University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 18, 2000 Page: 4 of 6
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University Press • Wednesday, October 18, 2000 Page 4
Death penalty
protesters
march on
governor’s
mansion
AP PixL photo
Protesters circle the Texas Governor's Mansion ed at the mansion, after circling the Capitol,
in Austin during an anti-death penalty rally that Several hundred gathered for the non-violent
started at Republic Park Sunday, and conclud- protest.
AUSTIN (AP) — Shouting
“George Bush, serial killer,” hun-
dreds of people marched through
the city and around the governor’s
mansion on Sunday, calling on the
Texas governor to issue a morato-
rium on the death penalty.
“People ask us ’What should
we do with serial killers?”’ shouted
Marlene Martin, director of the
Chicago-based Campaign to End
the Death Penalty. “We shouldn’t
put them in Washington.”
About 400 people met at a
park for a rally before marching
around the Capitol and then to the
governor’s mansion. Many of the
protesters wore t-shirts with Gary
Graham’s picture on the front.
Graham was executed in June
after his pleas that he was innocent
and was convicted in an unfair trial
drew hundreds of protesters and
media to Huntsville.
Jennise Hawkins, who had two
children with Graham, including
one who is in jail accused of mur-
der, was at the rally. She said
Graham did not receive a fair trial
and that the death penalty is not
the right answer for punishment.
“This is not going to bring the
deceased person back,” Hawkins
said.
Bush spokeswoman Linda Ed-
wards said that as governor, Bush,
the Republican presidential nomi-
nee, has very limited authority to
declare a moratorium on executions.
Bush has said he did not feel
there is a need for a moratorium in
Texas.
“In Texas, there are many
checks and balances ... to prevent
an innocent person from being exe-
cuted,” Edwards said. “Governor
Bush took an oath to uphold the
laws of Texas including the death
penalty and he takes each and
every death penalty case seriously.”
Since 1982, when Texas re-
sumed carrying out executions, 232
people have been executed, includ-
ing 145 people under Bush’s more
than 5 1/2 years in office.
Bush was at the governor’s
mansion Sunday, preparing for
Tuesday’s presidental debate, but
Edwards would not say if he was
inside when the protesters were
circling the mansion.
At the rally at the park, some-
one had pinned a picture of
Bush’s face over the face of a
cardboard standup of Hans Solo
from Star Wars clutching a gun. A
white sign on the body said
“revoke my license before I kill
again,” and a picture of a fake dri-
ver’s license taped to his shirt
declared Bush the “Texas Killing
Machine Operator.”
Another cardboard standup
was of a cowboy carrying a gun,
with Bush’s face placed over the
original face. A sign on the cowboy
said “Taxpayer Hired Killer.”
Many people carried signs that
called on Texas to stop executing
poor people, minorities, juvenile
offenders, mentally ill and mental-
ly retarded people and the inno-
cent.
“We feel like we really need to
exploit this to make sure that
everyone knows about the assem-
bly line approach (Texas) takes to
death penalty,” said Bryan Hadley
of Austin, who wore a t-shirt of
Bush that had him saying “I kill
people.”
Caro and Dick Debois of
Austin were selling $2 bumper stick-
ers that were not favorable to Bush.
“I don’t feel the death penalty
is really justice. It’s retribution,”
Dick Debois said. “It’s known not
to be a deterrent”
Not all the criticism was aimed
at Bush, however.
“The only thing more stunning
than Bush’s hypocrisy is A1 Gore’s
silence,” Mike Crown of the
International Socialist Organiz-
ation of Austin told the crowd
before the march around the gov-
ernor’s mansion.
Calling Bush a serial killer, Jim
Harrington, director of the Texas
Civil Rights Project, told the crowd
that he believed they could con-
vince a majority of Texans that we
need a moratorium on the death
penalty.
“Why don’t you ask George
Bush if he would ever have one of
the lawyers who represents people
on death row represent him in his
campaign,” Harrington asked the
crowd.
Capital punishment
1 *
system flawed in Texas,,
requires overhaul,
case analysis shows -
DALLAS (AP) — Convictions and death sentences
wrongfully gained through prosecutorial misconduct, racial '
discrimination in sentencing, ineffective defense and a weak
appellate process require overhaul of Texas’ capital punish-
ment system, a new report shows.
A watchdog group’s analysis of hundreds of capital cases
shows that in many appeals, defense attorneys raised no new
claims or conducted investigations, according to published
reports Monday.
“We’re drowning ... in a sea of deficiencies in the death'
penalty process, and while we’re drowning everyone’s stand-
ing around going ’Everything’s fine,”’ Maurie Levin, manag- ,
ing attorney for the Texas Defender Service’s Austin office’
told The Dallas Morning News.
The service, in a report scheduled for release Monday, “
cited 84 capital cases in which a prosecutor or police “delib-
erately presented false or misleading testimony ... concealed .
exculpatory evidence or used notoriously unreliable evidence
from a jailhouse snitch,” according to the Washington Post.
In 121 cases, the nonprofit group’s attorneys said, prose-' ‘
cutors relied on “junk science” to gain convictions and death
sentences.
Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, has’
executed 232 people since 1982, when the state resumed car-' ‘
rying out death sentences. Over half the executions —145
have come under Gov. George W. Bush’s more than 5 1/2 1
years in office.
State Attorney General John Cornyn countered that the
state’s criminal justice system is working.
“Each death penalty case is reviewed by 12 jurors select^
ed from the community and at least 22 state and federal *
judges, including the United States Supreme Court,” he told •
The Morning News. “This system ensures that only the guilty \
are ultimately convicted and that only the most dangerous ■
criminals representing a continuing threat to society are exe- i
cuted.”
An automatic direct appeal applies in Texas for review ;
of any possible trial error plus a second stage of appeals — |
the habeas corpus writ. In it, each death row inmate is enti- <
tied to attorneys’ fees of up to $25,000 from the state for com- ‘
plete review of evidence.
But in 42 percent of the habeas writs examined, the '
report said no new investigation was conducted or new claims ,
raised.
The report said that many appeals by defense attorneys
were so thin they “barely contained the requisite procedural
formalities, let alone the legal arguments and factual asser- j
tions that are necessary.” ; $
Bush, a strong dealth penalty advocate, has repeatedly
rejected criticism of Texas’ capital punishment, contending
that no innocent person has been put to death in Texas since ,
he took office in January 1995. 2 \
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Cobb, Joshua. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 77, No. 12, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 18, 2000, newspaper, October 18, 2000; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500625/m1/4/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 3, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.