The letter requesting a 30-day reprieve for Duane Buck is available in Adobe .pdf.
The updated AP report is, "Inmate's lawyers ask Perry to halt Texas execution." It by Will Weissert, via CBS News.
If courts continue to reject Buck's appeals, only Perry could delay the lethal injection by invoking his authority to issue a one-time 30-day reprieve for further review. Perry's actions are being closely watched, particularly by death penalty opponents, after he said during a presidential debate that he has never been troubled by any of the executions he's overseen as governor.
"Perry won't preside over scheduled Texas execution," is the Los Angeles Times post by Molly Hennessy-Fiske reporting in Houston.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry apparently will not be the one to preside over Thursday's scheduled execution of an African American man who was sentenced to die after jurors were told that blacks are more likely to pose a future danger to the public.
Duane Edward Buck, 48, was convicted of fatally shooting two people near Houston in 1995. His attorney says he is entitled to a new sentencing hearing based on the racially charged testimony, but unless a final appeal attempt is successful, Buck will become the 11th inmate executed in Texas this year, the Houston Chronicle reports.
Buck's stepsister, Phyllis Taylor, who was wounded in the shooting, has reportedly forgiven him and wants his death sentence commuted to life in prison. She met with staffers from Perry's office last week, according to Buck's attorney.
"We still are hopeful the governor will grant a 30-day reprieve to allow state officials time to work together to ensure that Mr. Buck receives a sentencing hearing untainted by issues of race,” said Kate Black, Buck's Houston-based attorney, in an interview with The Times. She is representing the inmate pro bono through the nonprofit Texas Defenders Service.
During last week's GOP presidential debate, Perry responded to a question about Texas' 234 executions during his tenure as governor by saying that he "never struggled" with the issue because "the state of Texas has a very thoughtful, very clear process in place."
But Perry will not be presiding over Buck's execution, according to Lucy Nashed, a Perry spokeswoman.
Perry is out of state, so the responsibility falls to Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican campaigning for the seat being vacated by longtime Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, Nashed told The Times.
Dewhurst has presided over previous executions in the governor's absence, according to spokesman Mike Walz. Dewhurst declined to comment about the Buck case late Wednesday, Walz said.
The LA Times also has, "Texas Gov. Rick Perry Is Asked To Halt Execution," by David G. Savage.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is being asked to stop Thursday's scheduled execution of an African American murderer who was sentenced to die after jurors were told that blacks are more likely to pose a future danger to the public.
Duane Edward Buck faces execution for shooting two people near Houston in 1995 while under the influence of drugs, but his attorneys say the racially charged testimony calls for a new sentencing hearing.
"No one should be executed based on a process tainted by considerations of race," Kate Black, a lawyer for Buck, said Tuesday. "The decision as to whether Mr. Buck's execution will go forward now lies squarely with Gov. Perry, who has the power to issue a 30-day reprieve."
Journalist Renee Feltz, who spent years in Texas, writes, "Will the Next Man Rick Perry Executes Die Because He's Black?" It's at the Nation.
Harris County prosecutor Linda Geffin was working late last week when she took a break and saw a Facebook post from a Texas death row attorney whose client, Duane Buck, faced imminent execution. Geffin had been part of the team that helped send Buck to death row; it was the only capital case she'd ever worked on, and as she recalls, it “left a big impression on me.” More than a decade had passed since the case, so she decided to re-read the court transcripts, including a hundred or so pages of testimony from state psychologist Walter Quijano. Then she came across this passage:
Q. You have determined that the sex factor, that a male is more violent than a female because that's just the way it is, and that the race factor, black, increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons; is that correct?
A. Yes.
Geffin thought, “that's pretty clearly inappropriate, not to mention morally and ethically wrong." Indeed, Buck's attorney was trying to save his life based on his unequal treatment on the basis of race. On September 9, Geffin wrote a letter [1] to Governor Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles calling for Buck’s execution to be halted. "No individual should be executed without being afforded a fair trial, untainted by considerations of race," she wrote.
On Tuesday, September 13, the Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected Buck's appeals for clemency. He is now scheduled to die on Thursday, September 15 unless Perry grants him a 30-day reprieve. It will be the 236th execution overseen by Perry during his tenure as governor.
There is also fresh commentary on the case. "Race-Based Execution: Rick Perry on the Spot," is by Jenee Desmond-Harris at the Root.
Perry, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, was asked during a GOP debate last week about Texas' 234 executions during his nearly 11 years as governor. He said he "never struggled" with the issue because "the state of Texas has a very thoughtful, very clear process in place." It's hard to imagine how he could possibly have to struggle to see that the process he admires so much has gone outrageously wrong in this case.
"Man To Die Thursday Partially Due To Race," by Deborah Mathis at Black America Web.
Unless Justice swoops down from the heavens like a Texas tornado, the Lone Star state is going to kill again tomorrow.
Unless Gov. Rick Perry can put his presidential travels on hold long enough to sign a sheet of paper that will stay the executioner's hand, this will be Duane Buck's last day on Earth.
Duane Buck was convicted in the 1995 murders of his former girlfriend, Debra Gardner, and her friend, Kenneth Ray Butler, in Houston. Buck also shot his sister that morning, but she survived. His lawyers said he was out of his mind on drugs when he pulled the trigger.
Apparently, Buck's conviction is the only bottom line that matters to the Texans that hold his fate in their hands. How he landed on death row doesn't matter to them.
But it matters to the U.S. Constitution, which Perry and his Tea Party pals claim to love first and foremost. If there is one tie that binds the eclectic devotees of the Tea Party, it is their worship of the Constitution.
In Buck's case, as in others, one has to wonder whether Perry has ever read it or if he understands it because the Constitution has something to sobering to say about how Buck was sentenced to death. The Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal protection and due process - rights that Buck clearly did not enjoy in that Harris County, Texas courtroom years ago.
In Texas, jurors may consider a defendant's potential for "future dangerousness," an assessment that, in itself, seems constitutionally iffy, since it is based on speculation and punishes people for what a group of strangers think - not know - will happen.
"Duane Buck, Rick Perry and the politics of death," by Alexander Cockburn is at First Post.
What mostly has people marveling is Quijano's career stint in the 1990s as an "expert witness". Buck's was the only case where he was called by the defence. Expert witnessing is a trade – often a very profitable one - in which by far the most desirable characteristic is predictability. A truly expert witness for the defence would have regarded it as his first duty to reassure the jury of Buck's lamb-like character, utterly inconsistent with possibly lethal recidivism.
"Expert" covers many a bizarre resume. One famous expert witness unearthed a few years back by the Chicago Tribune had made it her costly speciality to identify nose and lip prints – a forensic skill which apparently lacked any reliable foundation.
Juries like a well-spoken expert witness, flourishing forensic data. The popularity of shows like CSI has enhanced the reputation of forensic "experts", even though much forensic testimony, up to and including finger-prints, is disfigured by mishandled evidence, mendacity and incompetence.
Earlier coverage of the Duane Buck case begins at the link.
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