Justice for the Murray Brothers

To: American Justice System and World Media

Robert and Roger Murray are this day, sitting in solitary confinement on Arizonas death row one of Americas strictest prisons. They wait to be executed for a crime they did not commit. They have endured since 1991, year after year of injustice and uncertainty; fighting for their lives, battling to expose wrongful convictions. The Murray brothers stumbled into their troubles as petty thieves, not murderers. There is an abundance of evidence to prove that they did not commit murder. Please take the time to read the facts outlined below, and then sign this petition to demonstrate your support in demanding that the Murrays cases be overturned and a new trial be held where all of the previously unknown evidence can be presented to a jury.

At approximately 10pm, May 13th 1991 a tragedy occurred at Grasshopper Junction, a store and private residence north of Kingman, Arizona, U.S.A. Dean Morrison and Jackie Applehans encountered intruders, there is evidence of a struggle, the victims where found murdered in the residence. The store and home was extensively ransacked and items stolen.
At approximately 11.45pm, Robert and Roger Murray, from Alabama, drove past the murder scene on their way to Interstate Highway 40. Approximately thirty minutes later they pulled into a rest stop area west of Kingman and remained there until approximately 2am, when a tow-truck pulling a small blue car drove in and awoke Robert. The car was unhitched by three people; something which Robert told his trial lawyer. At 2.10am, Robert left the rest stop continuing their journey home. He passed a tow truck on the side of the road with the blue car parked in front. He immediately stopped to offer his mechanical skills but the car sped away, leaving the tow truck behind. Upon investigating, Roger found a large black cloth bag full of money resting on the passengers side seat of the truck. Robert then muscled the heavy bag into the back of the Murrays car. They are guilty only of theft.
The Murrays continued their trip, crossing into the eastbound lane of I-40. At approximately 8.30am, 251 miles away from the murder scene they were arrested by police in an unrelated matter in Alabama. Inside the Murray vehicle police found money, weapons and other items from the murder scene. These items entered the vehicle via the black bag that was taken from the tow truck.
The trial lawyers did not present these facts to the jury. Both Murrays were tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

There is a critical amount of evidence that points to the innocence of the Murray brothers. Consider the following condensed facts:

May 12, 1991, one day before the murders, at least one witness observed a white male confront Dean, threatening him over money owed and threatened that Dean would pay for what he did to him, the white male. The witness confirms this man was neither Murray brother. (The trial jury never heard this evidence).
May 13, 1991, at approximately 10pm, the night of the murders, a witness passed by the crime scene store and observed the victims and a strange man inside the business, a second man outside, and a third man near a small blue car parked at the store front. None of these men were the Murray brothers. When this same witness passed back by the crime scene later in the night, he noticed a nearby gate opened that is usually closed. Nobody was in sight. The same witness had seen a strange car the previous day parked down the road observing Grasshopper Junction, the crime scene. This vehicle did not belong to either Murray brother. (The police withheld the taped/transcribed interview of this witness for over ten years. The trial jury never heard this evidence.)
Robert told his lawyer and investigator about the encounter with three people in a blue car prior to these witnesses and descriptions being discovered.
Finger prints were located all over the murder scene and on two of the three weapons involved. NONE of these prints matched the Murrays and remain unidentified. Again, the Murrays prints are not on the murder weapons, or at the crime scene.
A dual wheel tow truck was stolen from the scene and abandoned on I-40 where the Murrays had the encounter. Several other tow trucks had also been abandoned in the same general area previously. Finger prints found on the tow truck remain unidentified. These prints are not either Murrays. This tow truck is their only connection to the murder scene.
There were three sets of intruder footprints at the murder scene, although police tried to cover up the third unidentified print to bolster their two suspect theory.
A 1978-79 yellow station wagon is alleged by one of Deans friends to be missing from the scene. Police have no explanations or answers over this vehicle, it remains a mystery.
One of Deans friends said at least two .357 magnum handguns were at the scene and they remain missing.
Three weapons were used in this murder; an eyewitness places three people at the scene during the time of the murders, three sets of intruder footprints were at the scene.

Please consider the following police manipulation and fabrication of evidence:

May 14, 1991 at 9.31am, a gentleman discovered the bodies of the victims. He went to the store front to use a pay telephone to contact police. The witness then noticed a car tag bracket containing a silver automobile tag lying in the dirt in front of the store. Silver tags match Nevada state tags, not Alabamas which are red. When this tag bracket was entered into evidence, the tag itself was missing. Police claim the bracket was torn from the Murray car. There were no bracket fasteners found at the scene, and the vehicle tire tracks that were found over the bracket did not match the tires on the Murray vehicle.
May 16, 1991, police searched the Murray vehicle and located a travel atlas used by the Murrays whilst on vacation. Police claimed that the Murrays had circled locations on the map around the murder scene. The Grasshopper Junction crime scene is not indicated on the atlas map, only someone from the area would know where to circle the map; the Murrays are from Alabama and are wholly unfamiliar with Arizona. The Murrays did not create these circles and contend it was the police themselves. Police inventoried everything from used cigarette butts to gum wrappers, nowhere did they list pens or pencils which is evidence of no writing equipment existed in the vehicle for making circles.
May 17, 1991, a detective went to the crime scene 4 days after the fact and claimed to have discovered a piece of string or yarn that closely matched the material used to make gloves located inside the Murray car. However, May 14, 1991, crime scene photos of the area shows no such string existed; this string was planted. (Photos depicting lack of string at the scene were not discovered until years after the trial. The jury never got to see them).
May 23, 1991, Det. Ingrassi returned to the murder scene, 9 days after the fact and recovered a .38 calibre shell casing a mere 8 feet from the victims were found. Several casings were previously discovered near the victims, none matched the 38 pistol located in the Murray vehicle. This 9 day old casing happened to match the pistol. May 14th crime scene photos of the area shows no such shell casing existed. (Photos depicting lack of casing at the scene were not realized until years after the trial; the jury never saw them.) This casing was planted by police to bolster the prosecution against the Murray brothers.
June 6, 1991, a .25 calibre bullet was located at the murder scene on the floor only feet away from the victims, inside a pantry area. The pantry door had two bullet holes on the outside, two holes on the inside, one bullet came to rest on the floor and was discovered on June 6th. A second bullet travelled across the pantry into the wall, and exited the outside wall to land somewhere in the yard. The bullet found did match a pistol the Murrays discovered inside the bag of money removed from the tow truck. These two fired bullets made a total of three entrance and exit holes. Six bullet holes, in a door/pantry only feet away from two murder victims and out of the dozens of detectives and crime scene investigators who searched this scene no less than several times, none saw these six holes. These holes and bullets were planted to enrich the states case.

Conclusion: The Murray brothers were not given a fair opportunity to present a true defence to a jury. A New trial is the only way to correct a deadly injustice.
Thank you for adding your voice in support of a new trial.