An attorney who represented Timothy McVeigh says he can understand why the Oklahoma City bomber was put to death, but can't see the justice behind the execution of convicted killer and drug kingpin Juan Raul Garza.

 
Richard Burr argues, as have Garza's attorneys and many death penalty opponents, that Garza's crimes did not necessarily warrant capital prosecution at the federal level. And, Burr and the others contend, had Garza been white or committed his crimes somewhere other than Texas, he may
not have been executed.

''As a matter of fairness, executing Juan Garza, in my view even though I was Tim McVeigh's lawyer, was a worse thing to do,'' Burr said Tuesday. ''Juan Garza's case is one that had he committed the very same crime in the  northeastern part of the United States, he'd be serving a life sentence right now, at worst. He wouldn't be dead.''

Garza, a Mexican-American born in the United States, was put to death
Tuesday on the same gurney where McVeigh was given a lethal injection last
week. After 38 years without a federal execution, there have now been two in
eight days.

Burr said he doesn't believe anyone McVeigh included should be put to death
for their crimes. But he said that given the severity of McVeigh's act, it was clear the death penalty would be sought.

Garza was convicted of killing or ordering the deaths of three people as part of the marijuana smuggling ring he ran from his hometown of Brownsville, Texas. He was suspected in several other slayings, including the deaths of his son-in-law and a woman he thought was an informant.

Garza's attorneys, in their appeals, cited more than 20 cases involving similar crimes where the death penalty was not sought. They say those cases demonstrate inconsistencies in the application of the federal death penalty.

A Justice Department study released last year found evidence of racial and geographical bias in the federal death penalty. For example, six of the 18 men under federal death sentences were convicted in Texas; 16 are minorities. But another Justice Department study released this month debunks the previous report's findings. Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday there was no evidence of racial bias in Garza's case.

''Some day this precise savagery will end, but not today,'' Garza attorney
Gregory Wiercioch said following Tuesday's execution.

It could be months or even years before there is another execution at the
Terre Haute prison, home of the only federal death row. No execution dates
have been set for any of the 18 other men there under death sentences.

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