Post Mortem Justice: The Johnny Garrett Case

Aim: Fundraising to spend 2 months in Texas, researching the death penalty and an unsafe conviction that led to a teenager's execution in 1992.

We are Tali and Libs. As of May 2025, 85 countries retain the death penalty in law or practice. We’re walking 85 miles - one for each country - and raising funds to go to Texas to contribute to the Post Mortem Project.

What is the Post Mortem Project?

Under the guidance of Reprieve founder Clive Stafford Smith, the Post Mortem Project explores the potential innocence of people who have been executed in the US since 1976. The project is inspired by the case of Edward Earl Johnson, (shown below with his family, just before his execution) whose case of innocence was explored in Paul Hamann's documentary Fourteen Days in May. 

In the 2006 case, Kansas v. March, the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia proclaimed that there is not “a single case — not one — in which it is clear that a person was executed for a crime he did not commit.”  The notion that there have been no innocent people among those executed is improbable. Since 1973, more than 200 people have been exonerated off death row – roughly one for every eight people executed. 

We are creating a case repository that can be made available to journalists, academics, documentary makers, podcasters and drama producers so that these stories can be more widely told, and these men and women finally get the hearing in the court of public opinion that they were denied in the courts of law.  

The details of our case

In Amarillo, Texas, we'll be focusing on the case of Johnny Frank Garrett, a teenager with intellectual disabilities executed in 1992 for the murder of a Catholic nun - a conviction now widely questioned. 

Johnny Garrett's case is a textbook study in injustice:

• Convicted at 17 following a police investigation partly based on the visions of a clairvoyant.
• A key forensic witness later jailed for falsifying autopsies.
• Exculpatory DNA evidence lost or destroyed.
• Clear signs of mental illness and abuse ignored by the court.
• A politically charged atmosphere, with a newly elected DA needing a conviction.
• Years later, a man convicted of a nearly identical murder confessed to both killings, yet the case was never reopened.

Our research will involve gathering testimony, reviewing trial records, and helping uncover evidence that was ignored, mishandled, or buried. We hope to reinvigorate the public attention surrounding this case and contribute to justice by relying on our respective skills and networks. 

Why challenging the death penalty matters

The death penalty is not just outdated - it is violent, political, and deeply flawed. It is used disproportionately against the poor, the racialised, and the marginalised. 

It offers no space for error, yet it is riddled with mistakes. And when those mistakes cost a life, there is no remedy. All we can do is give them the due process they deserved.

The Post Mortem Project confronts those failures - to build a public record, to seek accountability, and to challenge the legitimacy of a system that executes its mistakes. 

Where your donation goes

We’re seeking assistance to cover the basic costs of this research project - including travel, accommodation, and fieldwork expenses - so that we can safely contribute on the ground in Texas. We will be travelling from the United Kingdom to the United States on the 9th of August 2025, staying there for 8 weeks. 

Your support enables us to conduct this research properly and ensures that these stories are not buried with the people they concern, like Johnny.

We will be sharing updates via our social medias:

Instagram- @talianazara_ and @xlibsdx

About us

We met at the University of Bristol during our undergraduate law degrees. Through our shared passion for social justice and advocacy (as well as our shared humour, music taste, and love of adventure), we immediately became inseparable.

Elisabeth (Libs) is committed to human rights and legal research, continuing as a volunteer at The Justice League after completing her legal internship. She is a passionate journalist, having served as the UK Bureau Chief at JURIST, leading news coverage and strategic planning, while mentoring state school students through Zero Gravity. Specifically, she has been involved in a UN journalism fund investigative project. Furthermore, her experience includes international legal work in South Africa and contributions to investigative journalism projects on climate and social justice. She has been featured on the podcast Drilled, where she discusses how the UK courts can be a new venue of choice for Nigerian litigants seeking remedies against Shell. 

Taliana (Tali) is similarly committed to human rights and legal research, volunteering with The Justice League after completing an internship focused on activism and policy analysis. She contributed to cases concerning freedom of speech, criminal law, and human rights. As a Student Advisor at the University of Bristol Human Rights Implementation Centre, she contributes to prison reform in British Overseas Territories and previously worked on assessing the implementation of African Commission decisions. She also serves as a Youth Ambassador with the Council of Europe and ECPM, advocating against the death penalty while continuing legal education through mentorships and advocacy initiatives.  

Thank you for reading. We hope you will support us in this fight.

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 15th July 2025 at 12:12pm