On behalf of Eugene, welcome everyone!

Nadine et Eugene Broxton

My name is Nadine Broxton, I am married to Eugene Broxton, who has been a death row inmate in Livingston, Texas, since 1991. I got to know my husband in 2003, through a Web site designed by one of his Italian friends, who recently passed away because of Covid. From the very beginning, I have consistently followed his case, clearly not taking into account all the lies and horrible things put one line by both hateful and racist people, whose sole purpose was to see an execution date set for Eugene for various murders for which there was absolutely no evidence.  

Eugene Broxton

Later, I decided to visit Eugene and, even though I am no professional investigator, I found monumental inconsistencies and errors, plus pure lies that were said during Eugene’s trial, which all could have sent him straight to the execution chamber. I kept track of my husband’s appeals with state courts and soon realized that Eugene had had, I think, the worst lawyers throughout these years. His case had been totally botched from the very beginning. When I met one of his lawyers, who believed in his innocence, he however told me that it was too late to take action! He later withdrew from the case because of his very serious health problems.

Fate led a wonderful woman, Cathryn, along our path. She has been working so hard to save Eugene’s life; she is a blessing to us… She conducted very careful and thorough investigations, she found the right persons to help my husband « pro bono » (no legal fees are charged), through DNA tests for which absolutely all costs were paid because this law firm trusted Eugene’s version. Findings derived from DNA tests were what we had hoped for and expected: Eugene has nothing to do with this murder. They found the DNA profiles of two different men, that of the deceased woman’s husband and that of an unknown person. Cathryn is conducting the investigation alone and keeps me constantly informed of the situation.

So, 2016 was a year marked by the great joy connected with the DNA test results. Finally, in September 2022, the « Court of Criminal Appeals » in Texas accepted Eugene’s appeal and granted to him an « evidentiary hearing »; he will be able to submit all the new evidence. The train to freedom is finally lurching forward again, we have great hope in obtaining a new trial, this is truly extraordinary!!

I feel that it is important for me to mention to you that my husband is one of the 6 men in Texas who was judged based on his race; as a Black person, he was considered as dangerous for society by a racist judge who was forced to resign in 2018. The expert in psychology said the same thing and he never had any problems; he continued his sad and despicable work. His opinion about Eugene is strictly forbidden by the universal declaration of human rights, article 7, which stipulates that no one can be judged on the basis of the colour of their skin.

I am launching a call for funds as I hope I will be able to help my husband be in better health – he suffers from severe diabetes after 31 years of being given poor quality food. I would like to make him enjoy life again after spending 31 years in total isolation. His life was stolen from him. Despite all this, he was able to remain sane in a tiny cell the size of a bathroom. Your donations will help him come to France once he is released, buy new clothes, pay for his eye surgery and new teeth…

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The French TV channel France 2, with Faustine Bollaert’s program, kindly made Eugene’s story known in « Ça commence aujourd’hui ».

Testimony taken from the program broadcast on September 28, 2021 on France 2
Testimony taken from the program broadcast on May 23, 2023 on France 2

Case summary

Eugene BROXTON is an African-American man who was born on February 27, 1955 in Louisiana; he lived in an orphanage from the age of seven, because of his mother’s neglect and abuse, and then was on his own from the age of 14. He was arrested in Houston, Texas, on May 18, 1991 for the rape and capital murder of Sheila Dockens, which had occurred 2 days before. Eugene Broxton has always maintained his innocence. According to the police, Mr. Broxton, who was supposedly a motel manager, assumedly entered the room occupied by Ms. Dockens, who was 20 years old, and her young husband, Waylon Dockens. He allegedly tied them and robbed them of their money before shooting them with Mr. Dockens’s weapon.

Mr. Dockens survived despite his injuries. He was wounded in the ear and had been given tranquilizers; while still in hospital, he was visited by investigators who showed 5 pictures to him, including one of Eugene Broxton, who had been denounced by Christopher Shook, the initial suspect. Shook claimed that he lived with Eugene, when actually Eugene just sold cannabis to him. Later, at the police station, during a « line-up » (technique used by police officers to enable a victim to possibly identify a suspect among a “sample” of several individuals, on the basis of pictures), Dockens « recognized » Eugene.

In addition to this eye-witness’s identification, the evidence against Eugene relied on the statements given by Christopher Shook, a known convict and « snitch » to whom Eugene Broxton allegedly mentioned the robbery and murder and gave the money which had been stolen. This was the easy explanation that Mr Shook found to justify why this money was in his possession. The evidence also included a police testimony about the reasons why Mr. Broxton’s girlfriend had the victim’s purse. Shook, who owed money to Eugene, apparently gave it to him to settle his debt. Christopher Shook, a self-proclaimed « born-again Christian », who was released from jail after denouncing Eugene, died of an overdose in Houston in 2016.
Eugene Broxton, who had already spent 8 years of his life in the infamous and sinister Angola prison in Louisiana for the theft of a leather jacket, was found guilty on April 30, 1992 and sentenced to death on May 6, 1992. The all-white jury was never told that a woman had heard three witnesses tell her that they had seen two white men enter the motel room before hearing fire shots. This woman, who wanted to testify, was not able to do so as the prosecutor discredited her.

On June 12 in the same year, investigators from the Harris County answered a call following gun shots from the same motel in Houston, where the crime weapon was found (i.e. the gun owned by Dockens, the victim’s husband), as well as another weapon and almost 900,000 dollars in a safe, plus a small quantity of cocaine. The prosecutor failed to disclose this discovery to Mr. Broxton or to his lawyer…

However, in 2001, Eugene was hopeful again – his case was submitted to the federal court, for a new resentencing trial, after Dr Quijano, the expert in psychology was red-flagged in 7 different cases for his blatant racism, in 2000. But we struggle to understand why Mr Moran, the court-appointed lawyer at the second trial, called upon the services of this expert again, despite his clearly admitted racism, and against the opinion of the mitigation expert in the case, Gina Vitale, who considered this choice as counter-productive. Mr Quijano just talked with Eugene for barely half an hour, and did not budge at the second trial as he maintained in 2003 that because Eugene was black, he would continue to be a threat to society if released.

Also, the prosecution still failed to advise Eugene of the discovery of the weapon, which represents another fault. As a result, Eugene was sentenced to death again on November 14, 2003, by the same judge – Michael McSpadden. This criminal judge in office from 1982 to 2018 was reprimanded for his comments about black suspects, who, according to him, receive poor advice from their parents when they’re indicted, and should be more submissive. This judge, who was officially discredited by legal institutions for his bias, died in September 2021.

After using up all appeals possible at state level, Robert Rosenberg, who then represented Eugene, filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus at federal level (based on the violation of Eugene’s constitutional rights, such as the right to effective defence). It was only during the investigation that the lawyer realized that the prosecution had failed to disclose the discovery of the weapon, the drug and the big amount of money one month after the initial trial. (Indeed, during the trial, the prosecutor had gone as far as presenting a different gun, thereby inducing the misleading impression that the crime weapon had not been found).

In 2014, after Mr. Rosenberg withdrew from the case for health reasons, Cathryn Crawford was appointed as lawyer by the court. After a long and careful investigation, Mrs Crawford was able to find material evidence from the crime scene. On October 15, 2015, a judge ordered a suspension of federal proceedings so that the defence could ask for DNA tests from legal authorities in Texas.

The state first authorised the testing of 5 of the 32 pieces of evidence identified by Eugene’s lawyer, and then all samples, thanks to the eighty thousand dollars which Quarles et Brady, a law firm convinced that Eugene had a strong case, agreed to invest. None of the samples contains Eugene Broxton’s DNA.

The Habeas petition was accepted by the Texas Court of Criminal appeals at the end of September 2022. Eugene will be entitled to an evidentiary hearing in the spring of 2023. We have tremendous hope!

The evidence in favor of Eugene:

  • La rétention de preuve (arme du crime notamment)
  • L’absence de fiabilité de l’identification d’Eugene par l’époux de la victime
  • Avocat inefficace lors du 1er procès (non-remise en cause des éléments de l’accusation ; expertise du Dr Quijano, psychologue, mis en cause depuis dans d’autres affaires (6 !) pour son racisme avéré, puisqu’il affirme la dangerosité des accusés sur la base de leur couleur de peau !)
  • Non-remise en cause des preuves de l’accusation
  • L’innocence effective d’Eugene au vu des tests ADN
  • Withheld evidence (crime weapon)
  • Unreliable identification of Eugene by the victim’s husband
  • Ineffective counsel at the first trial, who failed to challenge the evidence presented by the prosecutor; testimony of Dr Quijano, whose expertise was challenged in no less than 6 other cases for his blatant racism as he claims that defendants can be considered as dangerous based on the colour of their skin!
  • The prosecutor’s evidence was not challenged
  • Eugene’s actual innocence in view of the DNA tests
  • Non-presentation of mitigating circumstances during the « punishment phase hearing » in 2003

With James Rytting in Houston and Quarles & Brady in Chicago, Cathryn Crawford is assisted by Donna Coltharp and Joshua Freiman and their team at the « Capital Habeas Unit » in Austin, Texas, who now represent Eugene Broxton, who has been locked up for 31 years on Texas death row for a crime of which he is innocent.

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Eugene’s poems

Friendship

Few things are worse than being lonely
We all need friends, real friend –
Not merely friendly people
True friendship is priceless
And can never be bought

It is in times of adversity
That one discovers who
One’s real friends are
Those who desert you
And no longer want to know you
Were only fair-weather acquaintances

A real friend is one
Who walks in when
The rest of the world walks out
When young, we want to have friends,
When old, it is essential to have a friend

But to have a friend,
We must be a friend

God

I saw God today, He was the
clouds, moving across the earth
He was not in a hurry,
And was at peace …

I saw God again, He was the
ocean, and He was the sea.
As calm as could he.
Tranquillity was all around.

God was the wind and the sky
as far as human eyes could see.
We see God every day.
I wonder does God ever see me?

Arbre papillon origami
Arbre papillon origami

I am Eugene Broxton…

Eugene Broxton

I am Eugene Broxton. I am 67 years old and I am presently on Texas death row for a robbery/murder that I had absolutely nothing to do with. I had no knowledge of this crime. May 18, 1991, I was arrested and charged with the robbery of Sheila and Waylon Dockens. Sheila died and Waylon said he was 100% sure I was the man that attacked him and his wife. I was appointed a lawyer; he came to visit me for about 15 minutes. The next time I saw him or/and heard from him was April 1992 and the trial was starting. The only thing I knew about this crime was what I read in the newspapers.

I was judged guilty and sentenced to death. I could not believe that happened to me. The prosecutors put a man on the witness stand, Christopher Shook, who told the jury that he was my room-mate – that was a lie. I tried to get the lawyer to challenge this. I could prove that Shook did not live with me. I just learned in 2022 that the lawyers, Troy Mc Kinney and Thomas Moran knew all along that Shook did not live with me. I was screwed.

Eugene Broxton

I did not have any outside support of any kind. I’ve never had family, that’s another story. The people I considered my friends, I never heard from since May of 1991. On September 18, 1992, I was brought to Texas death row. The appeal attorneys would not communicate with me, so once again, I did not know what was going on with my appeals.

I was given a re-sentencing trial in 2003. It was not for anything the appeal lawyers did. The attorney general overturned my case because a so-called Dr Walter Quijano told the jury that I would be a continuing threat to society because I am black.

In this resentencing trial, all I could have gotten was a life sentence or back to death row. I did not want to come back to death row but I did not want to see a life sentence as a blessing. The lawyers were once again appointed by the court, Skip Cornelius and Thomas Moran. They did me worst than Mc Kinney and Moran.

In July 2014, Attorney Cathryn Crawford was appointed to my case. She was the first attorney that not only treated me as a human being – she showed me things about this case that I should have known about in 1991. She ordered DNA to be done, the prosecutors fought her on this. The judge sided with Mrs Crawford, the DNA showed it’s not me. The prosecutors want more DNA tested and once again, it shows Sheila Waylon and an unknown male. Other evidence that was used against me was found on Christopher Shook, not me. There is so much more to tell but I’d have to write a book to get everything right. Now, I am hoping for a new trial. And I should get one. And if that happens, the prosecutors don’t have any evidence against me.

I don’t know how to ask for help. I am very thankful for my friends I met through correspondence over the years. They have all been a God send. And then there is my lovely wife of 9 years, Nadine. She came into my life in January 2004 after I was resentenced to death. I was wrestling with thoughts of suicide. I had been sentenced to death twice. I confided in Nadine. Somehow, she awakened my hopes to live and caused me to desire to live, she believed in me and have been my rock, my sun and moon and stars too. I am thankful for her, and again my friends.

Right now, we hope to raise money for a defence and we hope that if you can help, we/I ask that you please do so, whatever you can send. I ask that you please do so. I need your help and if you can, please!

Thank you all for taking the time to read about my nightmare. Since I have been here on Texas death row, now, there have been 521 executions. I have known over half of them and had become good friend with at least 100. There have been about 400 men whose sentence was commuted to life in prison. There have been around 15 to 20 men to go free. I am not sure of how many actually went home free. I am hoping to be one of them. I am going into 32 years of this madness. It is not easy, somehow, I continue to cope, and I still hope.

Respectfully,

Eugene Broxton

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Donation & contact

More than ever, we need help: THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATIONS which will allow us to finance the new DNA tests and to better prepare Eugene’s future trial.

To make donations, please click the button below, you will reach the secured platform of our Gofundme account. You can also make a donation directly, by asking us for the association’s bank details for a transfer, by clicking here.

I give to help Eugene
Portrait d'Eugene Broxton peint par Peter Charlap
Portrait of Eugene Broxton by Peter Charlap

Please send us an email to notify to us your first name and surname and email address to receive information about the life of our association, such as annual general meetings. Thank you!

You can chat with Nadine Broxton by writing to her directly clicking here. She will respond to you as soon as possible.

And if you would like to share WORDS OF COMFORT with Eugene, I would be so, so grateful.

You can send your messages to him at :
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Eugene Broxton #999044
PO Box 660400
Dallas, TX 75266 – 0400
USA

Please note: postcards and drawings are authorised again. You can send up to 10 pictures too. Everything that will be sent to Eugene will be scanned and directly sent to his tablet. It is also possible to send e-mails via the Securus application.