As I said in my opening, barring some miraculous intervention by Gov. Perry, Buck will be executed tonight."
BILLY SINCLAIR; CAPITAL PUNISHMENT BLOG;
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PUBLISHER'S NOTE:
This Blog adds its voice to those seeking a reprieve for Duane Buck.
It's bad enough that he was sentenced to be executed because of the opinion of one man - a psychologist who supposedly was an expert in predicting future human behavior. (Far too dangerous to entrust an "expert" witness with such a life and death decision);
But it's even worse that this opinion introduced unfounded racial factors into the court process.
At this 11th hour Texas Governor Rick Perry must set politics aside and grant a temporary reprieve so that Mr. Buck can have the benefit of an untainted process.
HAROLD LEVY; PUBLISHER; THE CHARLES SMITH BLOG;
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"Barring some miraculous intervention by Gov. Rick Perry, Duane Buck will become the 11th person to be executed this year in Texas’ death chamber and the execution will be wrong—not because of some anti-death penalty view I may have but because his death sentence was definitively the result of race," Billy Sinclair's post published earlier today on his "Capital Punishment Blog" begins. under the heading, "Duane Buck's wrongful execution."
"Buck, an African-American, was convicted in 1997 for the 1995 double murder of his girlfriend and her companion," the post continues.
"During Buck’s 1997 trial, his defense attorney called a psychologist named Walter Quijano who testified during the punishment phase of the trial and who, upon cross examination by prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, stated he believed that because Buck was black, he posed a greater risk of “future dangerousness” in the prison setting. Future dangerousness is a critical factor a capital jury must consider in deciding whether the death penalty is appropriate in a given case.
In 2000 U.S. Senator John Cronyn, then Texas’ attorney general, said that Buck’s case was one of six his office had identified in which Quijano had introduced race into jury deliberations. Then Attorney General Cronyn said that all of the condemned inmates were entitled to a new punishment hearing. Five of those inmates was given new punishment hearings by various federal courts which resulted in each being re-sentenced to death. One of the five has been executed.
Neither state nor federal courts ever ordered a new punishment hearing in Buck’s case. Why Buck’s trial attorney would call a psychologist who had a history of injecting race in the trial process is not readily available in the public record. What is known is that state and federal courts over the last few weeks have rebuffed the determined efforts by Buck’s current attorneys, David Dow and Katherine Black, to secure a new punishment hearing. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday denied Buck’s last legal opportunity to get a new punishment hearing.
The day before the Fifth Circuit’s decision the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Buck’s attorneys’ request for executive clemency. In response to that action, Katherine Black told the Houston Chronicle that the board of pardons “fails to recognize what the highest legal officer in the state of Texas had acknowledged: No one should be executed based on a process tainted by considerations of race … The decision as to whether Mr. Buck’s execution will go forward now lies squarely with Governor Perry, who has the power to issue a 30-day reprieve, and District Attorney (Pat) Lykos, who has the power to ask for a withdrawal of the execution date.”
It would seem that DA Lykos would request a withdrawal of Buck’s execution date, especially since one of her office’s former prosecutors, Linda Geffin who was involved in Buck’s prosecution, had informed the pardon board that Buck’s case was tainted by impermissible race considerations. However, Assistant District Attorney Lynn Hardaway told the Chronicle that Lykos would not ask that Buck’s execution date be withdrawn.
Under Politics 101, a conservative governor, especially in Texas, would not intercede in a case that has been rejected by the courts and the pardon board. But these are not normal political circumstances. Gov. Perry is running for the presidency of the United States and has already faced serious media questions about his refusal to stop the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, despite compelling evidence indicating the condemned inmate was innocent. The Buck case offers the governor an opportunity to redeem himself, especially among African-Americans who believe the death penalty in Texas unfairly targets blacks. A thirty-day reprieve would not cost the governor a single point among his conservative political base because chances are the courts would not order a new punishment hearing during the reprieve period and the pardon board most certainly would not. Thus, the only thing a reprieve would probably accomplish is a few more months of life for Duane Buck—an insignificant price considering the good will the governor would benefit from granting the reprieve.
As I said in my opening, barring some miraculous intervention by Gov. Perry, Buck will be executed tonight."
The post can be found at:
http://www.capitalpunishmentbook.com/?p=632
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at:
http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith
Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at:
http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html
Harold Levy: Publisher; The Charles Smith Blog; hlevy15@gmail.com;
