Associated Press Newswires
Copyright 2000. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Wednesday, December 6, 2000
 
 

"Activists urge Clinton to suspend federal executions"
By SONYA ROSS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Civil rights activists urged President Clinton on Tuesday to put a moratorium on federal executions while officials try to resolve "nagging questions" about racial and ethnic disparities in capital punishment.  The White House said Clinton is carefully weighing his response to a flurry of letters asking that he halt the Dec. 12 execution of Juan Raul Garza, a marijuana-ring boss convicted in Texas of three murders in 1990 and 1991.

Garza, incarcerated on death row at the U.s. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, could be the first federal death row inmate to be executed in 37 years.  White House spokesman Jake Siewert declined to comment specifically about the Garza case Tuesday, saying only that Clinton had received a number of letters both for and against federal executions.  "He welcomes hearing from people with strong views on this topic," Siewert said.

Garza, who is Hispanic, asked Clinton in September to commute his sentence to life in prison because of "long-standing racial bias" in capital punishment sentencing; Clinton granted him a reprieve until Dec. 12. The Justice Department is still reviewing his case.

In a letter dated Dec. 1, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights said Garza is "emblematic of the inequities" in the way the federal death sentence is issued. They noted that before 1995, all capital defendants in Texas were Hispanic. "There is a very real risk that Mr. Garza's death sentence resulted from racial, ethnic and geographic bias," the letter said. "It would be unconscionable for the federal government to carry out executions at a time when nagging questions about the federal death penalty have been raised but are still unanswered."

The Black Leadership Forum, an umbrella group of 26 civil rights and service organizations, requested a meeting with Clinton about the matter. Chairman Joseph Lowery said Tuesday that Clinton should address the concerns about capital punishment as "part of the unfinished civil rights agenda" of his presidency.  "The criminal justice system is just about like it was when Clinton
came in," Lowery said. "I think this is an opportunity for him to enrich his legacy. He has a good record in that field, and this may be the void that he has an opportunity to fill."

Besides those from the civil rights community, Clinton also received letters, dated Monday, from 500 law professors and more than 70 religious leaders.  "There is strong evidence that Americans are troubled that capital punishment is not administered equitably," the clergy wrote. "To execute Mr. Garza at a time of such ferment and debate is to act precipitously."
 

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