TV News LIES

Nearly 70 years after a Texas Black man was executed in a case that prosecutors now say was based on false evidence and was riddled with racial bias, officials have declared that he was innocent of the killing of a white woman in Dallas.

Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.

At the time of the trial, prosecutors had alleged Walker attacked Parker, a store clerk who was on her way home, on the evening of 30 September 1953. Parker’s killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a so-called peeping Tom believed to be a Black man was terrorizing women, according to the Dallas county criminal district attorney’s office.

Nearly 70 years after a Texas Black man was executed in a case that prosecutors now say was based on false evidence and was riddled with racial bias, officials have declared that he was innocent of the killing of a white woman in Dallas.

Tommy Lee Walker was executed in the electric chair in May 1956 for the rape and murder of 31-year-old Venice Parker.

At the time of the trial, prosecutors had alleged Walker attacked Parker, a store clerk who was on her way home, on the evening of 30 September 1953. Parker’s killing took place during a time of panic and racial division in the Dallas area as there were reports that a so-called peeping Tom believed to be a Black man was terrorizing women, according to the Dallas county criminal district attorney’s office.

But an extensive review of Walker’s conviction by the DA’s office, along with the help of the Innocence Project of New York and Northeastern University School of Law’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project, found multiple problems with Walker’s case.

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The decision by Donald Trump’s justice department to conduct no investigation into the deadly use of force by Jonathan Ross, the ICE agent who shot and killed Renee Good, a Minneapolis resident who was moving her car out of the way of federal agents when he opened fire, reportedly distressed federal prosecutors and a leader of the FBI’s Minneapolis field office, according to reporting from MSNOW and the New York Times.

A report for MSNOW (formerly MSNBC) by Carol Leonnig, a four-time Pulitzer prize winning investigative reporter, and Ken Dilanian begins:

Aides to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche directed the U.S. Attorney’s office and FBI agents based in Minnesota to shut down a civil rights investigation into an officer’s fatal shooting of Renee Good and instead alter it to probe Good for possible criminal liability, according to three people briefed on the discussions.

After Good was killed on Jan. 7, FBI agents drafted a search warrant to obtain her car to reconstruct the path of bullets that an ICE officer shot into the vehicle. But they were instructed to redraft their warrant and change the subject of the investigation from a civil rights probe to an investigation into a suspected assault on an officer, the people said. A federal magistrate judge rejected that warrant, noting that Good was already dead and could not be considered a suspect for a warrant.

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement is facing scrutiny over its assertion that federal officers can forcibly enter a home without a judicial warrant – a move constitutional scholars, immigration experts and a federal judge say is a clear violation of the Fourth Amendment.

An internal ICE memo from May 2025 directs agents to use force to enter residences after obtaining administrative warrants, which are signed by ICE authorities and do not require a judge's approval, according to a whistleblower complaint reviewed by USA TODAY and first reported by The Associated Press.

The memo appeared to upend longstanding precedent and law enforcement policy, including at the Department of Homeland Security, which relied on warrants signed by impartial members of the judicial branch to enter homes or businesses for searches and arrests.

News of the memo comes amid the Trump administration’s expanding deportation campaign that’s seen aggressive enforcement operations nationwide and a hiring blitz that more than doubled its workforce.

It remains unclear how often the new policy has been used in field operations. On Jan. 18, federal agents with guns drawn broke down the front door of the home of ChongLy Thao, a naturalized U.S. citizen. Relatives and local officials said he was temporarily detained and never shown a warrant. Images of Thao being led shirtless outside in the snow prompted outrage and calls for a formal investigation.

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A federal judge ruled Thursday that university association members may seek relief from the court if their immigration status is changed as retribution for challenging an alleged Trump administration policy to single out campus activists critical of Israel’s war in Gaza for immigration enforcement.

U.S. District Judge William Young’s order follows a trial last year where he found top Cabinet officials conspired to target noncitizens for deportation on account of their support for Palestinians and criticism of Israel.

At a hearing last week, Young said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio operated an “unconstitutional conspiracy” to deport certain people so the university association members would be hesitant to speak out.

"The big problem in this case is that the Cabinet secretaries, and ostensibly, the president of the United States, are not honoring the First Amendment,” Young said. “There doesn’t seem to be an understanding of what the First Amendment is by this government.”

The judge, an appointee of President Reagan, described his Thursday order as a “remedial sanction to protect certain of the Plaintiffs’ non-citizen members from any retribution for the free exercise of their constitutional rights.”

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced just one day after the U.S. officially withdrew from the World Health Organization (WHO) that his state would become the first to join the organization’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, in a seeming rebuke of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from international collaborations.

Newsom traveled this week to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he was scheduled to speak at an event but was  canceled at the last moment. During his trip, he met with WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“As President Trump withdraws the United States from the World Health Organization, California is stepping up under Governor Gavin Newsom — becoming the first, and currently the only, state to join the WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network (GOARN), strengthening public health preparedness and rapid response coordination,” Newsom’s office said in a statement.

This announcement comes just one day after the U.S.’s withdrawal from the WHO became official after nearly 80 years of membership, having been a founding member of the organization.

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At least 11 Palestinians killed in surge of Israeli attacks across Gaza: The bodies of 11 Palestinians arrived at hospitals in Gaza between this morning and 4:00pm local time, while six Palestinians were injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. The Health ministry has not updated the total death toll recorded since October 7, 2023, which on Tuesday stood at 71,551 killed, with 171,372 injured.

Three journalists among those killed in Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday: Three Palestinian journalists—Mohammed Salah Qashta, Abdul Raouf Samir Shaath, and Anas Ghanem—were killed in Israeli attacks on Wednesday. The journalists were targeted in a strike on their car, while filming for an Egyptian government humanitarian initiative in the central town of Zahraa. Footage of the aftermath of the strike showed the targeted vehicle clearly marked with the Egyptian Committee’s logo.

Over 260 journalists have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza. In separate Israeli attacks on Wednesday, a man and his 13-year-old son were killed in an Israeli drone strike, along with a 22-year-old man, while collecting firewood on the east side of Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, according to the Associated Press. Another 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by the Israeli military in Bani Suhaila, eastern Khan Younis.

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President Volodymyr Zelensky told reporters in Davos, Switzerland, that the territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia remains unresolved after his conversation with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Thursday.

The forum’s agenda has been dominated by the diplomatic response to Trump’s threats to gain control of NATO ally Denmark’s mineral-rich Arctic territory, Greenland. But, after a false start on Wednesday, the two leaders finally held a “good” meeting – in Trump’s word – on Thursday.

“It’s all about the eastern part of our country. It’s all about the land. This is the issue which we [have) not solved yet,” Zelensky told reporters afterwards, as per AFP.

The US administration has been determinedly upbeat about the state of negotiations to end Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine since before Christmas – perhaps, as it turns out, with some merit. Zelensky also said that he and Trump had finalized the terms of US security guarantees for Ukraine – describing them as “done.”

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TikTok announced on Thursday that it had closed a deal to establish a new US entity, allowing it to sidestep a ban and ending a long legal battle.

The deal finalized by ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, sets up a majority American-owned venture, with investors including Larry Ellison’s Oracle, the private-equity group Silver Lake and Abu Dhabi’s MGX owning 80.1% of the new entity, while ByteDance will own 19.9%.

In September, Trump signed another executive order, which outlined a plan for US investors to take over the majority of the company’s operations and for the new version of TikTok to be controlled by a seven-member, majority-American board of directors of cybersecurity and national security experts.

Adam Presser, who previously served as TikTok’s general manager and global head of operations and trust and safety, would serve as CEO of the new venture, the company said on Thursday. The board will include Shou Chew, TikTok’s CEO.

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