five thirty pm on sunday here in moscow hear your weekly headlines on r.t. the un backed peace plan for syria is on the wrong streets days ahead of a ceasefire deadline the syrian rebels have refused the regime's demands for guarantees they'll lay down arms before damascus recalls his own troops. all of egypt's presidential hopefuls have now submitted their applications ahead of the first round of the vote next month several candidates are hoping to fill the shoes of hosni mubarak who was ousted well now it's been more than

a year ago. i did other news of the week to secure the return of a victim of booth saying his case is politically motivated that's after a u.s. judge sentenced the russian businessman to twenty five years behind bars for conspiring to kill americans. next year and i meet a man who appears to have more the nine lives that's after he's managed to avoid his death sentence in the u.s. for more than thirty years he remains determined never to lose his lease on life. huntsville texas. the man who we are coming to see at the prison of women 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. from. the making. of that work. that's the. theory of thanks. time has flown by never did we think we would see him alive again. but. nineteen years after our first encounter so many questions are left unanswered how

did he stay alive has he changed will recognize each other. hello tell 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 our warrant we are given precisely one hour to interview thomas our time is short and this. is nothing to see. some nice and behave. quite a blessing in comparison to the situation there were folks we're due for release twenty years i did you but these fourteen. years.

sometime we reset and we took the plate back and figure out exactly how that is that we persevered. in light of the tremendous emotional psychological pressure that goes along with. such an excuse. 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.

is a little. the world is going to be do. you want to work this . world is. a little good for you to. think you you're straight in your face with this group which you seem to get. along 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 superior or because they slowed down on one mistake

or be it. the right. way to going to miscarry through. the critics in a way sort out this because it's a joke. all right that was considered a good so it's a wee bit of a mistake to you know the seal of the record but yes or no is difference that i'm going with. a black man accused of killing a white man. typical for texas. the over the. during that month of one thousand nine hundred four thomas miller was on the eve of his execution. it would go through were saying earlier before. we were not to see each other again.

mary what was the incident that landed thomas miller on death row. and it was an enigmatic and complex case for which we need to go twenty six years back in time and. in 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 g disagree system i'm third in social discrimination. a merciless machine that hides its actions but which the miller case will trouble.

a 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 hold up became a disaster. a young man died from numerous gunshot wounds he was a 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 rayner 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 i don't give a thing prison oh gosh i think they spent the better part of

eleven years. right now they're free they're free everything that was wrong. but there they go they didn't have any representation at all when you know what they are or some innocent person there are prosecutors there are police officers. it's going to dip and the problem is nobody hears very much of the truth . for justice they want to win you know they want to win this no matter what but 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 and work on the miller case that name is very familiar. these or the

convictions this is a bank robbery that he supposedly did. this is what all the witnesses are going to testify it's so you you have all of that for you if this unique evidence enabled richard to form his own opinion. one that undermines the official version well. well to argue that thomas was or was not there it'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 questions here you know who actually did the shooting there were five people that night four man and a woman armed and parks near the hotel according to the police reports it was about two am when the group entered the hotel went to the reception desk and asked the two employees for the cast resting. hotel clark douglas walker refused to comply

he was shot dead at the age of twenty five. 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 that you was in you have here you know. 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. the second time they show him a line. he can't be absolutely sure. in then to or to the end. he describes the other guy and then he describes thomas

in you know 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. are ok. five days after the crime it is in this quiet houston suburb at 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 and 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 he jumped on the court and start running. and was shot. we just make a move as well as per hour can be heard. somebody how do you see the sea of them they're going to be leaders be if you do you can. actually do me i told thomas that it certainly looked to me like he was supposed to bring you into the story. and. to tell us that no that he didn't

expect to be. to be stabbed in the back by his friend. in fact miller was 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 a couple murder i don't want to go broke i will help you here's your shoes. from the outset thomas miller tonight any involvement in the cry 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 and you have somebody else that is save my life and i'll tell you that thomas did it. when you have doubts. both the investigation and the arrest still weighs many questions but the police there is no doubt that thomas miller is guilty his punishment must be deaths 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 a man 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 was just a child when he was sentenced. this is the first time she returned to the hotel where her father was brought almost dying after his arrest. was only seven years

old i remember i was getting dressed for school and when i went to the wrong or my mom was she was about to call my hair 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 a family had kept her away from the start story. understand she asked us to show her the commits we have along with her husband bruce she hopes to find some you know that is. you see.

these tests. pristiq all of this should she. ever. he says they believe. to be. that he believed to be true. the first time. i was fifteen at the time he was. still me nothing him and our. visit like you know. if you want to know. what was i doing feel the. time. how did you feel because he's a big because i would get a letter your dad is due to be executed next week we all have to go down there he's visited for two days straight. enlisted in.

the sea. 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. proctoring completely. we are. about. to write about our daughter. and i. know you're ready to write. this just right. we sit down and we start to right. away you know it was. you know. this is the first appearance of thomas after numerous

years of isolation shot by a spanish television crew in one thousand nine hundred ninety. s. it was forty. eight years. there more than four hundred inmates alone. in a four square metres a misstep through their many black people many hispanic people many people without lawyers they have nothing else to do but wait the 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 thomas is exhausted from waiting. do you execution date. is going to be talking to you to. get it it wants to give you execution date. kid cope with day.

court waiting. a nightmare. believe me. just want to try execution date for anybody to go through. 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 french activist sandrine a short 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 parlance the prison where he said best for and has a city where the execution room is zero down here is the last throes of people are

sentenced to death it is their last chance to look outside and see nature and trees for their last chance to smell and feel because they've been a solitary confinement for so long as are opposite that in other us. as i remember a man sentenced today was said that that's each breath he took as a longer road to death here he's heard it louder and louder honest about the effect it was going to pass on exposing. thomas miller has been down this path many times . we just start crying you're in the we're so glad you see what i'm doing you know don't let us lose all. of us. through government. february july and the vampyr of ninety four may august and october of ninety five january april and july ninety six february two thousand and two every day just

another delay for miller death leaves ten times and then returns in thomas's case it's completely in human and and believe it or to has to go through this ten times in his life of what is a never ending torture and we haunted him until his last day. delaying the execution that will take place behind these walls can happen the night before or even in the final few minutes. the bureaucratic error one last appeal by the lawyer for 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 so out of his last hours.

that i was a chaplain and i was with ninety five i was to be with them to listen to them to help them with their last letters to make telephone calls for them to escort me and their visitors with their family or lawyers or anybody else and to be there when they needed something big or. whatever that would make them and i want to use would happen but that was what i wanted to. i was i stayed right with him all day. think telephones in the room writing from one from the governor or one from the attorney general and when i was through telephone rang i knew that which assigned to go. and i'd say it's time to go. door to unlock it and

i would lead them into this to the death chamber stand right next to. the most i want me to hold their hands and i would hold that hand until they got to purple. or the execution it had to put a bandage to and then i would stand right five inches from their right way and. i was while i put my client on their way you know was. coming straight to hell after they were they. think we came with them maybe you know because like i wanted thirty minutes or something like that right. you know this. is the point that we had reached where is that we were happy you don't think

you look overweight you know because we would have the opportunity. to finally get out of this place you know we sing i salute you it's horrible to watch somebody who doesn't know what they're thinking. he was one of the few that. wrote to get prepared he was very cooperative and i think that he understood. when he was there that one i'm not anti-racist it can be you know more than thirty percent of the people who are if you did texas are not like. exhausted and uphold after sixteen years in the death of a pastor pickett left the prison of ministration 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 huntsville prison if. nothing is missing but motional movie describing life in prisons and the forced work ok in you they 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. nothing to see people come from far away to see it stall and electric chair nicknamed old sparky it was discontinued in one

nine hundred sixty four lethal injection has replaced it. oh yeah that's right you're going to paris. how does things that fit. for shivering instant the tourist can even play prisoner. so i say i'm not real prisoner that.

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm trying hard welcome to the big picture.