Dallas County Formally Declares Executed Man Innocent After 70 Years

A Historic Moment of Justice

In a historic and deeply emotional move, Dallas County officials voted Wednesday to symbolically exonerate a man executed nearly 70 years ago for a crime he could not have committed. Walker, 21, was executed in 1956 for the murder of Venice Lorraine Parker. The last thing he said before he was executed was, 'I'm innocent.'

Tommy Lee Walker was 19 when he was accused of the rape and murder of Venice Lorraine Parker near Love Field airport, though that night, Sept. 30, 1953, he had been attending the birth of his first and only child at Baylor hospital. According to previous reporting from The Dallas Morning News, Parker was found with her throat slashed on Sept. 30, 1953. Months later, Walker was picked up by police for questioning in connection with a robbery at a gas station where he'd once worked. Instead, he was interrogated for hours about Parker's death. Out of fear, Walker said, he confessed, but quickly recanted.

Walker said that after hours of threats and promises, he was coerced into giving a false confession that he immediately tried to recant. He professed his innocence to the judge after he was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury. "I feel that I have been tricked out of my life," Walker said.

Sons Meet Across Racial Divide

The same is true of their children, now in their 70s, who met Wednesday for the first time. Two men whose lives were shaped by trauma more than 70 years ago met and embraced each other for the first time. The son of Tommy Lee Walker and the son of Venice Parker were victims of what Dallas County has determined to be a travesty of justice. Even the son of the murder victim supported a proposed resolution to exonerate the man convicted of killing his mother. "Society and the justice system seem to have a knack for taking the biggest court cases and screwing them up royally," said Joe Parker, Venice Parker's son.

He broke down talking about the father he barely remembers. "I'm 72 years old, and I still miss my daddy," said Smith. "They gave your father the electric chair for something he didn't do... and it hurts every time I talk about it because I miss my father. I miss him dearly." Smith was 2 when his father was executed.

He and Smith hugged one another, calling each other buddies and friends. Although both lost parents tragically, it's justice that brought them together. He said he never believed Walker was guilty of his mother's rape and murder. "If nothing else comes from this situation or this hearing or this trial from what happened, it's that we learn to try not to make the same mistake again," said Parker.

Evidence of Injustice Revealed

"The Dallas County District Attorney's office of today would not have pursued a criminal case against Tommy Lee Walker for the sexual assault and murder of Venice Parker," said Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot. The District Attorney, along with freelance journalists and law professors, laid out more than a decade of research that found Walker was falsely accused of murder during a time of racial hysteria, discredited witness accounts and false confessions.

Using what investigators would now consider a coerced confession, police charged Walker with the crime. During the trial, multiple witnesses, including Walker's girlfriend, testified that he was innocent. A Dallas police officer, the first on scene, claimed Parker told him a Black man was the attacker. After Walker was arrested months later, it took an all-white jury less than two hours to convict him.

Legacy of Healing and Reform

The resolution acknowledged that "present-day Dallas County officials bear no responsibility" for the actions that robbed Walker of his future and Smith of his father, but those on the commissioners court Wednesday said they consider it a "moral obligation" to restore what they can of Walker's innocence. "We owe it to his soul to find innocence," Commissioner Andy Sommerman said.

The resolution exonerating a man killed by the state at age 21 was mostly symbolic, but it allows Walker's family to build a proud legacy in his name. "We can move on with our lives because I don't have to go looking over my shoulder," Smith said. "'Oh, that's Tommy Lee Walker's son, that man did that.' I don't have to do that."

This unprecedented acknowledgment serves as both closure for grieving families and a stark reminder of how far the justice system has evolved since the segregated 1950s. While Walker cannot be brought back, his formal exoneration ensures his memory will be defined by truth rather than the racial hysteria that led to his wrongful execution.