By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - John Lennon’s piano, on tour as a symbol of peace, was
put on display outside the front door of the Texas prison where an
execution took place Wednesday evening in the nation’s most active death
penalty state.

“What this guy did was violent and the death penalty is violent,” Caroline
True, creative director for a possible book and documentary about the
piano and its travels to scenes of violence, said as Texas corrections
officials prepared to execute James Lee Clark.
Clark was condemned for the rape and fatal shooting of a North Texas high
school girl in 1993.
“The best way to do this is quietly, unobstrusively,” True said of her
presence. “We don’t want to upset anybody.”
Lennon composed his 1971 song “Imagine” on the Steinway upright piano,
which was purchased by pop star George Michael in 2000 for $2.1 million. A
co-owner is Michael’s partner, Kenny Goss, who owns an art gallery in
Dallas. True estimated the piano’s value at from $8 million to $10
million.
Clark’s lethal injection was the 12th this year, accounting for all but
one of the country’s executions so far this year.
“We’re just trying to say there’s so much violence in the world, that it’s
senseless,” True said. “What we’re doing, the piano is a symbol of peace.
It’s as simple as that. We’re taking it to places where extreme situations
of violence have occurred and taking a picture of the day of or the
anniversary of.”
After being photographed on the street outside the entrance of the Texas
Department of Criminal Justice Huntsville Unit, where 390 condemned
inmates preceded Clark to the death chamber since 1982, the piano was
rolled down the street to an area where a handful of protesters normally
gathers.
It’s not the first, or last, Texas stop for the golden-colored wood piano,
which is being photographed at each site.
The first was Nov. 22 in Dallas to mark the annivesary of the 1963
assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Another Texas stop is planned
for outside Waco at the site of the burned Branch Davidian compound.
The piano also has been to Memphis to mark the anniversary of Martin
Luther King Jr.’s slaying. Other stops planned include Oklahoma City,
where the federal building was bombed, and the site of the World Trade
Center in New York.
“We’re just making a very simple statement: Imagine all the people living
life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one,” True
said, reciting the first lines of the Lennon song. “All you need is that
verse.”