Donnell Thomas

Donnell Thomas was one of four Black men charged in the October 3, 1969 hold-up killing of liquor-store clerk Mason Branch at Crown Liquors on Grant Road in Tucson, Arizona. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in the gas chamber, and was imprisoned on death row at the Arizona State Prison alongside his cousin and co-defendant David Williams. The case rested on a statement attributed to a one-eyed, heroin-using witness, Lucius Sorrell, whom the State had had declared incompetent to testify; prosecutor Horton Weiss. Police claimed the defendants were Black Panthers, which The Black Panther (April 17, 1971) said was false. Documented in The Black Panther.