Gov. George W. Bush: the overly eager
Executioner
Top Author's Warning Hitchens
on Bush
(Note: Upcoming scheduled executions by the State of Texas can be found here.)
Bush Executes Larry Robison in January (21?), 2000. Robison was an
intermittently insane person convicted of killing five people in 1982. Even though
the Texas legislature recently passed a law prohibiting the execution of mentally ill
prisoners, the law exempts death sentences handed down before the measure was enacted.
The Bush administration justifies the execution on the basis that his mental
illness was caused by drugs, not heredity. (Counterpunch, 1-15, 2000)
Executes Karla Fay Tucker. Tucker is white, attractive and an axe
murderer. This is the first execution of a female since the 1860s and the first in
the US since the 1980s. (The Ethical Spectacle, March, 1998)
Mocks Tucker's plea for clemency to conservative newspaper writer Tucker Carlson
who reports it. Bush, Carlson wrote, ridiculed the inmate by affecting a whimpering
woman: "Please, don't kill me." (Washington Post, 7/6/00)
Executes Shaka Sankofa (formerly known as Gary Graham.)
No evidence was brought forth in his trial. (He was convicted of killing
Bobby Lambert outside a grocery store in 1981.) His conviction rested entirely on a
single eyewitness who claimed she saw him through her windshield for a split-second at
night time. (No doubt she really believes she had. The point being made is
that eye-witness testimony is notoriously unreliable.)
Has executed prisoners whose lawyers were asleep during part of the trial.
Has executed more prisoners than anyone else since the death penalty was restored in 1976.
With one exception, has executed every person whose case has come before him.
The Texas Death House |
| In the Revolutionary Worker (RW, 7/16/00)
comes some facts that I will report here. The RW writer pulls them from the
Chicago Tribune but doesn't offer when they appeared. Understand, this
author is neither a Communist nor someone who advocates it. (I don't subscribe
to any political system which suppresses speech or outlaws private property
completely.) However, it is becoming increasingly difficult to pull facts out of the
Washington Post for the purpose of advocating something from a progressive point
of view. Hence, occasionally I look at the RW for this kind of information. |
- Texas has the second-largest death row population in the country. Second only to
California which has 568, Texas currently has 457 prisoners on death row. More than 200 of
these prisoners were condemned since 1995, when George W. Bush became governor. 40% of the
prisoners on Texas death row are African-American, 22% are Latino.
- The Chicago Tribune recently did an investigation which looked at the cases of 131
people who had been executed while Bush has been governor... The study found that
Texas has executed dozens of death row inmates who clearly did not receive fair trials.
The Tribune (June 6-10, 2000) examined trial transcripts, legal briefs,
appellate rulings and lawyer disciplinary records and interviewed dozens of witnesses,
lawyers and judges. Bush has publicly claimed that none of the people executed while he
has been governor have been innocent.
(Now the RW is quoting the Chicago Tribune.)
- Defense attorneys in 40 cases presented no evidence whatsoever or only one witness
during the trial’s sentencing phase.
- In 29 cases, a psychiatrist gave testimony that the American Psychiatric Association has
condemned as unethical and untrustworthy.
- In 43 cases, or one-third, a defendant was represented at trial or on initial appeal by
an attorney who had been or was later disbarred, suspended or otherwise sanctioned.
- In at least 23 cases, the prosecution’s evidence at trial or sentencing included a
jailhouse informant—testimony that is highly unreliable.
- In at least 23 cases, the prosecution presented a visual comparison of hairs—
evidence that is extremely inexact.
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| The article is very informative. |
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