Lamar Burks was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to 70 years of prison for the murder of Earl Perry in 2000. Lamar has now spent twenty-two years in the Texas prison system for a crime he did not commit. Help send him home by petitioning the Texas judicial system!

Lamar Burks was born in Houston in 1972, in the Fifth Ward–the first organized community formed by Black people following the abolition of slavery. Lamar comes from a large, loving family. He has two sisters and three brothers. At home, he has three kids, two boys named Lamar, Jr. and Dayveon, and one daughter named Jada. While incarcerated, Lamar spends most of his time bettering his life, even in these conditions. He spends his time in the law library, studying civil rights law.

About his conviction:

In 1997, a man named Earl Perry was shot and killed. When this happened, Lamar was out of town, visiting family in Opelousas, Louisiana. He was still arrested, later acquitted, and then arrested again, due to a corrupt DEA agent named Chad Scott, who was later publicly disgraced and indicted.

In October 2000, Clayton Brown was also arrested for the murder of Earl Perry. Brown signed an affidavit in 2019 stating that he was coerced by law enforcement to say that he was involved. His affidavit states that Whitaker was an informant that worked with Scott to frame Lamar for the murder. He states that Whitaker was a hot head and shot the victim after they got into an argument. Brown shot his weapon at the victim’s friends in order to help out Whitaker, but no shots hit anyone. Officers wanted Brown to testify against Burks but he refused to say Lamar was the shooter. In his 2003, Brown wrote in an affidavit that he did not see Whitaker at the scene of the murder. He said this out of fear for his life as he knew that Whittaker was working as an informant for Scott.

Sign today to help combat Lamar's unjust conviction, and send him home to his family.