Thread by @helenprejean

Marion Wilson was executed tonight in Georgia. He was the 1,500th person killed by the government since 1976. His case is yet another example of the many irreparable flaws in our death penalty system.

On March 26, 1996, Donovan Parks was killed by a single shot. Marion Wilson and Robert Butts had asked Mr. Parks for a ride home and they were the last people seen with him. Marion always said that it was Robert who fired the fatal shot and Robert confessed to a cellmate.

The county prosecutor knew that Marion Wilson was the less culpable person and offered a plea deal that included the possibility of parole. Marion rejected the plea deal because he did not want to take responsibility for someone else's actions.

The spurned prosecutor then sought the death penalty for both Marion Wilson and Robert Butts even though only one of them could have killed Donovan Parks. The prosecutor later admitted under oath that he believed it was Robert Butts who fired the fatal shot.

Marion Wilson was tried first. During the trial's guilt phase, the prosecutor admitted "the State cannot prove who pulled the trigger in this case." That all changed in the trial's penalty phase. The prosecutor told the jury that it was definitely Marion who fired the fatal shot.

Robert Butts was tried a year later. At that trial, the prosecutor changed the story and told the jury that it was actually Robert who had fired the fatal shot. Both Marion and Robert were sentenced to die even though only one of them could have committed the crime.

The tactic used by the prosecutor in these cases has been condemned by legal scholars as unethical and a violation of the right to due process. No court ever reviewed the prosecutor's misconduct. Robert Butts was executed last year and Marion Wilson was executed tonight.

Marion Wilson's case was similar to other death penalty cases in another way. The jury never heard the truth about Marion's background and the horrific abuse and neglect he experienced during his childhood and adolescence. This is important information for jurors to consider.

Marion Wilson was born in July 1976. His mother was 20 years old and working as a prostitute at the time. She did not realize she was pregnant until the 4th or 5th month. She drank and used drugs while Marion was in the womb.

Marion was biracial and the identity of his African American father was never determined with certainty. Marion's mother was essentially disowned by her white family and was left to raise Marion without basic parenting skills and with very little support.

Marion lived a nomadic childhood in rural Georgia while his mother moved from relationship to relationship, each time living with men who shared a penchant for drugs, alcohol, and abusive behavior. These men introduced Marion to a criminal lifestyle at a very young age.

The first of these "father figures" was a man who would hit Marion to stop his crying when he was a toddler. This man left loaded guns sitting around the house and, unsupervised as a young child, Marion picked up one of the guns and accidentally fired it inside the house.

The house only had water, heat, and electricity intermittently. When it was out, Marion's mother's boyfriend would urinate in empty bottles and line them up along the walls. The stench was overwhelming. There was garbage and dirty clothes everywhere.

An aunt removed Marion from the house for a while, but Marion's mother came to get him back when her food stamps were cut off. A few years later, Marion's mother finally left this man after he put a gun to her head while Marion watched. He was 5 or 6 years old at the time.

Marion's mother began seeing another man with alcohol and drug problems. There were empty liquor bottles and crack pipes all over the house. Marion was left unsupervised and was hit by cars twice after running away from home in search of food and basic care.

Marion's school teachers tried to get him placed in special education classes, but his mother refused. The teachers remembered Marion as a "sweet, sweet boy with so much potential." They expressed sorrow at the lack of parental support in Marion's life.

Marion's biracial identity made things even more difficult. He was repeatedly teased, ridiculed, and rejected by his classmates at school. Marion's grandfather could not accept his grandson's biracial identity and frequently beat Marion with a leather belt.

Marion's mother moved in with another violent man who also beat Marion and at one point threatened him with a knife. Marion repeatedly ran away to be with one of his mother's abusive former boyfriends. Marion had been led to believe that this man was his biological father.

Marion eventually learned that this man was not his biological father. This had a severe negative impact on Marion, leaving him with the sense that he was on his own and had no one to support him. Marion was 12 or 13 years old at the time.

Over the following years, Marion did what he had to do in order to survive. This got him into trouble on a few occasions. When Marion was placed in more structured environments, he thrived, but he eventually fell back into the habits he was taught as a child.

The jury didn't know anything about Marion's childhood and background. None of this is an excuse for what happened to Donovan Parks, but it does provide context that the jury would have been required to consider before reaching a decision on the death penalty.

After 1,500 executions, the patterns are very clear. Our system is plagued with racism. We execute people who are poor and vulnerable. We execute people with mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities. We even execute people who are probably innocent.

The good news is that the death penalty is on the decline. We've seen record low numbers of executions and new death sentences in the past few years. Prosecutors are thinking twice before seeking the death penalty. Jurors are voting against executions. States are making progress.

We will continue this fight against the death penalty until every gurney and electric chair and gas chamber sits behind velvet ropes in museums.