Texas plans to execute Troy Clark on Wednesday. Troy's trial attorneys failed to investigate his background or present mitigation evidence to the jury. Jurors are instructed to consider mitigation evidence as weighing against a death sentence. Here's what Troy's jury never heard:
Troy Clark was born to single mother in San Antonio, Texas. His mother drank alcohol daily and used illegal drugs while she was pregnant. Troy was born with a cleft palette. He was constantly teased and harassed because of a severe speech impediment caused by the cleft palette.
Troy's mother and father were first cousins. Troy didn't meet his father until he was 17 years old. He didn't have much contact with his father's family. He only met his paternal grandfather once at a gas station. Troy's father had doubts about whether Troy was even his child.
Troy's mother was the youngest of 12 children. Her father died when she was three months old and the family experienced extreme poverty. Troy's mother supported herself through prostitution when she was younger and became addicted to drugs.
Troy's mother and father were first cousins and became involved after an uncle encouraged their relationship as a way to "get back at" Troy's maternal grandmother. Troy's father left the area when the first pregnancy was revealed, but soon returned and fathered Troy.
Troy's mother moved to Texas while pregnant with Troy. She was arrested on a drug charge and spent months in jail while pregnant. When she was released from jail, she began drinking and using drugs every day while still pregnant. Troy's mother received no pre-natal medical care.
Troy Clark was born on September 2, 1967. His mother went into labor after getting into a bar fight with her boyfriend and she was drunk at the time of delivery. Troy was likely born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, which leads to many long-term health and psychological problems.
Troy's mother went back to jail soon after he was born. She was still incarcerated on his first birthday. Troy and his brother were raised in extreme poverty by their grandmother and other family members.
No one taught Troy how to brush his teeth until he went to school for kindergarten. Other kids made fun of Troy because of his poor hygiene. He wore "shoes" made by his grandmother out of cardboard and duct tape because the family had no money.
Troy was teased and harassed because of a severe speech impediment caused by his cleft palate. He became a bully so that the harassment would stop. The cleft was surgically repaired later, but Troy's family never told him about it until he was an adult.
Troy moved between states, towns, and schools almost non-stop throughout his childhood. His education, including special education and speech classes, was interrupted at least once per year. Troy cried himself to sleep at night because he was so impoverished and hungry.
Troy spent about six months with an aunt and uncle when he was in the third grade. His uncle regularly burned him with lit cigarettes. A babysitter locked Troy and his brother in a closet overnight. They were forced to go to the bathroom in the closet and sit in it for hours.
When Troy was around seven years old, his cousins introduced him to "huffing." They inhaled gas, paint, and anything else they could find.
Troy's mother eventually reappeared with her boyfriend. They spent all of their time drinking and using drugs. Troy was in the room when a fight broke out and his mother was hit over the head with a chair. She had blood running down her face. No one ever spoke about it again.
Troy's grandmother took the kids and moved to Oklahoma. They woke up every day at 4 am to pick strawberries and other crops on farms. Troy was probably exposed to toxic DDT insecticide while picking cotton as a child.
The family eventually moved to California. They lived outside in the bed of a truck. Troy and his siblings used the woods as a bathroom and caught fish out of a nearby creek to eat.
Troy became friends with a young girl who lived near the family's campsite. He noticed several boys picking on the girl one day after school. Troy wanted to help but was afraid. The boys stabbed Troy's friend and she died there in front of him. Troy was eight years old.
Troy's mother and her boyfriend reappeared again. Troy and his brother were tasked with bagging illegal drugs and climbing utility poles to steal copper wire for them to sell.
After Troy's friend was stabbed to death, his mother gave him permission to take care of a stray puppy. Troy's mother's boyfriend was upset that Troy was spending less time bagging drugs and stealing copper wire, so he killed the puppy and threw the dead body on top of Troy.
As Troy and his cousins became older, their drug habits became more serious and so did the criminal activities they used to support their addictions.
Troy and his brother eventually ran away to find their mother again. She introduced Troy to speed, methamphetamine, cocaine, and crack when he was 13 years old. Troy began using and selling the drugs, but fled back to Texas when local law enforcement got involved.
Troy's mother followed the boys back to Texas. She continued to support herself through prostitution. Troy, a 13-year-old boy, began having sex with his mother's adult friends and became increasingly addicted to alcohol.
Troy got married when he was 17 years old, but his subsequent legal troubles spelled the end of the marriage. Troy spent time in jail on theft and drug charges. He was sent to a halfway house but was kicked out of the program after he was caught with alcohol.
Troy's brother, Clyde, was the one constant in his life. Clyde was like a father to Troy. They were extremely close. Clyde and Troy got into their first physical altercation in 1992 when Troy was 25 years old. Clyde accidentally broke a window during the fight.
Clyde called Troy the next day and said that he was going to kill himself. Troy didn't take Clyde's comment seriously until another family member called later on. Clyde had shot himself. Troy was so upset that he put a gun in his own mouth and pulled the trigger. The gun jammed.
Clyde's suicide was the beginning of the end for Troy. He was arrested on a series of charges in the months after Clyde's death. At one point, Troy unsuccessfully tried to kill himself by riding a motorcycle off of a cliff at the edge of the Grand Canyon.
Troy was eventually arrested on more drug charges and sentenced to 18 years in a Texas prison. One month into his sentence, three other prisoners wearing steel-toed boots attacked Troy. He was taken to the emergency room with severe head trauma.
After recovering from that prison assault, Troy spent a lot of time focused on his education. He earned his GED and completed over 50 vocational training classes. Troy was paroled in 1996 and returned to East Texas.
Troy used his new skills to earn money for a while after his release, but he eventually succumbed to his life-long battle with addiction. He began using and selling drugs again.
One afternoon in 1998, Troy says that he returned home and Tory Bush approached him at the door. Troy reports that Tory told him that she had killed Christina Muse and that she needed help covering up the murder. Troy maintains that he did not kill Christina Muse.
Troy Clark's life story is long, horrific, and traumatic. The jury at his trial didn't know about any of this information. They would have been required to weigh all of this evidence against a death sentence, but Troy's attorneys never presented any of it.
Let's be absolutely clear: Troy Clark's life story isn't meant to be an excuse. Mitigation evidence like Troy's horrific background and upbringing is meant to help a jury understand the person they are supposed to judge. People are more than the worst thing they've ever done.
The sad truth is that Troy's story isn't abnormal among death row prisoners. In my time working on death row, I've learned that about 90% of people facing the death penalty grew up in extreme poverty and nearly 100% were abused during their childhoods.
