[Newspoetry] execution

[Bill Wendling]

More info on this. (Can anyone guess the race of these two people?)
I love our "justice" system...NOT:

(The article is from CNN, hence the pro-death penalty stance)

U.S. Supreme Court clears way for double execution in Texas

August 9, 2000 Web posted at: 11:37 AM EDT (1537 GMT)

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- The nation's busiest death chamber was set for
a double execution Wednesday night, including an inmate opponents say is
retarded and should not be put to death. 

Oliver David Cruz, 33, was condemned for the 1988 abduction, rape and
fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old woman stationed at Kelly Air Force Base
in San Antonio. His IQ has tested as low as 63. 

The U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 on Wednesday morning to deny his
emergency application for a reprieve. The court also rejected a separate
appeal for Cruz. 

Shortly afterward, the high court voted 7-2 to refuse to block the
execution of the second inmate, Brian Keith Roberson, 36. He was
condemned for the 1986 stabbing deaths of an elderly couple who lived
across the street from him in Dallas. 

The back-to-back lethal injections -- Roberson first, then Cruz about an
hour later -- would be the first multiple executions in Texas since June
1997 and would be only the third time since capital punishment resumed in
the state in 1982 that more than one inmate was executed in one day. 

"The execution dates are set by district judges at the local level," said
Heather Browne, a spokeswoman for the Texas Attorney General's office.
"The fact that two executions are set on the same date is just
coincidence."

The double execution is a far cry from February 8, 1924, when Texas
prison officials, taking over execution duties from the counties for the
first time, inaugurated the electric chair in Huntsville by putting five
inmates to death. 

The attention paid to the two inmates have paled in comparison to the
hoopla that drew the hundreds of protesters and media to Huntsville in
June for the lethal injection of Gary Graham. 

Graham's claims of innocence and an unfair trial spotlighted Texas as the
nation's execution capital and support of the death penalty by Gov.
George W. Bush, the Republican presidential nominee. 

The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole, in twin 18-0 votes earlier this
week, refused to recommend to Bush that he halt Wednesday's executions,
the 27th and 28th in Texas this year. They were the first of six
scheduled this month. 

"I'm not ready to die," Cruz said in an interview last week. "That's what
scares me the most." 

A senior airman who worked as a linguist at Kelly Air Base, Kelly
Donovan, 24, was taking a walk the night of August 7, 1988, when she was
abducted by Cruz and Jerry Kemplin, who were driving home after a
drinking party. She was raped by Cruz, who then stabbed her to death. 

"I made a mistake. I don't blame nobody. I take full responsibility,"
Cruz said. "There's nothing I could do or say to bring the person back.
There's nothing I could do or say to her family about how sorry I am." 

Cruz blamed the attack on drug use that began for him at age 13. He said
he and Kemplin, who testified against him in exchange for a 65-year
prison term, had taken LSD and drank "a couple of bottles of liquor." 

"She was just someone," he said of Donovan. "I don't expect nobody to
have pity on me." 

Cruz's attorney, Jeff Pokorak, argued that a jury was not given enough
information about his client's lifelong mental impairment. An IQ under 70
is considered at least mildly retarded, but prosecutors noted that Cruz
had scored above 70 before. 

Among the 25 states that allow the execution of retarded killers, some
are considering laws prohibiting the practice. The Texas Legislature,
which killed a bill last session outlawing the execution of someone whose
IQ is below 65, will revisit the issue in 2001. 

In the Dallas case, Roberson fatally stabbed James Boots, 79, and Boots'
wife, Lillian, 75, during a home robbery. 

"I wasn't in a solid frame of mind," he said, blaming the attack on his
use of PCP and liquor. "I was just juiced up." 

	Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
	material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
	redistributed.

-- 
|| Bill Wendling			wendling at ganymede.isdn.uiuc.edu