Texas Finally Clears Tommy Lee Walker’s Name: 70 Years After Wrongful Execution

Almost seven decades after his execution by the state of Texas, Tommy Lee Walker, a 21-year-old Black man, has been posthumously exonerated by Dallas County officials. Walker was executed two years after receiving a wrongful conviction for the rape and murder of a White woman.

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot took steps on Wednesday to rectify this historic injustice by requesting commissioners to sign a resolution that officially declares Walker’s innocence. Investigations revealed that Walker had been coerced into confessing to the crime and was subsequently convicted by an all-White jury.

This case, the oldest under the review of the Dallas County DA’s Conviction Integrity Unit, dates back to 1953. Walker, then 19, was accused of the rape and murder of Venice Parker, a 31-year-old White woman attacked while returning home from work.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Walker was actually with his girlfriend, Mary Louise Smith, who was nine months pregnant, at the time of the murder. Despite multiple witnesses corroborating his alibi, he was still prosecuted for the crime that occurred three miles away from where he was.

A photo from the Dallas Public Library shows Tommy Lee Walker during his trial for the 1954 murder conviction.

As reported by FOX 4 Dallas, the case serves as a stark reminder of past judicial failures and highlights the need for ongoing efforts to ensure justice for all.

Walker’s son was born the day after the killing on Oct. 1.

Multiple witnesses testified Parker was unable to speak after the attack due to a gash in her neck. However, one police officer claimed she described her attacker as a Black man, according to the DPI.

Tommy Lee Walker was exonerated after his execution after being convicted of killing a woman in 1954. (Dallas Public Library)

During a review of the case, the district attorney’s office learned hundreds of Black men were questioned about the killing, solely based on their race.

Walker was allegedly interrogated for hours with­out an attor­ney, and authorities told him he would face the death penal­ty unless he con­fessed, according to the DPI. 

Walker signed a con­fes­sion but almost imme­di­ate­ly recant­ed. There was no oth­er evidence against him. 

Officials also said the state allowed misleading evidence during the trial, and the prosecutor took the stand himself as a witness and told the jury Walker was guilty, according to FOX 4.

“I feel that I have been tricked out of my life,” Walker said at his sen­tenc­ing hear­ing.

Walker was executed by an electric chair May 12, 1956, at 21 years old.

Tommy Lee Walker takes the stand during his murder trial. (Dallas Public Library)

“In observance of the constitutional rights afforded to all citizens and in consideration of newly available scientific evidence, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office could not and would not have prosecuted Tommy Lee Walker for the rape and murder of Venice Lorraine Parker,” Creuzot wrote in a statement.

Creuzot said his office dove into the case with assistance from the Innocence Project after Walker’s son, his only living descendant, brought it to their attention.

Walker’s son, Ted Smith, 72, gave testimony at his father’s posthumous exoneration, noting his moth­er nev­er recov­ered after the exe­cu­tion.

“He told my mother and she told me. He said, ‘You give me the chair that belongs to someone else. I am innocent.’ That is the last thing my mother told me,” Ted Smith told FOX 4. “This exoneration means the world to me.”

The resolution stated the county “deems it a moral oblig­a­tion to acknowl­edge the injus­tice sur­round­ing the con­vic­tion of Tommy Lee Walker, con­front his­to­ry, and affirm Dallas County’s com­mit­ment to jus­tice for all per­sons, whether liv­ing or deceased. … [J]ustice has no statute of limitations.”

Parker’s son, Joseph Parker, 77, also attended the hearing, hugging Smith and apologizing for the loss of his father.