Set in a Dallas courtroom, two sons come together over justice 70 years after a wrongful execution.

DALLAS — In 1954, 19-year-old Tommy Lee Walker was convicted of the rape and murder of Venice Parker, a white woman. As crowds gathered, he sat in a Dallas County courtroom awaiting his fate.

Seventy years later, only feet from where Walker once sat, his son, Edward Lee Smith, is still waiting.

“Growing up without a father is hard for me,” Smith said.

Smith was born just hours after Parker was murdered near Love Field. 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.

“She said, ‘Baby, they’re giving your father the electric chair,’” said Smith as he described what his mother told him. He was only two years old when his father was executed in 1956.  

“I had to go without a father for 70-something years, and I miss it. It’s not a day passed, I don’t grieve,” said Smith.

He has been fighting for his father’s innocence for decades.

Journalist Mary Mapes wrote about Walker’s case and gained the attention of The Innocence Project and the Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project. They said one of the officers involved was a known Ku Klux Klan member. They also said officers arrested Walker without probable cause, suppressed evidence and used interrogation techniques that led to a false confession.

Walker later denied having anything to do with Parker’s murder. 

In a video clip from 1954, Walker told the judge, “I feel that I have been tricked out of my life. There’s a lot of other people who have been convicted of crimes they committed and were turned loose. I haven’t done anything and have not been turned loose.”

Dallas County Criminal District Attorney John Creuzot argued before County Commissioners on Wednesday that Walker was wrongfully convicted. 

“It is my duty to make every effort to right the wrongs of the past,” said Creuzot.

In a unanimous decision, County Commissioners agreed. 

“The Dallas County Commissioners Court does hereby formally recognize and declare that Tommy Lee Walker was wrongfully convicted and executed,” said John Wiley Price, Dallas County Commissioner, District 3.

“It’s a day of justice that they’ve waited for and especially for Mr. Smith,” said Creuzot. “He knew his father was innocent, but now it’s public. That stain has gone away.”

The decision brought Creuzot and many to tears. He said this case hits home for him. 

“I grew up in a segregated New Orleans, and I remember what that was like. I remember when you had to sit at the back of the bus,” said Creuzot. “I have a 25-year-old son. I can’t imagine that at age 22, my life would’ve been over with, and I can’t imagine that the only thing I could have done to my son was to tell him to reach through the bars and touch me. So, it’s just hard.”

Joseph Parker, the son of Venice Parker, was also in the courtroom, celebrating as the decision was made.

“I was pleased with the decision,” said Parker. “There were just way too many things that were fishy at best.”

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.

After his mother’s death, Parker was raised by his grandparents. He met Smith for the first time in-person at the hearing. 

“We both grew up in spite of it, which just goes to show that human beings can survive if they make the right decisions,” said Parker.  

He and Smith hugged one another, calling each other buddies and friends. Although both lost parents tragically, it’s justice that brought them together.

“I learned through my family, my wife and my family to love everybody. In spite of it all, what happened to my father, I still love people,” said Smith.

Commissioners present Smith and his family with a resolution declaring his father’s innocence.