-----Original Message-----
From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
On Behalf Of Walter Lippmann
Sent: Tuesday, June 20, 2000 1:04 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BRC-NEWS] Death Penalty Troubles in Texas
http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/editorial/19mon2.html
The New York Times
Editorial
June 19, 2000
Death Penalty Troubles in Texas
The case of Gary Graham, a convicted killer scheduled for
execution by lethal injection in Texas on Thursday, is a
troubling saga of the nation's justice system gone badly
awry. Now, two decades after the shooting for which Mr.
Graham was condemned, this case poses a test of moral
leadership for Gov. George W. Bush. It should challenge his
unwavering faith in his state's administration of the death
penalty, which has produced a rate of execution that is by
far the highest in the country.
These basic facts are indisputable. Mr. Graham, who was just
17 at the time of the shooting, was convicted based solely
on the testimony of a single eyewitness, Bernadine Skillern,
who saw the assailant's face only fleetingly at night
through her car windshield, from a distance of 30 to 40
feet. Mr. Graham was represented by a famously lackadaisical
defense attorney named Ronald Mock. Mr. Mock put on
virtually no defense. He failed to alert the jury to the
flawed police lineup that may have biased Ms. Skillern's
recollection, or to the ballistics evidence showing that
the gun found on Mr. Graham when he was arrested was not
the gun used in the crime. Nor did Mr. Mock present two
other witnesses who say they saw the assailant, and that
it was not Mr. Graham.
This is a shocking example of how inadequate legal
representation sends poor people to death row, where
some are no doubt wrongly executed. Shoddy lawyering also
contributes to the extremely high reversal rate in capital
cases documented in a new study of death penalty appeals by
Prof. James Liebman of Columbia Law School. In Texas, as an
investigation by The Chicago Tribune showed last week, inept
legal defense work is a particularly acute problem.
Earlier this month, in a nod to the new politics of the
death penalty, Mr. Bush postponed the execution of an inmate
named Ricky Nolen McGinn to allow DNA testing that could
bear on his guilt or innocence. In the Graham case, there
is no biological evidence to test, but the argument for
a reprieve is at least as strong. Thanks to poor legal
representation, and the impact of new state and federal
laws designed to speed executions by truncating the
appeals process, Mr. Graham has never gotten a fair
hearing.
It may be argued that Mr. Bush has no power to grant a
reprieve, or postponement of the execution, since Texas
law permits only one gubernatorial reprieve, and Mr. Graham
received one from Gov. Ann Richards in 1993. However, it is
not clear that the law precludes a second reprieve from a
different governor. In any event, nothing prevents Mr. Bush
from exercising leadership by urging the state's board of
pardons to slow things down and conduct the careful review
of the evidence that the courts failed to provide.
Copyright (c) 2000 The New York Times Company.
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