three. three. three blown video for your media project a free media gun to our. five thirty pm time these are your headlines on r t the first u.s. marines reach australia as america's military moves in on the asia pacific region to challenge china's growing influence. russia warns against arming the syrian rebels with peace out for it's under way saying they can't topple president also and it will only lead to carnage. and a haze rejection of palestinian requests to investigate alleged israeli war crimes on their territory probes doubt over the ports and she ality. next on r.t.l.

special report living under the shadow of death as we bring you the story of a man who's been on death row in the u.s. for twenty years. huntsville texas. the man who we are coming to see at the prison of wind should have been dead a long time ago he was to be executed by lethal injection. a man sentenced to capital punishment more than twenty years ago for a crime which he has always denied. that we're. going to get. rid of a. court. that's the. theory

of thanks. time has flown by never did we think we would see him alive again. they were. nineteen years after our first encounter so many questions are left unanswered how did he stay alive has he changed will we recognize each other. hello time us last year how are you this is him thomas miller. thank you. for. thomas and his amazing smile unchanged after so many years on death row the meeting is monitored closely next to

us a warden and the man responsible for media in the prison we are being listened to. and are warned we are given precisely one hour to interview thomas our time assures them as. if this isn't just. some nice and be. quite a blessing in comparison to the situation that we're faced with. for almost twenty years how did you find these fourteen. years. sometime we sit and we can put them back and figure out exactly how the years that we persevered. in my or the tremendous remember emotional psychological pressure that goes along with. such an extent. how can one keep it together for twenty years while waiting for his execution thomas

miller was thirty four when he ended up in prison is now sixty one. his life should have ended here in a death row cemetery much like more than four hundred other people over the past twenty years in texas. when we met him one thousand years ago he said that he only thought of one thing. the day of his death. the minute he would be executed. was one of. the world's going to be do you want to. know what is. the legal address forward.

in new york straight in your case this proves that you're allowed to get. away with this go away if you want to. how is he survived since one thousand nine hundred ninety four. it was with these words that thomas miller expressed his fear of execution and also all the questions about his case nineteen years he waited on death row nineteen years claiming his innocence. or syria or the calls it's about going on with mr the. right way to go ministry through a shrill cry but. in a place without this because this is you know. all right i just consider a field. and we live right next door to you know the city of the record well yes or no is difference that it was. a black man accused of killing

a white man. typical for texas. the over the. during the month of the one nine hundred ninety four thomas miller was on the eve of his execution are going to go through were saying earlier before your words go. by. we were not to see each other again. and error and what was the incident cut landed thomas miller on death row. it was an enigmatic and complex case for which we need to go twenty six years back in time. when our investigation first leads us to the

newspaper archives of the dallas library. a crime among many others but this one went far deeper. vague police reports manipulation and the supreme power of a jeep history system in social discrimination. a merciless machine that hides its actions but which the miller case will trouble. little is known about what thomas miller is accused of in the middle of the night criminals broke into a holiday inn on the outskirts of dallas they were after the cash register the holdup became a disaster. a young man died from numerous gunshot wounds he was the hotel

receptionist. but what exactly happened on the night of november sixteenth one thousand nine hundred five one man may have an answer to this key question richard rayna is not just a detective but a maverick. he also specializes in the counter investigations of death sentence cases it is thanks to him that innocent inmates were freed after many years on death row for no good they spent prison oh gosh i think they spent the better part of eleven years. right now they're free they're free everything they did was wrong. but there they go they didn't have any representation at all when you don't work there or summons or is there or prosecutors here or police officers. that's going to be

a problem is nobody hears very much truth. or justice they want to win you know they want to win this no matter what with this case it was incredible i made copies of every statement given by the. by the policeman. because certainly they had too many months where necessary to gain richard's trust and now he is willing to show his work on the miller case that name is very familiar. these or the convictions this is a bank robbery that he supposedly did. and this is what all of the witnesses are going to testify to so you you have all of that for even if this unique evidence enables richard to form his own opinion. undermines the official version groet. well to argue that thomas was or was not there you know that's

debatable but to actually come up with who did the shooting. we don't you know i can say without a doubt there is question here who actually did the shooting. there were five people last night. four man and a woman armed and parks near the hotel according to the police report it was about two am when the group entered the hotel went to the reception desk and asked the two employees for the cast read to stay. hotel clark douglas walker refused to comply he was shot dead at the age of twenty five. is young colleague. is the only witness of the crime thomas miller is pointed as being the murderer of the young receptionist based soley on his testimony. richard is not satisfied with his official version at all only witness it was in you have it here

you know yes this is irrefutable yeah this is you know he he clearly tells them that he came to identify he didn't see anyone he said i'm too tired i didn't see them. and the second time they show him a line up he can't be absolutely sure. in then towards the end. he describes the other guy and then he describes thomas in your when you have something like that. no you know. this story of the self contradicting president and only witness for the richard rayna he now wants to know about the arrest.

think we're ok. five days after the crime it is in this quiet houston suburb that the police arrested thomas miller. this is the street where the shooting took place. actually the police were already waiting for thomas. at night when miller drove his car down a dead end the police ambushed him but they arrested in those plans gunfire broke out. it is in front of this house at the shooting took place. this is ninety eight to fifty one. when he saw the police thomas miller tried to escape. to try to get away through here. he was

severely wounded by several gunshots and he jumped onto a car and started running. and was shot. and. we just we could move his legs per hour. and then we heard. somebody say you see maybe it's the media's here if we gave you a clue. actually to me i told thomas that it certainly looked to me like he was supposed to but you know and that's the end of the story. and. know that he didn't expect to be. you know to be stabbed in the back by his friend. in fact thomas willis denounced by his friend john hicks he confessed to the robbery but associated miller with the murder of the young hotel clerk.

when you have a lot of people involved in a crime those that come to the prosecutor first and say i'll cooperate but i don't want to be charged with capital murder i don't want to go broke i will help you here's your shooter from the outset thomas miller tonight any involvement in the crime in the end john hicks only served a few years in prison while miller was sentenced to death in this case you have witnesses that you have a witness a survivor this is he came to identify him and you have somebody else that says save my life and i'll tell you that thomas did it. when you have doubts. both the investigation and the arrest still raise many questions with the police there is no doubt the thomas miller is guilty his punishment must be dead in march

one nine hundred eighty six in dallas he was sentenced to capital punishment by an almost all white jury. the judge was bill hill no one for his discrimination against black people. one young lady wants to know everything about this twenty year old trial. is thomas miller's daughter just a child when he was sentenced. this is the first time she has returned to the hotel where her father was almost dying after his arrest. was only seven years old. when i went into the role with my mom was she was about to call me here and she was like do you know who that was that was on television. and she said that was your dad and at the time they were showing. the police department and i became really

really sad and i was crying because i didn't want to go to school at that time. for years she didn't know anything about the case as her family kept her away from the start story. to understand she asked us to show her the documents we have along with her husband she hopes to find some you know that he is. you see. these. christie full of this shooting. he said he believed. to be. that he believed to be the tree. the first time i actually seen i was fifteen at the time he was. still.

seeing him an hour. visit with him it's like you know. you want to know what have i. was i doing. all the. time. how did you feel was the state's a big because i would get a letter your dad is due to be executed next week we had to go down there nobody's business two days straight it's like what you know why drop. in list in a certain amount of hours. to see him in. the bed is a very scary moment for you to know you can lose one of your parents within a manner of me it's. the first. it's like proctoring completely.

traumatized you know you know. about. to write a letter to our daughter. you know wife. you know when you're ready to write a letter you just sit there and it's just right. what we said and we still have to write this letter. you know was. you know. this is the first appearance of thomas after numerous years of isolation shot by a spanish television crew in one thousand one thousand nine. hundred forty. eight you know. robbery or murder there are more than four hundred inmates alone. in a four square metres

a misstep for there are many black people many hispanic people many people without lawyers they have nothing else to do but wait for more time goes by the more they drown in solitude time is never ending but death comes closer by the minute in the year one thousand nine hundred nine. from waiting. do you. believe. it's going. to get it will still give you execution date you. can't go. a day. before. the nightmare. in believe me. just want it to be execution is enough for anybody to go. high security prison. is found in the middle of the texan countryside. this death

row has the highest number of executions in the us an inmate waits for an average of ten years before being executed. for a long time friends activist sundry no george has been alongside thomas. miller fighting against the death penalty and the horrors of waiting on death row a measure of what we are on the road between poland ski prison where he said this rule and has made city where the education route is down here is the last throes of people are sentenced to death it is so last chance to look outside and see nature and treat the water at their last sense of smell and feel or because they've been a solitary confinement for so long as are all of that in other us but that was i remember a man sentenced to death who said that that's each breath he took as

a young the road to death he heard he's heard the it louder and louder on this but the effect it was going to pass while exposing. thomas miller has been down this path many times. we just are crying you're you know we're going to sleep we'll do you know don't let us lose our. house. for. february july i'm a vendor of ninety four may august and october of ninety five january april and july ninety six february two thousand and two every day there's no delay for miller def leaves ten times and then returns in comas this case is completely in human and and that it is going to have to go through this ten times in his life he's a never ending torture and we haunted him until he said last days. delaying the

execution that will take place behind these walls can happen the night before or even in the final few minutes. of bureaucratic error one last appeal by the lawyer or the mobilization of a few people may be enough to prevent this terrible end while the wardens and witnesses arrive at wal. the one who is to be executed is no longer master of the passage of time only one man stays close to him throughout his last hours. i was a chaplain and i was with the ninety five it was to be with them to listen to them to help them with their last letters to make telephone calls for them to a story in their vision or their family. lawyers or anybody else and to be there when they needed something bigger schmock whatever that would make

them and i want to use word happen but that was what i wanted to be. out of. i was i stayed right with him all day. think telephones in the room writing from one from the governor one from the attorney general i'm going there with some telephone rang i knew that was. the sign to go. and i'd say it's time to go. door to unlock it and i would lead him into this to the death chamber stand right next to. a most them on me to hold their hands i would hold that hand until they got the order where the execution it had to put a bandage to and then i would stand right five inches from their right way

and that was why i put my hand on their way to help us. come and stayed till afterward it. think we came with them maybe it was like our own want to put him in something like that right. you know this. is a point that did we reach where is that we were happy you know to get it over with you know because we would have an opportunity to. confront to get out of this place you know we say it's really it's horrible to watch somebody that doesn't know what there has. he was one of the few that. wrote to get prayer he was very cooperative and i think that he

understood for a moment when he was there that one i'm not anti racist it can be you know more than fifty percent of the labor who are actually did they are not like. exhausted in the polls after sixteen years in the death pastor pickett left the prison administration and has chosen to fight it from the outside in a book he speaks of the atrocity of the system the racism and the execution of innocents because of these radical opinions has been subject to threats and tax inquiries. the state of texas is not one to tolerate criticism of its ways and even if these executions do not help lower the crime rate these cowboys care for their reputation. even proudly promote the

death penalty in a museum dedicated to it in hunts best person who's doing it. so nothing is missing from the devotional movie describing life in prisons and the forced work of the inmates you may also specify that there is no air conditioning no intimacy in the cells no tourists are reassured security is at its highest level and the number of prosecutions is increasing. and it is see people come from far away to see it's still an electric chair nicknamed old sparky it was discontinued in one nine hundred sixty four lethal injection has replaced it. oh yes that's right you go on. how does things that fit. for shivering instance the tourists can even play prisoner. sites they are not real

prisoners that. the filmmaker. and. the. director's cut of real life made in prison on parties.

all. mission free accreditation free as for judges free. range and free.