Dallas County officials have posthumously declared Tommy Lee Walker innocent, more than 70 years after the state of Texas executed him in the electric chair.
Walker was just 19 years old when he was arrested in 1954 for the rape and murder of Venice Lorraine Parker, a white store clerk killed while waiting for a bus in Dallas. He was executed in 1956, before his 22nd birthday.
On January 21, the Dallas County Commissioners Court formally cleared Walker of all charges, ruling that his arrest, prosecution, and execution were fundamentally compromised by false evidence, coercive interrogation tactics, and racial bias, according to court findings released alongside the decision…