached about. Maybe thats why He hasn't yet retumed as He promised. Think about it.. Society is still killing each other in the so called name of justice just as they did while He walked the face of the earth., People are acting as gods when they believe they have the right, to determine who has the right to live end who must be killed. The fact is nobody has the right to take life. 

In May of 2000 I submitted a five page document offering the five places to witness my execution(murder) to the internet auction site e bay but after three end a half hours the item was removed from the site because it was deemed  "too controversial" and because e bay stated that it offered more than one item which violated the rules of the site. Almost every newspaper around the world ran a story about the attempted auction and over the next few months many popular magazines published stories about it. 

I have received hundreds of letters from people wanting to witness my murder as weIl as more than a thousand e mails of the same nature. Of all the correspondence only a handful found the auction objectionable or requested that I discontinue the auction and fight to prove my innocence and gain my freedom. The proceeds of that auction were to go to my daughters to help them overcome the loss of their father and his support but after much debate I finally realized my daughters wouldn't want money that came from people who donated funds so they could witness their father's murder. I had detailed that I thought two types of people would be willing to donate money to witness the execution of an innocent man.

1. Compassionate people that are wi1ling to help my daughters overcome the obstacle of their fathers untimely death.

2. Sadists!!! Need I gay more about that? Unfortunately sadists are not in abort supply in this cold cruel world in which we temporarily reside.

I will thank the compassionate and forgive the sadists.

As the previous auction attempt has proven the sadists are the majority. 

Because of the removal ofthe document by e bay and because of the recent refusal of the court to grant me an "Evidentiary hearing" to present the new evidence supporting my innocence and the fact that I didn't have a fair trial and the court's decision to "affirm" my conviction as weIl as the fact that I have little time left due to the 1996 anti­terrorism effective death penalty actc, I am now presenting the auction in a somewhat different format with the proceeds to be donated to the following: 

50% to:

50% to:

My reasons for wanting the proceeds to be given to these associations is self explanatory. The innocence project because they werk to exonerate and free the wrongful1y convicted and the Victimts Rights group because I believe in victim's rights even though I don't believe in capital punishment or vengeance as punishment. I don't believe in creating more victims. Because of my situation of desperately trying to prove my innocence and get a court to listen and act, I have somehow developed a personal link with the victims of the crime I have been wrongfully convicted of. Not only am I fighting for my own life but I'm also fighting for the justice that they deserve. As long as I stand wrongful1y convicted their murderer or murderers remain free and I become a victim of a terrible miscarriage of justice. 

-witness the murder 2-

THE CRIME, HOW I BECAME A SUSPECT AND I WAS WRONGFULLY CONVICTED

In May of 1999, I was wrongful1y convicted of a terrible crime (bombing) in which the lives of three people were tragically taken. Killed were Joe Blount, his daughter Angela and her cousin Michael Columbus. This terrible crime was committed on November 18th, 1985. I didn't even hear about this crime until June of 1997 when a man named Bennie Toole who was a suspect for more than twelve years told me about it. I didn't even know when the crime occured or who the victims were until my indictment on December 4th,1997. I didn't know exactly where the crime happened until a month or so prior to my trial or the mendacious charade of a Texas trial. I have never in my life been to the place where this crime happened nor have I ever seen or touched a bomb and I am in no way what so ever connected to this horrible crime or the victims. 

The investigation of the bombing continued for more than twelve years and was the longest running investigation in history of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. In 1996, after the Oklahoma City bombing the ATF jump started every unsolved domestic bombing and was presenting evidence to a grand jury trying to indict a man named Mike Huff  who was an associate or friend of Bennie Toole, the man who told me about the bombing. The evidence against Huff while circumstantial is very strong and overwhelming. Had he been indicted there is no doubt he would be sitting in my place on the notoriously cruel and expeditious Texas death row, waiting the termination of his life. I don't know if Huff committed the crime but the evidence strongly suggests his culpability. Among the vast amount of evidence that includes his admissions is a piece of evidence that would make even the most skeptical of jurors vote to convict. That evidence is a statement from Huff's mother and step-father that key componets of the destructive device that killed the Blounts and Columbus were missing from their home. One of those componets is especially odd in its use within the device. I cannot or will not draw any definite conclusions about the evidence suggesting the culpability of Huff but I do have a theory that is proving to be more and more correct as my investigation and research continues. 

During the course of the 12+ year investigation my name was not mentioned once but in August of 1997 1 repeated the information Toole told me to a man named Charles Ferris. Ferris in turn used the information as a tool to get himself out of jail. Ferris told the ATF that I was responsible for the bombing. When the ATF began investigating me as a possible suspect they first located my ex-wife Kimberly Toney living in Wisconsin. I hadn't seen her in 10+ years. She first told the agents the truth. "I don't know anything, Michael never mentioned it and I never heard about it." They gave her a card and told her about the reward and told her to phone them if she thought of anything. 

Sometime later her and her boyfriend went to the library and read everything they could about the crime and then called the ATF back telling them maybe she did have some information that would help. Because her fabricated story was vague and not enough to indict or convict the ATF agents located my old friend Chris Meeks who I hadn't seen in more than 11 years. Chris was located in a New Mexico prison where he was serving a sentence for numerous driving while intoxicated violations. Chris has a very obvious alcohol problem and even more obvious memory problems due to the alcohol abuse. The investigators believed my ex-wifes story and did nothing to verify her truthfullness. The investigators desperatety needed Meeks to corroberate the lie of Kim Toney so after he testified before the grand jury he was given a polygraph test and told he failed and that if he wou1d change his story they wou1d give him immunity from prosecution for perjury (liar's immunity) to go with the transactional immunity they already gave him. He was interrogated for the next three days and gave many statements. These interrogations lasted some 12 hours per day according to Meeks. Finally the investigators decided that he must have forgotten what happened so they fed him bits and pieces of the information they needed him to testify to. This can be proven by the testimony and statements he made. 

My ex-wife testified that on November 28th, 1985 we (myself, Meeks and Kim) drove my 1979 Cbevrolet truck with a briefcase under the toolbox in the bed of the truck to the area of the bombing and that: ("'he stopped the truck got out and took the briefcase out from under the toolbox and walked off and returned without it. Then we went down the road to the lake where we 'hung out' from around 9 PM until after midnight. Sometime during the course of the night there was a splashing in the water so Mike and Chris got their two 22 ca1iber rifles from tbe truck and Mike shot a beaver.") Chris Meek's testimony whi1e dramatically different and conflicting in many key areas corroberated Kim's lie enough to allow or convince the jury to convict, even though Meek's couldn't answer a single question as he testified without refering to his alledged statements for the answers as if the statements were a script. 

 What is wrong with the testimony?

First of all, its not true, and I can prove this with records that I now have but the courts won't consider the new evidence. What is the new evidence? Heres a list of just some of it:

1. The pickup truck that was so promine t in the lies was not purchased bey me until December 13th, 1985. 16 days after the crime! (Per Texas Dept. of Trans. Records)

2. The toolbox that she stated the briefcase was under wasn't purchased until December 29th, 1985 (See attached check records register)

3. The two 22 caliber rifles that she stated was used to shoot the beaver was not purchased until December 18th and 19th, 1985. (Per ATF gun records) (See F1 + F2 attached)

4. While not so strong but suggesting the story of Kim and Meek's is fabricated. The National Weather Service records show that November 28th, 1985 was the coldest day of November. 31'F with wind to 15 mph. The wind chill would bring the temperature down to about 20'F, especially on the lake shore, too cold to 'hang out' from 9 pm after midnight wearing a light sweater and not being cold as she testified. She also testified that she did not hear an explosion, see or hear fire trucks etc, despite being close to the crime scene. (There s a very simple explantation as to why she didn't hear anything and why she wasn't cold which I will explain later.)

5. The prosecution did not inform the defense or the jury that Kim Toney expected to receive the reward for her testimony as they are required by law to do so. Had the jury known that she was motivated to lie by the $25,000 reward they may not have found her to be so believable.

6. Meeks the man that was used to corroberate her 1ie has retracted his testimony. (See attached affidavit.)

7. Because there is absolutely no connection between myself and the crime or the victims the prosecution had an obvious obstacle to overcome. By law the prosecution does't have to prove motive but in order to convict of murder orcapital murder they must prove that the accused knowingly and intentionally killed a specific person. Because there is ,no connection between myself and the crime crime the prosecutors concocted a theory that effectively allowed the conviction of an innocent without any evidence. Their theory was: "He intended to kill someone but we don' t know who or why,  only he knows, but these people were killed in the process. Their concoction was based on the statements of a common "jai1hourse liar", convicted felon of 68 years of age facing life  in prisen for the aggravated sexual assauts of children. The "jailhouse 1iar", pedophile has now retracted his statement and stated that he lied because he had a " deal" with prosection to keep him from going back to prison. He has provided me with a copy of the "agreement" and other valuable documents. He is in prison now. How could I possible defend myself against their concoction?

    

8. Ferris, the man who originally lied to get out of jail refused to testify at trial because he was threatened with the charge of aggravated  perjury which carries a sentence of 10 years in prison. He admitted to the Dallas Morning News on January 17, 1998 thathe lied but did not testify at trial. He was now written a letter to me stating that he will tell the truth. ( Dallas Morning News January 17, 1998 - "Man says he made up story linking suspect to bombing) (See attached.) 

I AM COMPLETELY INNOCENT OF THIS CRIME BUT I CANNOT DENY THE FACT THAT I HAVE A LENGTHY CRIMINAL RECORD OF CREDIT CARD ABUSE, BURGLARY, BAD CHECKS ETC.

My past record made the my wrongful conviction easy, for the prosecution but do I deserve to die (be killed) for a crime I didn't commit because of my past record? The courts won't listen and rather than fellow the 1aw they "find ways" to upho1d convicition. I have literally begged to undergo any type of testing, interrogation, hypnosis, interrogation while drugged, everything but the goverment will not admit that mistakes are made. PERIOD! I will continue to fight for truth and true justice until they drag me away to be murdered but this auction will go on as well.

The reason Kim's story about going to the lake doesn 't sence. Is that we did go to the lake and the beaver incident is true. I thought it was a nutra rat but it turned out to be a beaver and we were fishing not "hanging out." Texas weather is unpredictable but it was a warm night either in December or January. The only thing for sure is that it was sometime after December 19th, 1985 and its likely that it was after Christmas because Meeks and myself spent Christmas in Florida with my father. 

It is against Texas law for a person who has been convicted of a crime to profit from the crime in any way such as books, movie rights etc. I have no intention of profiting from a crime I did not commit. I have a right to choose five people to witness my murder. The means of which I select these five is also my choice. I will choose four of the witnesses by taking "sealed bids" by mail and e mail. The four highest bidders will be asked to donate the amount of their bid to the organizations I previously listed. If you are a high bidder I will notify you by mail. If it is your desire to get to know me before the State of Texas murders me we can correspond or you can visit me and I will tell you what I am feeling mentally about my impending execution and I will attempt to tell you what I am feeling as I am drawing my last breath. I will hope to prove to you that lethal injection is not the pain1ess and humane death it is reported to be and I will hopeful1y convince you that innocent people are being killed with your tax dollars and hopeful1y convince you to have a mind of your own and leave the majority of mindless followers that support capital punishment. The reason the majority is the majority is that the majority is made up of mindless idiots with no opinion of their own. 

Only four of the five spots to witness my murder are being auctioned so that the fifth spot can be given away so nobody but yourself will know that you  donated funds to witness the murder. Bids will be accepted up until about two months prior to my murder which will be some time in the not so distant future. I will inform the high bidders at that time. In the meantime if any bidders have any questions or comments please submit them in writing or by e mail and I will answer, A.S.A.P. . . 

I WILL CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR TRUTH AND  TRUE JUSTICE  AND THAT  YOU WILL NOT HAVE THE PLEASURE OF SEEING ME MURDERED BY MURDEROUS STATE OF TEXAS.

  GOOD LUCK!   

Sincerely,  

Michael Toney

"AN INNOCENT MAN CONDEMNED TO DEATH BY UNTRUTHS"

Send bids or questions to: Michael Toney  

"An Innocent Man" 

Polunsky Unit D.R. #314

3872 F.M. 350 South  

Livingston, Texas 77351

MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND PROTECT YOU FROM THIS WORLD'S INJUSTICES 

Find the documents here and more ...!