you're watching r t here is a look at the top stories of the week of twelve survivors of monday's siberian plane crash are in a stable condition that's now thought likely to fail or just break the aircraft landed friends cause it to fall to earth thirty one people including all the crew working full. time trying out for the latest peace plan for syria with the u.n. pressing the government and opposition to lay down weapons both sides of the conflict are expected to cease fire fights thursday or face further measures from the u.n. security council. a key power players an airship lot had as the muslim brotherhood

and the ruling military council and the words their prime candidates for next month's presidential vote sunday is the deadline for nominations with several hopefuls already barred from running and the short list of names to do next week. plus moscow slams the sansing a victor boredom vows to bring the legend russian arms dealer home after u.s. court gave him twenty five years for conspiring to kill americans the judge said there would be no evidence against bush if not for the u.s. sting operation that entrapped him. well up next as our worst special report about a man who's been scaping death for decades spied receiving capitol sentance. the unofficial motto here is that we don't joke around in texas. this story's happened to you but did you see that in that. we was for

you know some areas that we soon to be a school for a person for the good. as well as be executed and the system works like it is the written tree. all of these inmates know that death row is an impossible place to escape from. throughout the years thomas miller's hopes of his case being revisited have faded away by seasons past he has seen many of his companions depart for the execution room little to hold on to cheering his weight's just letters and a few visits by close friends or family who have also had to prepare for the execution. won't happen again but he has me i'll go if you're if you've been confronted to an executive i know that my friends who have been executives on always wanted to protect people they love from the trauma of looking at them die.

a few lawyers have tried to attack the texan system. jim marcus is one of them and he made a one of a claim just covering. it in his office of the law faculty of austin thomas miller case takes up a lot of space in the bench. jim marcus entered this case almost by chance in one thousand nine hundred four back then he was working for an organization of volunteer lawyers defending inmates with no means of their own row one there are five by the time case was over the file itself filled to fall it was a huge trial. because over the overtime we just collected all. a lot of evidence mostly documenting racism and. for months jim marcus studied all the files from the one nine hundred eighty six case and stumbled upon something. that dallas county had a manual that instructed prosecutors to discriminate

against potential jurors on the basis of race religion gender who were wearing what jim marcus discovered was staggering discrimination handbook written at the end of the sixties and used by judges to systematically exclude black members of the jury. basically it's based on stereotypes it's based on prejudices it says that. people who are from any minority group are going to empathize with the accused expresses a general distrust of women. and pretty clearly says don't take jewish from. not only jews but also fat people those who don't wear ties were considered m t conformists and were said to make bad jurors. they're looking for white

hunters. to be the jurors. it is clearly stated that white hunters are always good jurors for the state these prosecutors and thomas' case. they were not following us but if you look at their notes it'll say black male no tie and for no tie his beard no tie no ties wearing jeans. so you can see that with the with the notes show is that they were exactly this. the initials b m r for a black male he's a black man and has a beard that's one who is left out. f. is for latino female here's a hispanic lady who did not make it through selection. these are a few of many handwritten annotations corresponding to potential jury members presenting themselves to the court or the defendant. they will recall

but it. was the hatred that was going. through the process. in the bigotry about. discrimination that was coming openly going on with the system. that thomas miller's trial ten out of eleven black jurors were left out we met one of them. really feels agreed to meet us at an airport lobby. twenty two years after the miller trial he seems almost surprised by our questions to live in a society that is full of discrimination you have to have a thick skin and so therefore things bother me that way you know i don't take it personally if this is the truth will have you been asked to be

a good juror dear oh yes but go to the courts own as they call it a panel is. always rejected so. continuous. savage face this is we can sure say i guess i don't know but the thing is that yes i have been called to jury duty many times since then and i've never been selected to be part of a jury either when i was carol and i only testimonies of the ignored jurors overlapped. a movie near ten years ago by some young lawyers confirms this and also reassures sherry that her father was a victim of a truncated trial. so. i would ask him next them how did they feel it what were they feeling at the time when they could not. sit on the jury because they were black and that was they are wrong i feel like

you're here and you're a big. deal but i could. not listen to the evidence. i think even when i die races will still be going for. similar to what happened in the miller case more than ninety percent of black jurors have been left out from trials over the past forty years in dallas since. this is the whole were led by this man judge bill hill. how can one explain that such ways were left on punished. perhaps because the death penalty is a source of contention in the u.s. . we have officials here who are right wing politicians who do not value human life and who use the death penalty to promote their political careers and promote their their life and their lifestyle and all

our politicians are elected course our governor our state representatives our senators. our judges criminal court judges our district attorneys there are a lot and they like this they think it's good to be appear to be cuffed on crime and the toughest on crime they think they can be used to have a death only and the support of them. is the death penalty used as a means to profit bill hill's and now retired did not wish to comment on this. we really focused on two issues both having to do with the fairness of his trial one was the racism the other one was that you know thomas was shot by the police when he was arrested with a with a round of ammunition that explodes on impact so a bullet entered his abdomen and then exploded and shredded you know parts of his organs and so forth. and he was an intensive care for

a long time and they basically moved him from the hospital of the jail and tried him and at the time of his trial he had lost you know fifty pounds he was you know out of it he was on medication he was not confident to be tried. very poor health and incapable of attending a trial this confirms a document that we got ahold of. famous dr ari keogh of wrote the following. mr thomas miller was not able to defend himself even if he could be present at the audience. any man presenting such depression pain and wounds wouldn't be able to endure such a stressful event even more so if the trial was a life or death decision. in two thousand and one thomas miller had been on death row for already fourteen years when his lawyer jim

marcus finished his counter investigation which detailed the discrimination and irregular. artes of the trial. the file was sent to the appeals court of texas. i thought we had so much evidence there is no way that we can. and then we faced was executed for late february or twenty first two thousand and two. you know it was a sense of relief you know it's like all out can use music exhausted we are very very rare for something supreme court and you know live in order for words like. this it's like you know. in the beginning of two thousand and two this was the last chance the u.s. supreme court in washington is the highest in the land it is the only one capable

of revoking a stiff made decision each year the supreme court receives around one thousand mans from death row inmates and only two or three are accepted for thomas miller's defense a true race against death started so i was about it was less than a week before the execution and the supreme court. announced that it would hear the case so it was a huge relief. convinced that there was discrimination during the trial the supreme court demanded put the death row sentence be reexamined but the texan court did not see eye to eye with this decision had refused to admit the miller had been a victim of racist practice he was to be executed. next in justice supported by a strong conservative public opinion and by very active victim associations refuses all the examination of the case. i believe as we practice criminal justice in texas

we do a better job of it than any other state in america. one we execute our convicted capital murder we have the highest execution rate in america we're not afraid to do it we do it well we tolerate a lot in texas you can be anything you want in this state but be prepared to pay the consequences of your actions. and i think that the rest of the country should take note of all of that so in that respect i believe texas is the most progressive state in america. how can such confidence be understood when suspicions of judiciary errors increased in texas. and universities and for those who defend human rights the miller case has become a symbol. helper and is one of the main leaders of the abolitionist movement and teaches history at dulles university.

is not surprised by the ruthlessness of the texan authorities. and why do you think they want to kill the minorities so badly because the state is a hateful racist state that wants to kill poor and poor people and people of color this is a hate state this is the region the south is still hate for the american criminal justice system is discriminatory this is a normal part of the american criminal justice system and this state is among the worst of the worst the high profile nature of his case. which has embarrassed correct fully this state on multiple occasions to show the how wrong and terrible the state was in its prosecution of him the state will do all that it can it will make the extra effort to prove that the end result would be ok we

couldn't kill him but we'll make sure he never gets out do you think it would he would die in jail i don't think thomas nurul is ever going to see the light of day as a free man i hope that he would confronted with texan stubbornness and refusal to recognize any mistake in the miller case the supreme court decided in june two thousand and five to reverse the decision in its reports accounts denounced the selection of the jurors by race and concluded that there is no doubt that the use of force in texas allows judges to discriminate. with six votes against three judges of the supreme court ordered a new trial. cases during the sixty's seventy's and eighty's this daniel miller case goes all over the media for ever before had the state of texas been asked to revoke a death sentence once. i went in is

a matter. and when i weigh it i threw it down because the lead in told me that he had something to tell me so once it is and i said down he come out of it always molly and he tell me that his case had been heard at the supreme court and that they made a decision that they're going to retry his case that they will actually hear it the supreme court and at that point it was like oh hi the head start to wear a. he has an opportunity to actually get off death row. the texan justice hadn't said its last word the threat of execution returns. raised by the supreme court decision dallas county general attorney bill hill struck back. he refused to deny miller's guilt and warns that we will

request the death penalty at the new trial. police one tourist somebody and convict and prosecutors want to win for some reason the truth goes out the window nobody gives a damn about the truth they want to win. defense attorneys prosecutors they want to win. in order to win as the year two thousand and seven came to an end justice proposed a deal to thomas miller attorneys refer to it as an agreement but miller's friends and family saw it as a trap even the trial did take place again and he might end up sentenced to death or he could plead guilty and his sentence would be changed to life imprisonment in order not to die thomas miller had to accept to stop claiming the innocence which he had been defending for twenty years for his friends the choice was clear better

to plead guilty event to be sentenced to death again thomas miller still wants to defend his innocence but richard the detective found the words to tear him from it if you want to represent yourself i told you that i would stay with you. i would help you and i will do that but. be sure that there's only one thing that's going to happen. you're going to go to trial you're going to be found guilty and you're going to be sentenced to death again that's going to happen you're going to die but your record to save his life thomas miller finally decided to give up defending his innocence despite all the unanswered questions despite all the efforts that were made to counter investigate and despite the real doubt about whether or not he is guilty thomas miller signed. on march nineteenth two thousand and eight he signed this document in which he pleads guilty and sees. sentenced chains to life

imprisonment. he left death row forever and was transferred to this detention center where we met him nineteen years after our first encounter. with the goods. we. they'd hoped the us is teams a turn is the top of this with two weeks off in all different times that we had to form a people turning everything right. people are really sincere and of the appreciation for us as a human being. and they are was one of those two. to not go back from there when did you realize that this thread is. going to that's. when they say do we have

a license. to jersey or do we have a right sims and we shook our hands that he was good luck. the rest of life. if that court has something to begin. was just pressure there begins to rise all for those mentally and psychologically almost like physically that we carry around. him it was almost like a million times we don't really a million tons of pressure just began to just as gradually you know leave him there for was. but at the same time you know. because. for thomas miller and for all the inmates discriminated over the past few decades and texas hopes to have

a face of one man. craig watkins is the new attorney general of dallas county he follows the much feared pill hill and he is the first black man to take on this job in texas. the trial which he witnessed on september nineteenth two thousand and eight was a landmark one man walking forward between all his lawyers had spent twenty five years in prison for rape which he had always tonight finally authorized by the attorney general d.n.a. tests proved his innocence and the judge then had to decide if he were to be freed or notes. so. there was. a. fresh set.

of. tests. that are. not worth a. hero these. days and thank you thank you audience applauded thanks tony general walker personally congratulated johnny lindsay and wished him good luck he also told him how to term and he is to continue to fight against wrongful accusations. that johnny lindsay is the. one thousand for man to be free to know only a few months and more than three hundred files have yet to be examined. still with kids place so here it is a great it's a great day but you. won't know it's not for me up it's great if it comes just

system. and i hope that we can carry on this issue for you think it's easier to be in the fricken american to do this we're not you know i don't know if it's been here. but from where i come from i didn't have a choice i had to do this without saving many innocents in prison yes well you know that. how they exclude certain individuals from the jury because of their race. in texas years ago. and early ninety's mid ninety's we decided to change how we. actually have people shouldn't juries but i think i want a long way to make sure that our juries are diverse but we need to go even further because prosecutors versus culture this is just a small moment in time and so at the end of the day i think people understand

hopefully. it will ever become justice system a legal system that asks for forgiveness and gives freedom back to those who were wrongfully accused such as the image that's sure reka holds on to she dreams of freedom for her father. since his sentence has been changed to life imprisonment she can visit him every week she does not shy away from her one goal to get my dad up. and see what it's like maybe. there's no stopping point. there's no stopping twenty. to be truthful based on the law in the state of texas people draw from i don't normally get out of prison you know to your moments from the rest of life in prison

ok. so if we get out you know it would be a blessing that we'd like to be able to show that. a person who come from what you call the movers of molds you know you know. and or actually somehow the come from that and actually make a positive contribution to humanity so we hope and that there were calls people stop and look maybe execution is not maybe it's something else that we could do was start asking the people in order to prove that commitment was real you know to some degree or another which is where we can be positive as for me. life can be a similar example for your american journey you know. that a good idea. very. few centuries open and there goes the girls

a record for the moment for us throughout the curriculum yes i think like you told us miller was thirty four when he was sentenced is now sixty one. days. in theory it is possible to imagine a conditional release for good behavior and after more than twenty years spent in jail. but. in reality is fate is still in the hands of the texan she disarray system. what will what will probably the political will to debate the political battle.

it.

all. i'm sorry that i had to do this i've been in so much pain in the past year that i

can't take it anymore the stomach and chest pains have been getting worse and no doctor has been able to help me please know that i'll finally be at peace and with no more pain i wish i could have had a life with it was a bit always pictured her being my wife and mother to my kids i love you all see you all in heaven when your time comes i'm going to meet jesus christ. thousands of u.s. troops in iraq received one of these drugs a drug called lariam and it may have prevented many soldiers from getting sick and question tonight is whether or not soldiers were adequately warned about it's where side effects serious life change and side effects. make. the. director's cut of real life.