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Texas parole board rejects Graham's clemency request
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has voted not to grant a reprieve to convicted killer Gary Graham, making almost certain that he will be executed Thursday by lethal injection. The board could have recommended that Gov. George W. Bush either commute Graham's death sentence to a lesser penalty or grant a reprieve so a hearing on the case could be held. Under Texas law, Bush does not have authority to stop the execution without the board's approval. Bush appointed all 18-members of the panel. Graham, 36, is scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. CDT for the 1981 murder of Bobby Lambert outside of a Houston grocery store. Graham has admitted to 10 aggravated assaults during a crime spree when he was 17, but he has denied killing Lambert.
Graham's attorneys have said they would file an 11th hour appeal to the Supreme Court if the board rules against him. However, the high court has already heard and rejected his claims four times over the last 19 years. The most recent ruling was in May. Prosecutors based their case on the eye-witness testimony of Bernadine Skillern. She testified that she saw Graham clearly and watched him shoot Lambert. Supporters of Graham contend that Skillem's identification was flawed because police showed her only Graham's picture after she described the gunman. Graham also says his original attorney, Ron Mock, was ineffective and failed to call six witnesses who either couldn't describe the killer or said he did not match Graham's description. Mock rested his case without calling any defense witnesses. He has been reprimanded or suspended by the bar several times. Roe Wilson, the assistant Harris County district attorney, said much of the attention to the Graham case had come about because of attempts by his attorneys to influence the media and by Bush's presidential candidacy.
"I think that a lot of people are losing sight of the fact that this is a legal case, and that this is reviewed, and decided by judges and that we have a jury system in this country and you have put faith in the jury system," she told CNN. "And the jury decided in 1981 that he was guilty of this capital murder and he was sentenced to death. And over the past 19 years, that has been upheld by every single court that has looked at this case. So I don't think it should be tried by public opinion. And I think that the press attention is something that has just been generated by the defense to try to manipulate the outcome of the case." But the Rev. Jesse Jackson said there are doubts about Graham's guilt or innocence, and said if Bush asks the pardons and paroles board to give Graham a stay, he believed they would. "Mr. Bush has the power, based upon reasonable doubt, to stay this execution. The moral burden is upon him," said Jackson. Bush: 'If it costs me politically, it costs me politically'The case has become a major issue for Bush's presidential campaign. Hecklers have disrupted a number of recent campaign events. Bush said Wednesday that he would treat the Graham case the same as any other case. "I'll ask two questions," Bush said. "Innocence or guilt, and whether this person has had full access to the courts of law." Bush said he was following the case closely and intends to "follow the laws of the land." "If it costs me politically, it costs me politically," Bush said. Bush has been criticized for his strong support for the death penalty. Texas leads the nation in executions, with 221 people put to death since the state resumed capital punishment in 1982. Of those, 134 have taken place under Bush. Graham resists transferGraham promised to "fight like hell" on the trip to the death chamber, and urged his supporters to protest what he called his legal lynching and assassination. Graham was transferred Wednesday night to the "Walls Unit" of the state prison in Huntsville, which contains the state's "death house." If his execution proceeds, he will be strapped to a table and given lethal injections to kill him. Department of Corrections officials said Graham briefly resisted the transfer but was subdued and guards and placed in shackles. They said he had not eaten since arriving at the Walls Unit but had requested coffee. Prison officials tightened security around the prison ahead of the execution. They said they expected members of the Black Panthers, the Ku Klux Klan and various anti-death penalty groups to converge on the prison grounds. "We are certainly aware of the crowd we're going to have and we've taken appropriate action," spokesman Larry Fitzgerald said. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. RELATED STORIES: Graham case before Texas board as clock ticks toward execution RELATED SITES: Texas Department of Criminal Justice/Death Row | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Supporters of death row try to stop execution
(June 21)
CNN's Candy Crowley looks at Bush's stance on
the death penalty.
