In the four-page letter its author, Achim Josef Marino, a 39-year-old state prison inmate serving a life sentence for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon, described how he had "robbed, raped and shot" 20-year-old Nancy DePriest at a Pizza Hut in Austin in October 1988. Marino explained that at the time of the murder "I was insane," and that since then he had undergone a "Christian conversion" and "spiritual awakening" and was fully prepared to be executed for killing the young woman.

Perhaps most startling about Marino's letter was his assertion that two innocent men were serving life sentences for a crime he himself committed. "Governor Bush Sir, I do not know these men nor why they plead [sic] guilty to a crime they never committed," Marino wrote, "but I tell you this sir, I did this awfull [sic] crime and I was alone."

Presented with evidence about a murder in the form of a confession and the possibility that two innocent men had been languishing in a Texas prison since 1988, what did Bush do? Nothing, according to Bush spokesman Mike Jones. Jones said the governor receives more than 1,400 letters from prisoners each year and, although he cannot recall ever receiving another murder confession by post, he insisted the letter was almost certainly not brought to Bush's attention. It was referred instead, Jones said, to the governor's general counsel and criminal justice staff, none of whom responded to Marino. Nor did anyone from Bush's office follow up on the matter with the Austin police, district attorney or, as Marino himself suggested in his letter, the two men convicted of the crime and their attorneys.

According to Jones, "no additional action was taken by us" because Marino wrote in his letter that he had already referred his allegations to the district attorney's office and the police. Bush's office took Marino at his word. "There was really no other role for the governor's office," Jones said.

Rosemary Lehmberg, first assistant district attorney for Travis County, confirmed she received no communication from Bush's office concerning any of Marino's claims. "I think I would know about that," she said. "I'm not aware of any contact."

Long after Marino wrote Bush's office, according to Lehmberg, her office finally began looking into the case. Lehmberg added that the Austin Police Department has also been looking into the allegations for "some time." A spokeswoman for the Austin police said the department does not talk about "ongoing homicide cases."

The possible existence of Marino's letter to the governor was first reported a few weeks ago on KVUE, the Austin ABC-TV affiliate. Salon was able to obtain a copy of the letter from the governor's office. (The office initially told reporters that it had no copy of the confession, before it was pointed out that the office was misspelling Marino's last name.)

Although Bush's office was under no legal obligation to turn over evidence relating to the crime, its failure to do so raises serious questions about the diligence of Texas' highest law enforcement authorities. Austin attorney Bill Allison represents Christopher Ochoa, one of the two young men whom Marino alleges were wrongly convicted for his crime. (The other is Richard Danziger.) According to Allison, Bush's office had a clear obligation after receiving the confession in the mail: "They should have turned it over to law enforcement."

Marino, who has been convicted on three charges of assault with a deadly weapon, felony possession of a firearm and sexual assault, can hardly be held up as a model of virtue. But in the conclusion of his letter to Bush, Marino took a moral position difficult to disagree with: Bush was "morally obligated to contact Dansinger [sic] and Ochoa's attorneys and famalies [sic] concerning this confession."

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