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| Texas Execution Renewing Debate Over Punishment of Young Offenders |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/28/2002 |
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Parole board members spent the weekend reviewing the case of condemned killer Napoleon Beazley, whose appeal has renewed debate over capital punishment for young offenders. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles was to meet Tuesday on whether to recommend that Beazley's death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Beazley's execution was scheduled for Tuesday evening. ''It's my premise that my colleagues will be spending a good portion of this weekend, three-day weekend, going over the facts and circumstances and having their decisions made when they come to work on Tuesday,'' said Gerald Garrett, chairman of the 17-member panel. The board's recommendation then would go to Gov. Rick Perry, who has the option of issuing a one-time 30-day reprieve. Beazley faces lethal injection for killing the father of a federal judge eight years ago when he was 17. His case has drawn international protests and again placed the focus on capital punishment in Texas, the nation's most active execution state. The courts have not agreed with Beazley's attorneys in their bid to have the sentence commuted to life, although they said another try in the U.S. Supreme Court was likely Tuesday. The court last week refused to halt the punishment or review the case. Beazley's execution would make him the 11th prisoner in the state and the 19th in the United States to be put to death since 1976 for a murder committed when the killer was younger than 18. Beazley didn't deny gunning down John Luttig, 63, during a carjacking outside Luttig's house in Tyler in April 1994. ''I don't like to give ... explanations or excuses,'' Beazley, 25, said earlier this month from death row. ''It goes back to a justification for what happened. And there is just no justification.'' Luttig was the father of J. Michael Luttig, a judge on the Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and former clerk or adviser to three Supreme Court justices. Those three justices Clarence Thomas, David Souter and Antonin Scalia have not participated in high court rulings on Beazley's case. Beazley was president of his high school class in Grapeland in East Texas and a star athlete but also had been dealing drugs for several years. He was carrying a .45-caliber pistol and had a shotgun in his mother's car when he and two companions stalked and then ambushed Luttig and his wife to steal their 10-year-old Mercedes. Beazley faced execution last August and the parole board voted 10-6 against commuting his punishment to life. He was then was spared by a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision. When that reprieve was lifted, a new execution date was set for Tuesday. |
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