{"id":135935,"date":"2026-01-24T02:18:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:18:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/135935\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T02:18:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:18:19","slug":"tommy-lee-walker-exonerated-by-dallas-county-70-years-after-execution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/135935\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommy Lee Walker exonerated by Dallas County 70 years after execution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n <\/p>\n

Nearly 70 years after the state of Texas<\/a> put him to death, Dallas County officials formally exonerated Tommy Lee Walker, a 21-year-old Black man executed two years after being wrongfully convicted of the rape and murder of a White woman.<\/p>\n

Dallas County District Attorney John Creuzot on Wednesday asked commissioners to sign a resolution acknowledging Walker’s innocence after finding he was coerced into a confession and convicted by an all-White jury.<\/p>\n

The case, the oldest assigned to the Dallas County DA\u2019s Conviction Integrity Unit, involved Walker, a 19-year-old accused of raping and murdering<\/a> Venice Parker, a 31-year-old White woman, on her way home from work in 1953.<\/p>\n

On the night of the killing, Walker was visiting his girlfriend, Mary Louise Smith, who was nine months preg\u00adnant, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPI<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Tommy <\/p>\n

Tommy Lee Walker during a trial in which he was convicted of killing a woman in 1954. (Dallas Public Library)<\/p>\n

LOUISIANA DEATH ROW INMATE FREED AFTER NEARLY 30 YEARS AS OVERTURNED CONVICTION UPENDS CASE<\/a><\/p>\n

Though witnesses confirmed he was with Smith, he was prosecuted for the murder, which happened 3 miles across town, FOX 4 Dallas reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walker’s son was born the day after the killing<\/a> on Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

Multiple witnesses testified Parker was unable to speak after the attack due to a gash in her neck. However, one police officer claimed she described her attacker as a Black man, according to the DPI.<\/p>\n

\"Tommy <\/p>\n

Tommy Lee Walker was exonerated after his execution after being convicted of killing a woman in 1954. (Dallas Public Library)<\/p>\n

MARTHA MOXLEY CASE: KENNEDY COUSIN BREAKS SILENCE ON TROUBLED UPBRINGING, ARREST WARRANT IN MURDER MYSTERY<\/a><\/p>\n

During a review of the case, the district attorney’s office learned hundreds of Black men were questioned about the killing, solely based on their race<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walker was allegedly interrogated for hours with\u00adout an attor\u00adney, and authorities told him he would face the death penal\u00adty unless he con\u00adfessed, according to the DPI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Walker signed a\u00a0con\u00adfes\u00adsion but almost imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly recant\u00aded. There was no oth\u00ader evidence\u00a0against\u00a0him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials also said the state allowed misleading evidence during the trial<\/a>, and the prosecutor took the stand himself as a witness and told the jury Walker was guilty, according to FOX 4.<\/p>\n

“I feel that I\u00a0have been tricked out of my life,” Walker said at his sen\u00adtenc\u00ading hear\u00ading.<\/p>\n

Walker was executed by an electric chair May 12, 1956, at 21 years old.<\/p>\n

\"Tommy <\/p>\n

Tommy Lee Walker takes the stand during his murder trial. (Dallas Public Library)<\/p>\n

MANHATTAN DA TO RETRY PEDRO HERNANDEZ AFTER CONVICTION IN 1979 KIDNAPPING, KILLING WAS OVERTURNED<\/a><\/p>\n

“In observance of the constitutional rights afforded to all citizens and in consideration of newly available scientific evidence, the Dallas County District Attorney\u2019s Office could not and would not have prosecuted Tommy Lee Walker for the rape and murder of Venice Lorraine Parker,” Creuzot wrote in a statement.<\/p>\n

Creuzot said his office dove into the case with assistance from the Innocence Project after Walker\u2019s son, his only living descendant, brought it to their attention.<\/p>\n

Walker’s son, Ted Smith, 72, gave testimony at his father’s posthumous exoneration, noting his moth\u00ader nev\u00ader recov\u00adered after the exe\u00adcu\u00adtion.<\/p>\n

“He told my mother and she told me. He said, \u2018You give me the chair that belongs to someone else. I am innocent.\u2019 That is the last thing my mother told me,” Ted Smith told FOX 4. “This exoneration means the world to me.”<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n

The resolution stated the county “deems it a\u00a0moral oblig\u00ada\u00adtion to acknowl\u00adedge the injus\u00adtice sur\u00adround\u00ading the con\u00advic\u00adtion of Tommy Lee Walker, con\u00adfront his\u00adto\u00adry, and affirm Dallas County\u2019s com\u00admit\u00adment to jus\u00adtice for all per\u00adsons, whether liv\u00ading or deceased. \u2026 [J]ustice has no statute of\u00a0limitations.”<\/p>\n

Parker’s son, Joseph Parker, 77, also attended the hearing, hugging Smith and apologizing for the loss of his father.<\/p>\n

Alexandra Koch is a Fox News Digital journalist who covers breaking news, with a focus on high-impact events that shape national conversation.<\/p>\n

She has covered major national crises, including the L.A. wildfires, Potomac and Hudson River aviation disasters, Boulder terror attack, and Texas Hill Country floods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Nearly 70 years after the state of Texas put him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135936,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6435,712,2461,32,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-135935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-crime-world","tag-dallas-fort-worth","tag-homicide","tag-police-and-law-enforcement","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135935","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135935"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135935\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135935"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135935"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135935"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}