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| Texas Inmate Executed by Injection |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 05/30/2002 |
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Napoleon Beazley, whose death sentence for a murder committed at 17 stirred national debate over capital punishment for youths, was executed Tuesday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to spare his life. Beazley was convicted of killing the father of a federal judge during a 1994 carjacking. He repeatedly expressed remorse for shooting John Luttig, 63, while trying to steal the man's Mercedes. When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Beazley, 25, looked toward Suzanne Luttig, the victim's daughter, and said 'no' before he was given a lethal injection. In a signed one-page statement released after his death, Beazley said the act he committed was 'not just heinous, it was senseless.' 'But the person that committed that act is no longer here - I am,' he said. He again apologized for the killing but said he was saddened the justice system would not give him a second chance. 'No one wins tonight. No one gets closure. No one walks away victorious.' Texas is one of five states that allow the death penalty for crimes committed by 17-year-olds. Before Tuesday, 18 inmates in the United States - including 10 in Texas - had been executed since 1976 for a murder committed when the killer was younger than 18. 'Texas must recognize that the brutal practice of executing children is in complete and utter defiance of international law,' said Sue Gunawardena-Vaught, director of Amnesty International USA's Program to Abolish the Death Penalty. In Austin, about 100 death penalty opponents rallied at the governor's mansion to protest Beazley's execution. Earlier Tuesday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 10-7 against recommending that Beazley's sentence be commuted to life in prison and 13-4 against a reprieve. Beazley's lawyers made a last-ditch appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, renewing questions about his age and challenging the makeup of the all-white jury that convicted their black client. The court turned down the appeal, and Gov. Rick Perry denied his request for a 30-day reprieve. 'To delay his punishment would be to delay justice,' Perry said. |
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