Max Soffar - Texas sent him on Death Row a 2nd time

How An Innocent Man Died of Cancer On Death Row
May 3, 2016
By Brian Stull for the Crime Report

Max Soffar was my client for the last 10 years, but also my soft-spoken, Texas-drawling, loyal friend who asked after my family and life as often as he inquired about the status of his appeals.

He was a death-row prisoner wrongly locked up 35 years ago as a troubled, brain-damaged, drug-addicted mental patient, and self-professed “knucklehead.” He falsely confessed to one of Houston’s most notorious multiple murders under the influence of a police officer he thought was his friend.

He then spent decades on death row despite strong evidence that a man named Paul Reid was guilty of the murders.

Max died an innocent 60-year-old man, still fighting his appeals and protesting his innocence, finally reduced to gaunt skin and bones after a three-year battle with liver cancer. Max was convicted, imprisoned, and sentenced to die even though not a shred of reliable evidence tied him to the crime: No DNA, no fingerprints, no blood, no hair, not a single witness.

An Innocent Man Is Dying of Cancer on Texas's Death Row
08/13/2014
U.S. Death Penalty
By Sarah Solon, Communications Strategist, ACLU

Max Soffar has a long history of self-medicating. When he was four, his parents found him passed out next to their car, gas cap in hand. Since birth, Max's brain has been damaged. That damage has been made worse by years of physical and mental abuse by adoptive parents and staff at mental institutions.

At the age of 24 in 1980, Max had the mentality of an 11-year-old. His brain was "fried," according to police, who knew him as a dropout and wannabe police informant. Officers arrested Max on a stolen motorcycle after an infamous robbery-murder at a Houston bowling alley that year.

The police locked Max in a small room and subjected him to a three-day marathon of aggressive, unrecorded interrogation – marked by prodding, pressure, and lies – which culminated in a false confession, typed by police, that the officers convinced a worn down Max to sign.

Max has spent the last 34 years on death row in Texas, but he won't be alive long enough to be executed. Max has terminal liver cancer. The question isn't whether he will die; it is only how soon and where: behind bars or at home.

The forced confession is the only evidence tying Max to the murder. The state has no DNA, no fingerprints, and no forensic or other reliable evidence to connect Max to the crime. What's more, and as several appeals judges have found over the years, the confession is demonstrably false: It narrates a story that clashes dramatically with the account of the only surviving witness and with the other known evidence of how the crime occurred.

It's not just the fact that the state put Max on death row with only a false confession. This whole story of justice gone miserably awry is made worse by the large mountain of evidence implicating another man, who died on Tennessee's death row in 2013.

The man's name is Paul Reid. The week before the shootings, Reid got into an altercation with employees at the bowling alley and threatened to blow their heads off. He was living and committing robberies in Houston at the time, and he wasn't at home with his wife on the night the shootings occurred. Reid looks like the police compositeof the shooter, and he went on to commit a series of similar crimes in Tennessee, for which he was caught.

But this evidence of innocence alone won't help Max make it home, to die in the arms of his loving wife Anita. Max has spent the last 34 years on death row because of numerous errors during his original trial and a lugubrious appeals process that will not be over before Max dies.

It falls to Gov. Rick Perry to show Max mercy by using his power to grant him clemency. This innocent man should be allowed to die at home, with the support of his friends and family.

https://www.aclu.org/blog/capital-punishment/innocent-man-dying-cancer-texass-death-row

My name is Max Alexander Soffar. I have been locked up since Aug. 5th 1980. My family have died since I've come here.

In 2006, I was convicted a 2nd time even tho we now know who the real killer is! My Judge would not let us tell my jury about him, so again I was convicted.

I'm 5'11 and 220 pounds w/ brown hair + eyes. My 1st love is the Lord! He has given me strength to overcome 27 years on Texas death row now.

I enjoy drawing animals and doing portraits. I like to laugh + am always happy. I'm innocent of the charges the State has placed against me. And there are many people fighting to prove my innocence. All I want is someone to write who really care's.

Hope to hear from you soon.

God bless,

Max Soffar

Max Soffar # 000685
Polunsky Unit DR
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, Texas 77351
USA

24.01.2007

Mein Name ist Max Alexander Soffar. Ich bin seit dem 05. August 1980 eingesperrt. Meine Familie ist während ich hier drin bin verstorben.

Im Jahr 2006 wurde ich ein 2. mal verurteilt, obwohl inzwischen bekannt ist, wer der wahre Killer ist! Mein Richter wollte nicht, dass wir den Geschworenen von ihm erzählen, sodass ich erneut verurteilt wurde!

Ich bin 1,80 m groß und wiege 99 kg, habe braunes Haar und Augen. Meine 1. Liebe gilt Gott! Er gab mir die Kraft, 27 Jahre im Todestrakt von Texas zu überstehen.

Ich habe Spaß daran, Tiere und Portraits zu malen. Ich lache gerne und ich bin immer glücklich. Ich bin nicht schuldig im Sinne der Anklage des Staates und es gibt viele Menschen, die für meine Unschuld kämpfen. Alles was ich mir wünsche ist, dass mir jemand schreibt, der sich wirklich um mich sorgt.

Ich hoffe, bald von Ihnen zu hören.
Gott schütze Sie

Max Soffar