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| Execution of Donnie Roberts a grim milestone for Texas and Rick Perry | Execution of Donnie Roberts a grim milestone for Texas and Rick Perry |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| On October 15, 2003, a dental assistant named Vicki Bowen was shot dead by her boyfriend at the home they shared in Polk county, about a 90-minute drive north-east of Houston. In his confession, Donnie Roberts, a 32-year-old laborer, told police that he had a crack cocaine problem and would go to bars, get drunk and look for drugs. According to the police report, he said: "I pointed the gun at her and I said: 'if you'd just give me some money'. And she said 'No'. And then I said: 'look, it doesn't have to be this way'. That's all I remember saying to her. And the next thing I know, I shot her." At trial, Roberts changed his story and testified that he fired at Bowen because he thought she was going to shoot him with a pistol. Exactly a year after the crime, a jury found him guilty of capital murder and later sentenced him to death. Bowen's was one of 1,422 murders in Texas in 2003. Nine years on, it will gain a certain degree of notoriety as a symbol of Rick Perry's continued enthusiasm for punishing murder with death. Roberts was executed on Wednesday night, becoming the 250th Texas prisoner to be put to death under Perry's watch. Texas has executed more people in nearly 12 years under Perry than it did in the previous 24 years. Death Penalty Information Center statistics show that by the last week in October, 1,310 people have been executed in the US since the supreme court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Of those, 488 – about 37% – were executed in Texas. This is more than the total of the next six most prolific states combined. Another four are scheduled to die between November 8 and December 12. Perry has presided over far more executions than any other governor in modern US history, though the rate was higher under his predecessor and previous record-setter. George W Bush oversaw 152 deaths between 1995 and 2000. The numbers can be partly explained by the length of Perry's tenure in the US's second-most populous state, as well as Texas's relatively fast and streamlined process for conveying the guilty from courtroom to gurney. | On October 15, 2003, a dental assistant named Vicki Bowen was shot dead by her boyfriend at the home they shared in Polk county, about a 90-minute drive north-east of Houston. In his confession, Donnie Roberts, a 32-year-old laborer, told police that he had a crack cocaine problem and would go to bars, get drunk and look for drugs. According to the police report, he said: "I pointed the gun at her and I said: 'if you'd just give me some money'. And she said 'No'. And then I said: 'look, it doesn't have to be this way'. That's all I remember saying to her. And the next thing I know, I shot her." At trial, Roberts changed his story and testified that he fired at Bowen because he thought she was going to shoot him with a pistol. Exactly a year after the crime, a jury found him guilty of capital murder and later sentenced him to death. Bowen's was one of 1,422 murders in Texas in 2003. Nine years on, it will gain a certain degree of notoriety as a symbol of Rick Perry's continued enthusiasm for punishing murder with death. Roberts was executed on Wednesday night, becoming the 250th Texas prisoner to be put to death under Perry's watch. Texas has executed more people in nearly 12 years under Perry than it did in the previous 24 years. Death Penalty Information Center statistics show that by the last week in October, 1,310 people have been executed in the US since the supreme court reinstated capital punishment in 1976. Of those, 488 – about 37% – were executed in Texas. This is more than the total of the next six most prolific states combined. Another four are scheduled to die between November 8 and December 12. Perry has presided over far more executions than any other governor in modern US history, though the rate was higher under his predecessor and previous record-setter. George W Bush oversaw 152 deaths between 1995 and 2000. The numbers can be partly explained by the length of Perry's tenure in the US's second-most populous state, as well as Texas's relatively fast and streamlined process for conveying the guilty from courtroom to gurney. |
| The governor's powers | The governor's powers |
| Texas law limits a governor's powers regarding death sentences, which are handed down by local juries. But the governor appoints the members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and can make non-binding requests for them to make a certain ruling. He can also reject the board's clemency recommendations, as he did in 2009 in the case of Robert Thompson, who went to the death chamber under a state law that holds accomplices equally responsible for murder as those who actually commit the killing. The shooter, meanwhile, received life in prison. As a last resort a governor can stop an execution via a 30-day stay, which in practice might delay proceedings for longer. Perry has used this reprieve only once. He has granted 31 death row commutations, 28 of them owing to a 2005 supreme court decision prohibiting the execution of minors; none since 2007. Perry thinks capital punishment is quintessentially Texan. In his 2010 book, Fed Up!, Perry writes: "If you don't support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol, don't come to Texas." Perry said at the Republican presidential candidates' debate in September last year that he had "never struggled [to sleep at night] at all" with the idea that someone executed under his watch might have been innocent. "In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is, you will be executed," Perry said. The audience cheered. "That certainly projected an image of Texas that doesn't reflect the reality," Kristin Houlé, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, told the Guardian. "Texas is moving away from the death penalty. The climate has really shifted on this issue. It's time our elected officials caught up." A University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey last May found that 73% of Texan voters polled were either somewhat or strongly in support of the death penalty. But only 51% said it was fairly applied in Texas, with 28% disagreeing. And when offered an alternative of life in prison without parole, support dropped to 53% in favor of capital punishment and 37% preferring imprisonment. A Gallup poll last year found 61% of Americans in favor of the death penalty for murderers, the lowest approval rating in their study since 1972. California has the most prisoners on death row of any state but has not held an execution since 2006. Voters there will decide next month whether to abolish the death penalty. Perry's grandstanding masks a decline in executions under his watch. There were 13 last year, the fewest since 1996 and down from a high of 40 in 2000, Bush's last year as governor. Some 20 inmates arrived on death row in 2002, compared with six so far this year. In 2001, Perry vetoed a bill banning the execution of what are termed "mentally retarded" inmates. But in 2005 he signed a bill giving juries in capital murder cases the option to give defendants life without parole, which Houlé argues has significantly reduced the number of death sentences. She believes that the execution rate will continue to decline after the backlog of inmates from past decades clears. There are about 285 offenders presently on Texas death row – six of them since the 1970s. Josh Havens, a Perry spokesman, told the Guardian via email that longevity explains his status as the "killingest" governor. "Simply put, he is the longest serving governor in Texas history. It should be noted, though, that the number of annual executions has not increased during governor Perry's tenure," Havens said. | Texas law limits a governor's powers regarding death sentences, which are handed down by local juries. But the governor appoints the members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and can make non-binding requests for them to make a certain ruling. He can also reject the board's clemency recommendations, as he did in 2009 in the case of Robert Thompson, who went to the death chamber under a state law that holds accomplices equally responsible for murder as those who actually commit the killing. The shooter, meanwhile, received life in prison. As a last resort a governor can stop an execution via a 30-day stay, which in practice might delay proceedings for longer. Perry has used this reprieve only once. He has granted 31 death row commutations, 28 of them owing to a 2005 supreme court decision prohibiting the execution of minors; none since 2007. Perry thinks capital punishment is quintessentially Texan. In his 2010 book, Fed Up!, Perry writes: "If you don't support the death penalty and citizens packing a pistol, don't come to Texas." Perry said at the Republican presidential candidates' debate in September last year that he had "never struggled [to sleep at night] at all" with the idea that someone executed under his watch might have been innocent. "In the state of Texas, if you come into our state and you kill one of our children, you kill a police officer, you're involved with another crime and you kill one of our citizens, you will face the ultimate justice in the state of Texas, and that is, you will be executed," Perry said. The audience cheered. "That certainly projected an image of Texas that doesn't reflect the reality," Kristin Houlé, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, told the Guardian. "Texas is moving away from the death penalty. The climate has really shifted on this issue. It's time our elected officials caught up." A University of Texas/Texas Tribune survey last May found that 73% of Texan voters polled were either somewhat or strongly in support of the death penalty. But only 51% said it was fairly applied in Texas, with 28% disagreeing. And when offered an alternative of life in prison without parole, support dropped to 53% in favor of capital punishment and 37% preferring imprisonment. A Gallup poll last year found 61% of Americans in favor of the death penalty for murderers, the lowest approval rating in their study since 1972. California has the most prisoners on death row of any state but has not held an execution since 2006. Voters there will decide next month whether to abolish the death penalty. Perry's grandstanding masks a decline in executions under his watch. There were 13 last year, the fewest since 1996 and down from a high of 40 in 2000, Bush's last year as governor. Some 20 inmates arrived on death row in 2002, compared with six so far this year. In 2001, Perry vetoed a bill banning the execution of what are termed "mentally retarded" inmates. But in 2005 he signed a bill giving juries in capital murder cases the option to give defendants life without parole, which Houlé argues has significantly reduced the number of death sentences. She believes that the execution rate will continue to decline after the backlog of inmates from past decades clears. There are about 285 offenders presently on Texas death row – six of them since the 1970s. Josh Havens, a Perry spokesman, told the Guardian via email that longevity explains his status as the "killingest" governor. "Simply put, he is the longest serving governor in Texas history. It should be noted, though, that the number of annual executions has not increased during governor Perry's tenure," Havens said. |
| "Jeff Blackburn, of the Texas Innocence Project [a group that aims to exonerate the wrongly convicted], routinely praises governor Perry for having made the most significant improvements to the criminal justice system of any other Texas governor … the governor personally reviews each and every death penalty case." | "Jeff Blackburn, of the Texas Innocence Project [a group that aims to exonerate the wrongly convicted], routinely praises governor Perry for having made the most significant improvements to the criminal justice system of any other Texas governor … the governor personally reviews each and every death penalty case." |
| However, numerous high-profile cases have drawn attention to Perry's refusal to stop controversial executions. Last year, Texas ignored a White House request to halt the death of the Mexican national Humberto Leal on the basis that it could have negative international repercussions for the US. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for allegedly setting fire to his home in order to kill his three children in 1991. Shortly before his death, Perry was sent a report by an arson expert casting serious doubt on the evidence but refused to grant a stay. Subsequent investigations by reporters and advocacy groups have provided compelling reasons to believe that Willingham was innocent. His relatives are now seeking a posthumous pardon. In 2005, Texas created a state commission to regulate the use of forensic science in criminal trials. Perry replaced the chairman in 2009 and three others when the agency was in the midst of examining the Willingham case, leading to accusations that the governor was trying to halt the investigation. Marvin Wilson died by lethal injection in August this year despite having an IQ of 61 and being medically diagnosed as "mentally retarded". A 2002 supreme court ruling bans the execution of these prisoners but Texas applies its own definition of mental disability inspired partly by the character Lennie from the John Steinbeck novel, Of Mice And Men. On October 18, the supreme court stopped the execution of Anthony Haynes less than three hours before the 33-year-old was to go to the death chamber for the murder of an off-duty Houston police officer 14 years ago. Haynes' attorneys claimed that his trial lawyers were negligent, that prosecutors inaccurately depicted his character and that Texas appeals procedures were unfair. | However, numerous high-profile cases have drawn attention to Perry's refusal to stop controversial executions. Last year, Texas ignored a White House request to halt the death of the Mexican national Humberto Leal on the basis that it could have negative international repercussions for the US. Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for allegedly setting fire to his home in order to kill his three children in 1991. Shortly before his death, Perry was sent a report by an arson expert casting serious doubt on the evidence but refused to grant a stay. Subsequent investigations by reporters and advocacy groups have provided compelling reasons to believe that Willingham was innocent. His relatives are now seeking a posthumous pardon. In 2005, Texas created a state commission to regulate the use of forensic science in criminal trials. Perry replaced the chairman in 2009 and three others when the agency was in the midst of examining the Willingham case, leading to accusations that the governor was trying to halt the investigation. Marvin Wilson died by lethal injection in August this year despite having an IQ of 61 and being medically diagnosed as "mentally retarded". A 2002 supreme court ruling bans the execution of these prisoners but Texas applies its own definition of mental disability inspired partly by the character Lennie from the John Steinbeck novel, Of Mice And Men. On October 18, the supreme court stopped the execution of Anthony Haynes less than three hours before the 33-year-old was to go to the death chamber for the murder of an off-duty Houston police officer 14 years ago. Haynes' attorneys claimed that his trial lawyers were negligent, that prosecutors inaccurately depicted his character and that Texas appeals procedures were unfair. |
| 'The conditions have to be more humane' | 'The conditions have to be more humane' |
| Anthony Graves endured 18 years in prison in Texas – 12 on death row – for his alleged role in multiple murders. He spent much of that time in solitary confinement. He was released aged 45 in 2010 after a special prosecutor investigated the case and concluded that Graves was innocent – a decade after the other man convicted in the affair, Robert Carter, confessed that he was the lone killer. Carter was executed in 2000. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Graves is one of 12 death row inmates exonerated in Texas, five during Perry's governorship. "I most definitely think [capital punishment] should be abolished for the simple fact that we can just never be sure we get it right. We don't have the authority to be playing a guessing game with someone's life," Graves told the Guardian. He is now an anti-capital punishment activist in Texas. "Death row was an experience an ordinary person can never understand. It was just like taking a man and putting him on Mars. The total lack of human respect for another individual was a shock to me," he said. "The conditions have to be more humane. You don't understand how enormous just a touch is in your life till they take it away from you." Graves believes that Texas' legal processes are undermined by errors and misconduct. "I still think that we overall have a really good system. I wouldn't so much criticize the system, as those who were entrusted with it," he said. A Texas Tribune analysis of overturned convictions found that mistakes by prosecutors potentially contributed to the wrong outcome in almost a quarter of cases. Perry told reporters last year that the discovery of mistakes in the Graves case proves that the system works. "You continue to find errors that were made and clear them up," he said. "The governor made sure I was compensated so I don't have anything negative to say about him. The blame we have to place at the voters' feet," Graves said. "You've got to point the finger at those who support the death penalty. The blood is on the hands of them, not just Rick Perry." He doubts attitudes towards the death penalty are going to change: after all, this is Texas. "The culture here is old western-style," Graves said. "Guns on the hip, shoot you down before you get the chance to ask questions." | Anthony Graves endured 18 years in prison in Texas – 12 on death row – for his alleged role in multiple murders. He spent much of that time in solitary confinement. He was released aged 45 in 2010 after a special prosecutor investigated the case and concluded that Graves was innocent – a decade after the other man convicted in the affair, Robert Carter, confessed that he was the lone killer. Carter was executed in 2000. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Graves is one of 12 death row inmates exonerated in Texas, five during Perry's governorship. "I most definitely think [capital punishment] should be abolished for the simple fact that we can just never be sure we get it right. We don't have the authority to be playing a guessing game with someone's life," Graves told the Guardian. He is now an anti-capital punishment activist in Texas. "Death row was an experience an ordinary person can never understand. It was just like taking a man and putting him on Mars. The total lack of human respect for another individual was a shock to me," he said. "The conditions have to be more humane. You don't understand how enormous just a touch is in your life till they take it away from you." Graves believes that Texas' legal processes are undermined by errors and misconduct. "I still think that we overall have a really good system. I wouldn't so much criticize the system, as those who were entrusted with it," he said. A Texas Tribune analysis of overturned convictions found that mistakes by prosecutors potentially contributed to the wrong outcome in almost a quarter of cases. Perry told reporters last year that the discovery of mistakes in the Graves case proves that the system works. "You continue to find errors that were made and clear them up," he said. "The governor made sure I was compensated so I don't have anything negative to say about him. The blame we have to place at the voters' feet," Graves said. "You've got to point the finger at those who support the death penalty. The blood is on the hands of them, not just Rick Perry." He doubts attitudes towards the death penalty are going to change: after all, this is Texas. "The culture here is old western-style," Graves said. "Guns on the hip, shoot you down before you get the chance to ask questions." |
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