Post by Anja Nieser on Sept 19, 2006 17:39:55 GMT -5
The Original Texacutioner----Adios Ann Richards
In the end, it's fitting that Bill Clinton would eulogize Texas
ex-Governor Ann Richards for the "big things" she accomplished. Executing
49 people, including 2 juveniles and 2 mentally disabled prisoners
certainly is "big." Clinton only executed 3 people as Governor of
Arkansas.
Of course, next to George W. Bush, who more than tripled Richards' numbers
at 152 kills, everyone looks like a lightweight. That's probably why many
liberal commentators bent over backwards to praise the recently deceased
ex-Texas Governor as a civil rights pioneer and progressive. Richards, who
lost her job as Texas Governor in 1994 to GW, appears as the archetypal
hero of the "anybody but Bush" crowd. After all, her place in that
national political spotlight came after her "poor George" speech when she
famously skewered then-President George Bush Sr. as having a "silver foot"
in his mouth.
In an era when the only fortitude Democrats demonstrate is their
willingness to defy their political base and slavishly prop-up the right's
agenda, the myth of a larger-than-life Texan who sacrificed her political
career to stand up for her ideals is appealing.
But Richards's civil rights credentials crumble when you consider the
outrageous and obvious racial-bias of Texas' death row. Of the 49
executions she allowed, over half were minority prisoners -- even as
non-whites made up less than 25% of the population. While Blacks made up
approximately 25% of murder victims annually, less than 4% of those
executed were accused of killing Blacks. 87% the executed involved those
accused of killing whites.
Texas's death row was (and continues to be) so bad that in 1994, the Death
Penalty Information Center's Richard Dieter described the situation as "in
crisis."
Richards' 1990-94 stint as Governor spans an era when Democrats eagerly
shed progressive positions in a rush to appeal to the right. One of the
first "liberal" positions to be jettisoned was opposition to the death
penalty.
Leading the way was 1992 presidential candidate Bill Clinton, who left the
campaign trail to mug in front of cameras as he oversaw the execution of
mentally disabled Ricky Ray Rector. This display set the stage for the
massive increase in executions during the Clinton years that would peak in
1999 with 98 executions nationally in a single year. Clinton and the
Democratic Leadership Council gave a lead to Democrats nationwide who drew
all the wrong lessons from Bush Sr.'s successful race-baiting Willy Horton
attacks ads and the meek ineffectual response to these challenges by
Democratic challenger, Dukakis, in 1988.
Which brings us back to Richards. Her famously sharp tongue was still when
it came to the death penalty. When asked would she support a death penalty
abolition bill if it passed the Texas legislature, her sarcastic "I would
faint" response betrayed indifference. When asked directly on the campaign
trail about her views, she said, "I will uphold the laws of the State of
Texas." Considering the racial and class composition of the Texas killing
machine -- this commitment to the law sounds more George Wallace than MLK
Jr.
In 1992, an opportunity to take a stand for justice came with juvenile
death row prisoner Johnny Frank Garrett. Garrett was severely mentally
impaired individual described as chronically psychotic and brain-damaged.
His life was such a horror show that one mental health expert described
Garrett as "one of the most virulent histories of abuse and neglect...I
have encountered in 28 years of practice."
According to Amnesty International:
"As a youth, Garrett was raped by his stepfather, who then hired him to
another man for sex. From the age of 14 he was forced to perform bizarre
sexual acts and participate in pornographic homosexual films. He was first
introduced to alcohol and other drugs by members of his family at the age
of 10 and subsequently indulged in serious substance abuse involving
brain-damaging substances such as paint-thinner and amphetamines. Garrett
was regularly beaten and on one occasion was put upon the burner of a
stove, resulting in severe scarring."
Richards, was called on by human rights groups all over the world to halt
the execution, but instead she meekly weighed in to temporarily delay the
execution and then deferred to the Governor appointed Texas Board of
Pardons and Parole and allowed it proceed on February 11, 1992. To
Richards standing up for Garrett just wasn't worth the effort.
That same year, the US Supreme Court infamously blocked Texas death row
prisoner Leonel Herrera's request from presenting newly-discovered
evidence he claimed proved another man was responsible for the murder.
Herrera had exhausted his appeals and no legal remedy was available for
presenting the new evidence. The Supreme Court ruled innocence was not
itself grounds for appeal.
Again, according to Amnesty International, "Shortly before Herrera's
execution date, a group of prominent Texas attorneys and former judges
called on Governor Ann Richards to develop mechanisms so that condemned
prisoners alleging miscarriages of justice would receive full and fair
clemency hearings. The only response from the governor's office was a
promise to 'study' the group's recommendations."
Leonel Herrera was executed on May 12, 1993. Herrera's last words were: "I
am innocent, innocent, innocent. Something terribly wrong is happening
here tonight."
Months later, juvenile offender Curtis Harris was executed in July 1993.
There was strong evidence of racial bias in the selection of the jury in
Harris' case and his court-appointed attorney failed to present evidence
of his mental disabilities and abusive childhood. Again, Richards did
nothing.
In fact, during her time occupying the highest office in the Texas she did
nothing to stop the death machine in Texas. To her, political expediency
meant more than the lives of innocents, minorities, the mentally disabled,
or juveniles.
Ann Richards support for incredibly barbaric and racist Texas death
penalty should lay to rest any notion that she deservers to be called a
progressive. Far from being a wistful alternative to GW Bush that
progressives pine for, by paving the road for the slaughter to follow, her
legacy is not only the dead men she executed, but it is also the 152 men
and women GW Bush, her so-called nemesis, executed.
Goodbye Anne and good luck. Because if there's a heaven, it's a good bet
Johnny Frank Garrett, Leonel Herrera, and Curtis Harris have been bending
St. Peter's ear for quite some time now.
(source : CounterPunch (Mike Stark is a national board member of the
Campaign to End the Death Penalty and a regular contributor to the New
Abolitionist, the newsletter of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. Jim
Bullington is prison-literacy activist in Denver, Colorado . He is a
native Texan and a member of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty.)