American Civil Liberties Union

Death Penalty:
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of civil liberties. In the past 35 years, 129 inmates were found to be innocent and released from death row. The ACLU Capital Punishment Project is fighting for the end of the death penalty by supporting moratorium and repeal movements through public education and advocacy. We are engaged in systemic reform of the death penalty process, and case-specific litigation highlighting some of its fundamental flaws.

Soffar v. State of Texas
04/30/2007

Texas Sentences to Death an Innocent Man, the ACLU Appeals

A Texas jury, deprived of critical information about the real killer, convicted Max Soffar of capital murder for 4 victims shot in a bowling alley. The jury didn't know that Paul Reid confessed to shooting four people in a bowling alley, that Paul Reid committed a series of armed robberies in both Texas and Tennessee, including multiple-victim robber murders in Tennessee eerily similar to the Houston bowling alley robbery murders.

The jurors saw a police composite of the shooter and a picture of Max Soffar. They never saw the picture of Paul Reid (taken in his then home city Houston only nine days after the bowling alley robbery murders), just like they never heard the evidence of his confession or signature robbery-murder pattern.


Paul Reid	Police Composite	Max Soffar

SECTIONS OF THE BRIEF
> Facts: An Unfair Trial
> Deprivation of the Right to Present Evidence of Innocence
> Deprivation of Right to Present Evidence Challenging Prosecution Evidence
> Discrimination in Grand Jury Selection Process
> Reversible Trial Errors
> Unconstitutional Capital Sentencing Proceeding and Other Errors

Legal Documents
> Soffar v. State of Texas: Brief (5/14/2007)

Additional Resources
> Soffar v. State of Texas - Overview (5/22/2007)

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