Key Takeaways

• Prosecutors cited false evidence, a coerced confession, and racial bias in overturning Tommy Lee Walker’s conviction.
• The exoneration came nearly 70 years after his execution, marking a rare posthumous correction.
• A powerful moment during the hearing brought together the sons of both Walker and the victim, underscoring the case’s generational impact.

Seven decades after Texas executed Tommy Lee Walker, officials have formally acknowledged what many in Dallas’ Black community long believed: the state got it wrong. Walker, a Black teenager, was put to death in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker, a crime prosecutors now say he did not commit.

Walker was just 19 when he was arrested in 1953 during a period of racial panic in Dallas, when rumors of a so-called “Negro prowler” fueled mass police roundups of Black men. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Walker was questioned after being brought to a police station, where he saw officers beating another Black man. He was then interrogated for hours without a lawyer and told he would face the death penalty if he did not confess. Walker signed a confession and quickly recanted. There was no physical evidence tying him to the crime.

At his sentencing, Walker said, “I feel that I have been tricked out of my life.” Before his execution, he used his final words to maintain his innocence.

Who is Tommy Lee Walker and what was he accused of?

On the night Venice was attacked in 1953, Walker was with friends before rushing to be with his girlfriend, Mary Louise Smith, who was in labor. Their son, Ted Smith, was born in the early hours of Oct. 1. According to the Associated Press, 10 witnesses later testified that Walker was at the hospital at the time of the crime. Still, an all-white jury convicted him.

A police officer alleged that Venice identified her attacker as “a negro,” even though her throat had been cut and other witnesses said she was unable to speak, per the DPIC.

What prosecutors uncovered decades later

In January 2026, Dallas County officials unanimously passed a resolution formally exonerating Walker. The resolution stated that his arrest, prosecution, and conviction were “fundamentally compromised by false or unreliable evidence, coercive interrogation tactics, and racial bias,” calling them “egregious violations of Mr. Walker’s constitutional rights,” according to the DPIC.

Investigators later found that then-District Attorney Henry Wade systematically excluded non-white jurors, withheld exculpatory evidence, and even told jurors he wanted to “pull the switch” himself.

A moment of accountability and healing

The exoneration hearing included an emotional moment when Walker’s son hugged Venice’s son, Joseph Parker. “I’m so sorry for what happened,” Joseph said. “And I’m so sorry for your loss.” Ted spoke candidly about the toll his father’s execution took on his family, explaining that the loss shaped both his life and his mother’s. Fighting back tears, he told commissioners, “I’m 72 years old, and I still miss my daddy.” He recalled what his mother later told him: “She said, ’Baby, they [gave] your father the electric chair for something he didn’t do.’”

Walker’s life was taken, but his name has finally been cleared, a reminder of the cost of racial bias and the long road toward accountability in the justice system.