NEW LAW SUIT SEEKS HALT TO FAULDER EXECUTION

Citing a rarely-used federal statute that has been on the law books for 200 years, Sandra Babcock today launched a new legal initiative to halt the execution of Stanley Faulder. In a law suit
filed in Federal District Court, Ms. Babcock is petitioning for a temporary restraining order to delay the execution until this unique challenge can be properly addressed by the courts.

Under the provisions of the Alien Tort Claims Act, foreign citizens may sue US authorities for harm or damages resulting from breaches of the law of nations. The law suit argues that the two decades which Mr. Faulder has spent on death row and his repeated exposure to execution dates constitutes cruel and inhuman treatment, in violation of international standards. It also faults Texas officials for failing to comply with their obligations under the Vienna Convention, which protects the right of
arrested foreigners to communicate with their consulate.

The named plaintiffs in the law suit are Governor George Bush and Gary Johnson, director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

The law suit  cites the recent decision of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to issue "precautionary measures" against the United States. The human rights enforcement agency
of the OAS has requested  a stay of execution, pending a full enquiry into alleged violations of Mr. Faulder's fundamental human rights under international treaties and conventions.

This is believed to be the first time that a death row inmate has filed suit under the provisions of the statute. Because of its extraordinary nature and the complex issues raised, it is expected
that the law suit will result in an ultimate review by the US Supreme Court.
 

FIFTH CIRCUIT DENIES CLEMENCY APPEAL, LEADING
TO SUPREME COURT CHALLENGE

Yesterday, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Stanley Faulder's appeal challenging the constitutionality of Texas clemency procedures. In a terse two-page opinion, the Court held
that the procedures used by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles did not violate the minimum "due process" standards required for clemency review. The three-judge panel concluded:

"Taken either individually or cumulatively under the facts of this case, none of the objections that Faulder raises to the Board's procedures represents an essential component of due process.
Procedural due process is an inherently flexible concept. . . extra flexibility is required when, as here, the criminal process has reached an end and a highly individualized and merciful decision like executive clemency is at issue. Faulder had ample opportunity to present his best case to the Board, and the Board gave it appropriate consideration."

The ruling paves the way for a final appeal to the US Supreme Court, which will be asked to review the lower court's opinion and to clarify the minimum standards of fairness required in all clemency proceedings.

Above info provided by Mark Warren - Amnesty International Canada

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Dave Parkinson or Tracy Lamourie,
  Canadian Coalition Against The Death Penalty
 website:  www.ccadp.org               email: info@ccadp.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

International Outrage Over Texas' Decision To Execute Canadian Stan Faulder

Toronto, Canada, March 2, 1999—Canadians, along with other members of the international community are expressing their outrage over the decision of Texas officials to go ahead with a new execution date of June 17th for Canadian Stan Faulder.   Both Texas and US Government officials have failed to address or even acknowledge the fact that aulder's arrest, without the right of consular assistance was a direct violation of international treaty under the Vienna convention, despite of recent pleas for clemency by Canadian officials, Madeline Albright
and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.    This serious oversight may jeopardize the future safety of Americans imprisoned in foreign ountries, In light of rumors about Governor Bush as a potential
presidential candidate, as Texas has set a new precedent for the treatment of foreign nationals who are arrested or in custody abroad.
Calls for an international tourist boycott of Texas have gone out worldwide world due to the fact that if you're a foreigner arrested or detained by police rightfully or wrongfully in Texas, you may not be granted your rights under international law, and could with lack of proper legal representation potentially end up imprisoned for years, even decades under penalty of death, without your family or government even knowing where you were !
In light of recent rumors about Texas Governor Bush's potential presidential aspirations the boycott is rapidly gaining worldwide support from Student organizing groups, political parties, human rights watchers, travel agencies,  along with many other concerned individuals from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Slovenia, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK as well as US citizens from various states.
 If Governor Bush cannot abide by international law and treaty as a State Governor and completely ignores the international outcry, as president he would surely be unable to maintain any degree of international credibility concerning the protection of Americans abroad, or any other matters regarding human rights.
For more information on Faulder and the Boycott see the CCADP webpage at:   www.ccadp.org

The Supreme Court issued a stay 18 minutes before Mr Faulder was to be executed at Huntsville Texas death row.   The court has decided it needs time to look into the violation of Mr Faulder's rights under the Vienna convention.
If the State of Texas and Governor George Bush Jr had their way, Mr Faulder would be dead right now.  It is obvious to all now that even though the international community (Madeline Albright, Lloyd Axworthy, Mary Robinson, Bishop Desmond Tutu to name a few) had spoken out against the actions of the State of Texas and Governor Bush, they turned a blind eye and a deaf ear.  But that's  'Texas justice'  for you.
We are grateful that the US Supreme Court has at least decided to review the case due to this issue.  Because of Texas'  lack of concern about this and all violations of human rights pertaining to their enthusiasm for state murder, and the fact that Governor Bush and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused to intervene, the international abolitionist and human rights community will be boycotting Texas as planned.
Texas is the leader of the western world in executions.  In 1997, it was responsible for half of all the executions in the United States of America.  The fact still remains that if you are a foreign visitor to Texas, there is no guarantee that should you fall into police custody whether justly or unjustly, you may not be permitted to contact your government as required under international treaty.

The state of Texas has decided to put off its plans to execute Stan Faulder next month until all his appeals  have been exhausted.
  A judge was asked last month to set March 12 as the date to execute the Alberta man. The Texas Attorney-General's Department now says everything is on hold, until it's known for certain that all of Faulder's legal appeals are exhausted.
 Late last year, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in just  minutes before Faulder was to die.
 The Texas government says there is no point in setting a date, only to have the courts step in again
 The 61-year-old Faulder is originally from Jasper, Alberta.  He has been twice tried and convicted of the killing of Inez  Phillips. The elderly woman was the head of a prominent Texas oil family. But through it all, he was never told of his  right under international law to contact the Canadian embassy.
Faulder would be the first Canadian executed in the United States since 1952. 

 DEATH ROW CANADIAN SUES TEXAS OFFICIALS

  With his execution date fast approaching, attorneys representing a Canadian man on death row in Texas have launched abold legal challenge to the state's clemency review procedures.

     Sentenced to die for a 1975 murder, Joseph Stanley Faulder from Jasper, Alberta has spent the past 21 years on death row. In September, a Texas appeals court denied his petition for a new trial, paving the way for the setting of his ninth--and possibly final--execution date. Mr. Faulder is now scheduled to die by lethal injection on December 10th.

     However, a group of lawyers representing the interests of all 445 death-sentenced prisoners in the state recently filed a class action law suit against the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. The law suit faults the Board of Pardons for violating the Texas constitution and state law in the procedures it uses to consider clemency petitions from prisoners facing execution.

     According to Sandra Babcock, Mr. Faulder's attorney, the claims raised in the law suit are particularly relevant to the Canadian man's case. "If the the Board of Pardons would simply
give us a hearing, we would be able to show them why they should spare Stan Faulder's life," Ms. Babcock said today. "At this point, I'm convinced that some members of the Board won't even read Mr. Faulder's clemency application".

     Mr. Faulder is one of two named plaintiffs in the law suit, which refers specifically to his petition for clemency. As the class action suit points out:

     "Although the clemency request will be discussed by many      people in the United States and Canada--Mr. Faulder is a  Canadian citizen--it will not be discussed by the Texas
     Board of Pardons and Paroles, the one group of persons who  have the responsibility to consider the clemency request and   the power to act upon it. The Board members have decided  that this question--whether another human's life should be spared--does not merit any discussion."

     Named as defendants in the suit are the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the Board of Pardons and its chairman, Victor Rodriguez. The plaintiffs contend that the Board is violating a provision of the state Constitution requiring it to "keep record of its actions and the reasons for its actions". The complaint against state officials was filed in the District Court of Travis County earlier this month. An initial court decision on the merits of the law suit is expected within a few weeks.

     Like any other public agency, the Board of Pardons is subject to the requirements of the Texas Government Code. The law suit contends that the Board's clemency deliberations are
shrouded in secrecy: no minutes are kept, the voting process is not open to public scrutiny and the Board provides no formal explanation of its decisions--all in glaring violation of the
"open government" provisions of state law.

     Under current procedures, Board members receive clemency petitions by fax, make individual decisions on these requests and fax in their votes within three hours of the scheduled execution. The Board has convened only one clemency hearing in the past
decade, allowing dozens of executions to proceed despite serious doubts about the guilt of the defendants or the fairness of their death sentences.

     According to the 1998 Amnesty International annual report cited in the law suit, Texas executed 37 people in 1997. The international human rights organization found that not one of the 18 Board members voted for commutation in any of the sixteen clemency petitions which were filed with them that year. One member failed to vote at all in 15 of these life-or-death
decisions.

     In another report issued earlier this year entitled "The Death Penalty in Texas: Lethal Injustice", Amnesty International described the current clemency review process as "killing without mercy". The report notes that the organization "considers the clemency/commutation procedures in Texas to be in violation of international human rights standards. The process fails to comply with any reasonable concept of a fair procedure and provides no protection against arbitrary decision-making".

   Stan Faulder was last scheduled to die in June of 1997 but was granted a reprieve by a Texas appeals court just four days before his scheduled execution. His attorney filed a
comprehensive clemency petition with the Board of Pardons well in advance of the execution date, but its members conducted no review of Mr. Faulder's request for a commutation of his death sentence.

     The clemency request filed last year contained statements from more than a dozen people attesting to Mr. Faulder's positive character, including the testimony of a woman whose life he once saved following an automobile accident. None of this crucial mitigating evidence was presented to the jury which sentenced Stan Faulder to death.

     Instead, the jury heard false testimony from psychiatrist Dr. James Grigson--commonly known as "Doctor Death"--that Mr. Faulder was a violent sociopath. Dr. Grigson has since been expelled from the American Psychiatric Association for his unethical conduct in death penalty cases.

     New medical presented evidence in the petition completely undermined established that Mr. Faulder sustained brain damage from a childhood head injury, impairing his decision-making ability. His disciplinary record during the past two decades of incarceration is superb, further discrediting the prosecution's allegation that Mr. Faulder represents a future danger to society.

     Canadian consular officials also contributed statements outlining the unique assistance and support they would have provided to Mr. Faulder if Texas had not violated his
treaty-based right to contact them following his arrest. The Canadian government continues to support efforts to obtain a new trial or the commutation of his sentence.

     "At a minimum, we hope that the law suit will expose the Board of Pardons' grossly deficient procedures to judicial scrutiny," Ms. Babcock concluded. "A successful outcome could result in much-needed reforms, ensuring that individuals like Stan Faulder will obtain a fair chance to demonstrate why their lives should be spared".

Read the letter the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty sent to George Bush and the Texas Board of Paroles regarding Stanley Faulder and a possible tourist boycott of Texas should this execution take place.  For more information about this contact the CCADP at (416) 693 9112 or at  info@ccadp.org

 LETTER TO GEORGE BUSH JR AND TEXAS BOARD OF PAROLES

  Stanley Faulder saved someones life in 1965 !

   Read the following article from the Edmonton Journal about the real Stanley Faulder...

 Man sentenced to die in Texas saved woman in 1965

        By GRAHAM THOMSON : Edmonton Journal Staff Writer

ST. ALBERT - Jeannine Janusz will remember condemned killer Stanley Faulder as a life saver.

In her mind, he will never be the Albertan branded by Texas as a vicious murderer and sentenced to die by lethal injection this Friday, June 13.

To Janusz, 64, a retired school teacher in St. Albert, he will always be the man who saved her life after a highway accident 32 years ago.

He was the "nice looking" man who peered through the shattered window of her wrecked Volkswagen Beetle in the middle of a blizzard near Jasper January 3, 1965. Of the three people in the car, only Janusz was aware of Faulder's reassuring presence.  Her friend Hazel Anderson, the driver, was dead and her other friend, Connie Mason, was unconscious.

"I remember he was very kind and he seemed to know exactly what to do," Janusz says. "He seemed very intelligent and he was very efficient."

Janusz was badly hurt, her nose crushed, her jaw broken. She was bleeding profusely and was afraid she would die.

Faulder quickly bundled her into his car and rushed through the nighttime storm to Jasper's hospital.

"I was bleeding very badly at the time and kept asking him about the (blood) damage to his seats. He told me not to worry about it, that all that was important was that he get me to hospital."

Janusz spent a week recovering in hospital and wrote Faulder to thank him. "He was very kind and gracious afterward and replied to my letter."

She lost touch with the Good Samaritan and didn't hear about him until 1992 when she read newspaper reports about Faulder being on death row in Texas.

He had been convicted of brutally murdering a wealthy widow, Inez Phillips, 73, during a bungled robbery at her home in Gladewater, Texas, in 1975.

"I was shocked. I couldn't believe he could do something like that. It seemed so out of character."

Janusz swore out an affidavit which she sent to an evidentiary hearing into Faulder's case in the summer of 1992.

"I believe I would have bled to death on the highway that night if Stanley hadn't stopped," she wrote. "Since that instant, I've always felt that I owe Stanley my life."

The affidavit was part of a defence package that helped win Faulder, 59, a reprieve.

But, in the end, Texas says Faulder deserves to die after spending 20 years on death row in a Huntsville prison. He is scheduled to be executed this Friday at a few minutes past 6 p.m., the first Canadian to be put to death in the United States since 1952.
"I feel very saddened," says Janusz, who has never spoken publicly about Faulder's act of compassion. "I hope something still can be done. There's still a little bit of time."

Faulder's lawyer, Sandra Babcock, is making last-minute appeals to have his death sentence commuted to a life sentence but admits the chance of success is slim.

                                    - Edmonton Journal

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL RELEASE: PUBLIC  AI Index: AMR 51/85/98
              UPDATE  -  26 October 1998

 EN FRANCAIS :   Regardez ici pour la traduction en francais

Further information on EXTRA 67/97 (AMR 51/23/97, 13 May 1997) - Death Penalty

USA (TEXAS):        Joseph Stanley FAULDER, Canadian national

Joseph Stanley Faulder is scheduled to be executed by the state of Texas on 10 December 1998, the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Faulder was sentenced to death in 1977 - this is his ninth execution date.

The Canadian authorities were not informed of Faulder's arrest. This was in violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which requires the authorities to promptly inform arrested
foreigners of their right to seek assistance from their country's diplomatic representatives. Canadian consular officials have made statements outlining the unique assistance and support they would have provided to Faulder if Texas had not violated his treaty-based right to contact them following his arrest.

Lawyers in Texas have filed a "class action" suit on behalf of the entire 445 men and women currently under sentence of death in Texas against the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. The law suit faults the Board of Pardons for violating the Texas constitution and state law in the procedures it uses to consider clemency petitions from prisoners facing execution.

The law suit contends that the Board's clemency deliberations are shrouded in secrecy: no minutes are kept, the voting process is not open to public scrutiny, and the Board provides no formal explanation of its decisions--all in glaring violation of the "open government" provisions of state law. Under current procedures, Board members receive clemency petitions by fax, make individual decisions on these requests, and fax in their votes within three hours of the scheduled execution. The Board has convened only one clemency hearing in the past decade, allowing dozens of executions to proceed despite serious doubts about the guilt of the defendants or the fairness of their death sentences. According to the 1998 Amnesty International annual report (cited in the law suit), Texas executed 37 people in 1997: not one of the 18 Board members voted for commutation in any of the sixteen clemency petitions which were filed with them that year.

The clemency request filed by Faulder when he faced execution last year contained statements from more than a dozen people attesting to Faulder's positive character, including the testimony of a woman whose life he once saved following a car accident. None of this crucial mitigating evidence was presented to the jury which sentenced Faulder to death. Instead, the jury heard false testimony from psychiatrist Dr. James Grigson that Faulder was a violent sociopath. Dr. Grigson has since been expelled from the American Psychiatric Association for his unethical conduct in death penalty cases. New medical evidence presented in the petition establishes that Faulder sustained brain damage from a childhood head injury, impairing his decision-making ability. His disciplinary record during the past two decades of incarceration is exemplary and shows no record of violent conduct, further discrediting the prosecution's allegation that Faulder represents a future danger to society (one of the prerequisites for the imposition of the death penalty in Texas).

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Texas has executed 3 foreign nationals: Carlos Santana, Ramon Montoya and Irineo Tristan Montoya. Montoya was executed on 18 June 1997; Texas authorities were fully aware of his nationality. Shortly before the execution, the US State Department contacted the Governor of Texas, in a belated attempt to determine the circumstances surrounding the breach of Article 36. However, in a remarkable reply that showed the Texas authorities' misunderstanding of, or contempt for, international treaties, the officials refused to investigate the violation or to assess its possible impact, on the grounds that Texas was not a signatory to the Vienna Convention.

In Texas, the governor may commute a sentence of death only if he receives a favourable recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Only one prisoner has been granted clemency on humanitarian grounds since executions resumed in Texas in 1982. A total of 160 prisoners have been executed in Texas since 1982, almost one-third of the entire USA total (currently 486). The most recent was Jonathan Nobles on 7 October 1998.

FURTHER RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send telegrams/faxes/airmail letters in English or in your own language:

-  expressing deep concern over the scheduled execution of Joseph Stanley Faulder on 10 December 1998, the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; -  expressing concern that Faulder was denied his right, under the Vienna Convention, to seek the assistance of the Canadian authorities;
-  expressing concern that the jury sentencing Faulder to death were left unaware of the mitigating circumstances in his life;
-  reminding the governor of Texas's commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in particular Article 3:"Everyone has the right to life..."

           APPEALS TO:

The Honorable George W. Bush
Governor of Texas
State Capital
PO Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711, USA
     Fax:        +1 512 463 1849
     Telegrams:  Governor Bush, Austin, Texas, USA
     Telephone:  +1 512 463 1762
     Salutation: Dear Governor

COPIES TO:

His Excellency Gordon Giffin
Ambassador for the USA
100 Wellington Street
PO Box 866, Station B
Ottawa, Ontario K1P 5A1
     Fax: (613) 238-5720

Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
c/o Victor Rodriguez, Chairman
209, W. 14th Street, Suite 500
Austin, TX 78701, USA
     Fax:        +1 512 467 0945

The Honourable Madeleine Albright
Secretary of State
2201 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20520
     Fax:        +1 202 647 1533
     Salutation: Dear Secretary of State

                     PLEASE SEND YOUR APPEALS NOW.

                    "Everyone has the right to life..."
      Article 3, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Visit the Stanley Faulder home page hosted by the Canadian Coalition
Against the Death Penalty at http://www.ccadp.org

From Canadian Press, November 19, 1998
 

As Joseph Stanley Faulder's Dec. 10 execution date draws near, the former Albertan says he spends his time "just laying back and thinking."

Faulder tells CBC-TV's 5th Estate it is time to reflect on a life that led him from kicking around the Rocky Mountain resort town of Jasper to drifting through the United States to his end on a Texas jail's death row.

While Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy, Amnesty International and others plead for clemency, Faulder says he isn't afraid to die and would apparently like to get it over with.

"I'm ready.  I'm ready as I've ever been.  We all have to meet our maker sooner or later.  I'd just as soon do it sooner," he says in a interview with 5th Estate to be broadcast Tuesday night.

"I have the advantage on you.  You don't know when you're going to die.  I do."

He has been on death row for 21 years for the stabbing and bludgeoning murder of a 75-year-old Texas woman during a robbery in her home.
Faulder, 61, has been a prison chaplain since 1981 and says his faith in God has given him strength.

"You've got to have faith in something and it can't be all in yourself.  If you turn faith inward, you wind up right where I'm sitting right now.  God exists, people have to accept that."

The soft-spoken man has sharp words for the justice system in Texas, saying he was "railroaded" by plea bargains and a move by the rich family of his victim, Inez Phillips, who hired a special prosecutor to push their case after Faulder's original conviction was overturned.

He also calls the death penalty by lethal injection "state-sanctioned murder."

"I say that...death row should not exist, period, the way they go about it.  I would like to think that there is some mercy in the system but there isn't.  It's very cold-blooded system.

"In fact, I'd say that the death penalty itself is more cold blooded that any other form of murder there is."

(source:  Canada Press)

 ADDING INSULT TO INJURY: THE STANLEY FAULDER CASE- Amnesty report

       Today  Tracy Lamourie and  Dave Parkinson of  the CCADP participated
                        in a press conference at Toronto's Queen's Park, the seat of the Provincial
                        government of Ontario, which was held to educate Canada's media on the
                        Stanley Faulder case and on The Association In Defense Of the Wrongly
                        Convicted's planned trip to Texas, where they will attempt to speak with
                        authorities including Texas Governor George Bush.  Included in the group
                        will be Joyce Milgaard, the mother of David Milgaard, who spent years in
                        a Canadian prison for murder before his innocence was proven and he was
                        freed.  Joyce has been a tireless advocate for the wrongfully convicted for
                        years and is a well known advocate against injustice in Canada.
                        Speaking at the press conference were James Lockyer, once the lawyer for
                        Guy Paul Morin, another wrongfully convicted Canadian since freed, and
                        Reuben "Hurricane" Carter, who once faced the death penalty in New Jersey.
                        He is now the Director of ADWC, and Amnesty International's Mark Warren
                        who has been active in this case for years.  Mr Faulders family was represented
                        by the children of his first cousin, who spoke of their family's love for Stanley
                        and their hopes that his sentence will be commuted.  They also extended their
                        sympathy and good wishes to the family of Inez' Phillips.
                        Howard Hampton, the leader of the Provincial New Democratic Party
                        spoke briefly of the NDP's commitment to human rights, and their stance
                        against the death penalty in the US.  Mr Hampton also took a moment to
                        mention the recent comments made by representatives of Ontario's Conservative
                       government, and committed to making mention of it in Ontario's legislature.
                        Also in attendance: Sid Ryan of CUPE, prominent attorney Clayton Ruby,
                        John Sewell, a former Toronto mayor who is currently with Now Magazine,
                        and other interested parties.  There was much media attendance.
                        We will keep you updated on ADWCs trip to Texas, as well as on the planning
                         of the upcoming  Tourist Boycott Of Texas that the Canadian Coalition Against the
                        Death Penalty is planning.  It will begin on International Human Rights Day, 1998
                        December 10th- the day Texas is planning the "TEXECUTION" of this Canadian
                        citizen.
                        Amnesty International would like to ask concerned Canadians to call
             1 800 AMNESTY  from anywhere in Canada to find out how to make your voice
                        heard.  The Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty can be reached at
                                          info@ccadp.org 

An Alberta man on death row in Texas has won an opening legal skirmish in his fight to avoid an execution set for next week.

A lawyer for Stanley Faulder said Wednesday she was pleased by a judge's ruling ordering Texas' Board of Pardons and Paroles to hold a public meeting to consider commuting the death sentence.

Faulder, a 61-year-old former mechanic from Jasper, Alta., has been twice tried and convicted of driving a knife through the chest of Inez Phillips, the 75-year-old matriarch of a prominent Texas oil family.

She had been bound and gagged during a bungled robbery in 1975. Before she was stabbed through the heart, the back of her skull was smashed in.

Faulder is sentenced to die by lethal injection a week from today.  He would be the first Canadian executed in the United States since 1952.

In a ruling released Wednesday, Texas Judge Paul Davis found the board violated the state's constitution because it hears death row inmates clemency applications "in secret and behind closed doors."

Lawyer Sandra Babcock said she was "cautiously optimistic" that the ruling will force the board to hear her arguments that Faulder's conviction was flawed and his death sentence should be commuted.

"I'm really, really happy that a judge has agreed that the process the board uses is flawed," she said in a telephone interview from Austin, Tex.

"I'm still cautious because I don't know that it'll ultimately mean we get a fair  hearing...(and) I don't know that the board will abide by the ruling."

The board is believed to be appealing the ruling.

Babcock said the 18-member board, which makes recommendations on clemency to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, has only met face-to-face once.  She said that was also the only case of the more than 150 the board has heard where it issued a recommendation for clemency.

Faulder's lawyers last month filed a final request for review with the U.S. Supreme Court last month, buttressed by a legal brief by the government of Canada.  The court has yet to rule on the request.

His lawyer, supported by Amnesty International and organizations opposed to the death penalty, argued that Faulder was denied a fair trial because the Phillips family spent an estimated $200,000 to pay witnesses and hire private prosecutors to try the case.

Ottawa supported the call for a review of the case based primarily on a violation of the Vienna Convention, which affords all foreigners the right to contact their national governments for legal help.

Faulder wasn't allowed to speak with Canadian consular officials until 1991.

Babcock also argues prosecutors failed to disclose that one of their key witnesses was also an accomplice in the robbery and that the Phillips family paid for their testimony.
(source:  Canada Press)

Travis County state District Judge Paul Davis ruled this week that the state Open Meetings Act requires a public hearing and vote by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in the case of Stanley Faulder.

If he is put to death as scheduled on Dec. 10, Mr. Faulder, 61, would be the 1st Canadian executed in the United states since 1952.  He has a clemency request under consideration by the board, which normally formulates its recommendations  to the governor in secret.

In earlier cases where inmates won orders for public hearings -- including that of Karla Faye Tucker -- the inmates were executed after the attorney general succeeded in getting the Court of Criminal Appeals to overturn the ruling.

"That lower court does not have jurisdiction because this is a criminal law matter, and it must be handled by the Court of Criminal Appeals or the trial court," said Ron Dusek, spokesman for Attorney General Dan Morales.

The state's lawyers filed papers in the appeals court Wednesday, and a decision is expected Friday at the earliest, court officials said.

The appeals court previously has generally agreed with prosecutors, finding that a civil court not involved in the original criminal prosecution has no jurisdiction over the clemency process.

Mr. Faulder's lawyer said that this case is different from earlier attempts to force open clemency hearing sbecause the judge's order does not directly block the execution.

Attorney Daniel Pope said the strategy has been to frame the open- meetings dispute as a free-standing civil matter, technically unrelated to Mr. Faulder's criminal case.

In fact, Judge Davis' order allowed that he had no jurisdiction over the criminal case and stated that the order will expire if Mr. Faulder is put to death.

The state's lawyers argued against issuance of the order by saying that the parole board is not a governmental body, as defined in the law, and is therefore not subject to open meetings laws.

Mr. Pope, the defense attorney, said that regardless of the statute, the state's case law and constitution require the board to deliberate and vote in a public manner.

Mr. Dusek pointed out that the board explains its reasoning for clemency decisions in a written report, although he said he was not certain who is given access to that writing.

Board officials have argued that it is impractical to convene a public meeting, because board members from across the state are called to hear cases on short notice.  Opponents have argued that  public teleconference would be better than the current system of private faxes and telephone contacts.

Lawmakers hav eexpressed concern that the board members operate out- of-sight and with no criteria for their recommendations to the governor. They have proposed reforms including, at a minimum, creating specific
criteria for board members to consider in their deliberations.

Mr. Faulder's case has received national and international attention, in part because of a recent request by US Secretary of State Madeline Albright for Gov. George W. Bush to consider the clemency petition.

Ms. Albright called attention to the failure of arresting officials to tell Mr. Faulder that he had the right ot contact Canadian consular officials, which violated the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.

The former mechanic from Jasper, Alberta, was twice tried and convicted for the 1975 murder of Inez Philips, matriarch of a wealthy oil family in Gladewater, Texas.   He was arrested nearly 2 years after the murder on unrelated offenses in Colorado, charged with the woman's death and returned to Texas.

Texas officials said they did not know Mr. Faulder was a Canadian citizen because he was carrying an American driver's license when he was arrested.  He was imprisoned for 15 years before the Canadian government and his family, who believed he was dead, learned of his whereabouts.

Texas prosecutors acknowledged that the Vienna treaty was violated but said both Mr. Faulder and his attorney at the time had access to all information that could have been obtained by the Canadian government.  Federal appeals courts so far have agreed and have refused to issue a reprieve.

(source Rick Halperin and the Abolish list)

In Austin, Gov. George W. Bush said Thursday that all the rights of condemned killers in Texas are respected, but he said foreigners shouldn't expect to get away with murder.

With Texas scheduled to execute 6 convicted killers during December, the case of a Canadian has drawn the attention of that nation and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.

Albright asked Bush to grant a 30-day reprieve for Stanley Faulder, who was twice tried and convicted for the 1975 murder of Inez Phillips, matriarch of a wealthy oil family in Gladewater.

Responding with his own letter Thursday, Bush said he is waiting on the State Board of Pardons and Paroles to make a recommendation.  He said both state and federal appeals courts had upheld Faulder's conviction.

"I can understand her concerns and desires," Bush said of Albright's request.  "The good news is, in our state people get treated fairly.

"People can't just come in our state and cold-blood murder somebody. That's unacceptable behavior, regardless of their nationality," the governor said.

Canada doesn't have the death penalty. Faulder, 61, would be the 1st Canadian executed in the United States since 1952.  He is scheduled to die Dec. 10.

State authorities never informed the former mechanic from Jasper, Alberta, that he had the right to contact Canadian consular officials,  violating the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, Albright said
in a letter to Bush last week.

Texas officials said they did not know Faulder was a Canadian because he was carrying an American state's driver's license when arrested.  He was imprisoned for 15 years before the Canadian government and his
family, who believed he was dead, learned of his whereabouts.

For Bush, this is the 3rd execution in less than a year to attract such widespread attention.

In February, the parole board rejected a bid for clemency from Karla Faye Tucker, who admitted killing 2 people with a pick ax but said she'd become a Christian in prison.  Bush denied her request for a 30-day reprieve.

In June, the parole board recommended - and Bush agreed - to halt the execution of Henry Lee Lucas, who once confessed to 600 murders nationwide. Lucas, who recanted those confessions, remains imprisoned on several other murder convictions.

"As you know, first things first," Bush said of his consideration of this latest case.

"The process is that the Pardons and Paroles Board must decide whether or not they are going to recommend execution or commutation....I don't know what their vote is going to be."

In his letter to Albright, Bush said the parole board has been considering Faulder's clemency petition for more than a month.  That should answer Canadian concerns whether the board has had sufficient time to review the case, he said, adding that the board considered a virtually identical request from Faulder before a court stopped his execution in 1997.

"The board has had sufficient time to review Mr. Faulder's petition in detail and should not require additional time to examine the issues raised in the petition," Bush wrote.

Speaking generally - not specifically about Faulder - Bush told a news conference that a governor's duty is to uphold state law.

"If somebody commits murder under our laws...and is afforded all access to the courts of law in our state and the United States, I will uphold the laws of our state regardless of the nationality of the person involved," he said.

(source:  Associated Press)

TEXAS SHOULD SPARE JOSEPH STANLEY FAULDER, a convicted murderer who is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Dec. 10 at Huntsville prison.

 The main reasons for sparing Mr. Faulder have nothing to do with his Canadian citizenship, or Canada's moral aversion to capital punishment or his government's strenuous efforts to halt his execution on grounds that Texas neglected its treaty obligation to tell him of his right to seek help from consular officials.

 Rather, the reasons for sparing him have to do with the irregularity of the trial that produced his conviction in 1981, the incompetence of his attorney at sentencing, the porousness of the evidence against him and the strong possibility that a prosecutor may have withheld important evidence.

 Texas didn't restore the death penalty to see it applied to people whose guilt is in reasonable doubt or whose lawyers cannot mount an adequate defense or whose convictions were obtained by tawdry or possibly illegal means.

 Mr. Faulder probably did murder Inez Phillips. The elderly matriarch of a Gladewater oil family was stabbed and bludgeoned to death in 1975 during a robbery attempt at her home. For that horrendous crime, he should remain in jail for life.

 However, the death penalty is inappropriate for someone who was not linked to the crime by fingerprints or other physical evidence, who had no history of violence, whose accusers were offered money to testify against him and whose attorney at sentencing failed to argue why he should not be executed.

 Mr. Faulder was first convicted in 1977. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the conviction in 1979 on grounds that his confession had been obtained by coercive means.

 Mr. Faulder's second trial was not prosecuted by the district attorney but by a private lawyer hired by the victim's family, using a special provision of Texas law.

 During that second trial, Mr. Faulder's accomplice, Linda McCann, testified that she had seen him beat and stab Ms. Phillips. Her husband supported her story, saying that she and Mr. Faulder told him how they had planned to rob Ms. Phillips.

 However, Mr. Faulder's current lawyer, Sandra Babcock, says that the private prosecutor offered Ms.  McCann $15,000 in "relocation" money for her testimony, though the money apparently was never paid, and that Ms. McCann's husband was offered $2,000.

 Furthermore, Ms. Babcock has found a memorandum in the file of the now-deceased private prosecutor's quoting Ms. McCann as saying that her husband "participated in all the discussions and planning" of the botched robbery.    If the memorandum is true, then two accomplices to murder - the McCanns - may have ganged up on
a third in order to secure their own liberty. That, according legal experts, is insufficient under Texas law to obtain a murder conviction without corroborating evidence.

 There is one other reason to keep Mr. Faulder behind bars rather than put him to death: When he was 3 years old, he fell out of a moving automobile and suffered a near-fatal brain injury. Doctors who examined him in 1992 said that he has a severe mental condition that was probably caused by the fall.

 Texas' failure to inform Mr. Faulder of his right to seek help from consular officials is relevant to the moral and legal imperative to spare Mr. Faulder only insofar as it may have prevented him from getting adequate legal help. By itself, it is, and should remain, insufficient to halt his execution, though the state should make greater efforts to ensure that it fulfills its treaty obligation.

 The Texas Board of Paroles and Pardons should commute Mr. Faulder's death sentence to life in prison. If the board has insufficient time to act, Gov. George W. Bush should use his authority to grant Mr. Faulder a 30-day reprieve and urge the board to be lenient.

 Agree with it or not, capital punishment is legal in Texas. However, it should not be applied erratically or cavalierly. There are just too many irregularities in this case to justify its use. Mr. Faulder should pay for his crime, but not with his life.

TEXAS:

Sid Ryan, the Ontario president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), will join a Canadian delegation in Texas to try to stop the execution of Stan Faulder, a Canadian who has spent 21 years on
death row. Faulder is to be executed on December 10.

The delegation, organized by the Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted, also includes Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, lawyer Paul Copeland, and Joyce Milgaard. Canadians played a key role in getting
Carter released from a New Jersey prison where he had been serving 3 life terms.  Milgaard is the mother of David Milgaard who spent 23 years in a Canadian prison before DNA evidence proved him to be innocent of murder.

"Where capital punishment exists, innocent people die," says Ryan.  "We have had 3 high profile cases in Canada recently where DNA evidence has shown that the wrong people were convicted.  The 3 people spent
years in prison.  In another era, they would have been hanged."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy and Raymond Chretien, the Canadian ambassador, have asked for a reprieve for Faulder. "People must be accountable, but so must systems of justice," says
Ryan.  "Canadians are deeply concerned that Faulder has spent 21 years on death row because he did not have proper legal counsel. Faulder was convicted after being privately prosecuted by the victim's family.  Much of the testimony at his trial has been discredited."

Ryan will deliver a letter to the Texas governor from Bob White, the president of the Canadian Labour Congress, asking for a stay of execution.

Ryan will arrive in Austin, Texas at 2:30p.m. on Sunday, December 6th.  He will join the Canadian delegation at Friends House.  The delegation will hold a news conference on Monday, December 7th at 10:00 a.m. at
the Capitol building, Lieutenant Press Room.  The Canadians will meet with Margaret Wilson, General Counsel to Gov. George Bush.  They are hoping that a meeting with the governor will follow.

(source:  Business Wire)

Tutu seeks mercy for Albertan

Cancel Thursday's execution, he urges Texas governor

 by Kathleen Kenna, Washington Bureau, TORONTO STAR
 

WASHINGTON -

"Please spare the life of Joseph Stanley Faulder, at least as a humanitarian act,"  South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged Texas governor George W. Bush.

In a private letter to Bush this week, Tutu seeks mercy for the 61 year old former Alberta mechanic, who is scheduled to be executed Thursday for the 1975 murder of Texas oil family matriarch Inez Phillips.

In Toronto, meanwhile, a group of Faulder supporters called yesterday for an international tourist boycottt of Texas.

Tutu said he was moved to make the appeal after appearing recently at a human rights conference in Alberta.  It was sponsored by the University of Alberta.

"Ordinary Canadians - not politically active people - were calling my hotel in Edmonton last weekend to appeal to me to intervene,"  Tutu states in his letter to Bush, sent Thursday.

Faulder's  "execution would also seem to me to be prejudicial to US-Canada relations, since there seems to be controversy over whether he received the consular advice he was entitled to at the time of his trial,"  Tutu writes.

Texas has acknowledged violating the Vienna Convention.  That international treaty gaurantees the right to contact ones home government for help when arrested or detained in another country.

Faulder was on death row in a rural Texas prison for 15 years before his family and the Canadian government were notified.

Its a contradiction to "promote reverence for human life by taking it away,"  Tutu warns in the letter to Bush.

Tutu joins a rapidly expanding list of high profile people seeking clemency for Faulder, including Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy and Raymond Chretien, Canadian ambassador to the US and nephew of Prime Minister Jean Chretien.

US Secretary of State Madeline Albright also has asked bush to grant at least a 30 day reprieve so that Faulder's case can be reviewed for the Vienna treaty violation.  Its the first time Albright has intervened in a death row case in Texas, which leads the world in state executions.

The US Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a clemency request by Faulder's lawyer, Sandra Babcock.  The Canadian government has filed a "friend of court" brief supporting her plea.

In Toronto yesterday, the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penaltyannounced the launch of an international tourist boycott of Texas to try to win clemency for Faulder.

"There are a lot of abolition groups in Europe that have wanted to do this for some time," said coalition director Tracy Lamourie.  "Its not just Faulder.  Bush is notorious for ignoring international law.  For a man with presidential aspirations, he has little regard for international law.  For a man with presidential aspirations, he has little regard for international conventions."

The Tutu letter is among almost 700 Bush has received seeking clemency for Faulder, a spokesperson said last night.

"Under Texas law, the governor doesn't have the authority to spare a life unless the board  (of pardons and paroles) recommendation to Bush at all,"   said a state official who asked not to be named.

A delegation of Canadians is to leave today for Texas to try to appeal personally to Bush.  Among them are Joyce Milgaard, mother of David Milgaard, released from prison after serving 23 years for a murder he didn't commit; former boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, also exonerated on a triple murder sentence fir which he was wrongfully imprisoned in New Jersey 19 years, and Sid Ryan, president of the 160,000 membes Canadian Union Of Public Employees in Ontario.

Court's ruling unlikely to delay Canadian's death Execution will happen Thursday if pardons board doesn't comply with order
 

                  By Dave Harmon                American-Statesman Staff   AUSTIN TEXAS

                  Published: Dec. 8, 1998

                  As Texas began a four-day spree of executions Monday, the state's highest criminal court rejected a request to overturn an Austin judge's ruling that the  Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles must meet in public to vote on clemency requests -- a ruling that could postpone the execution of a Canadian man on Thursday, his lawyers said.

                  But state officials said the ruling does not change condemned murderer Joseph Faulder's legal position and his execution will proceed as scheduled.

                  Lawyers for Faulder, who is scheduled to be executed for the 1975  murder of a wealthy East Texas widow, said the decision by  the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals not to enter the fray in Faulder's case is an important victory.

                  "I would be shocked" if the execution proceeds, said Maurie Levin, an Austin lawyer assisting with the lawsuit. "It would be a travesty if they proceed with executions . . . when there's a standing court order saying they're violating the  Constitution and the Open Meetings Act."

                 District Judge Paul Davis of Austin issued a temporary restraining ao order against the board last week to stop the practice of faxing their votes on whether to spare inmates from lethal injection.

                  The Texas attorney general's office, which appealed Davis' order to the Court of Criminal Appeals, still has an appeal pending before the Texas Supreme Court, said Ron Dusek, spokesman for the attorney general's office. The office has argued that Davis doesn't have jurisdiction and that state law doesn't require the board to hold public meetings.

                  "The execution will not be stopped," Dusek said. "The issue is not to  stop an execution or get in the way of an execution, the issue is . . .does the board  have to hold a public meeting when making a decision?"

                  Dusek pointed out that Davis' order has an expiration date: If the board doesn't comply by 3 p.m. Thursday, the order becomes void. The court's action capped off a day of frenzied activity on behalf of
Faulder, whose case once again brings international attention to Texas and its execution practices.

                  Gov. George W. Bush's general counsel met Monday with a five-person international delegation that included Rick Halperin of Amnesty International and former boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, who was wrongly
convicted of murder in New Jersey in 1967.

                  "Just about anything that you can think of that is wrong with the death penalty as an institution is in place in this state," Halperin said.

                  The Toronto-based Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty, a small organization that formed in May, also announced a tourist boycott of Texas on Saturday, hoping to help Faulder avoid becoming the first Canadian executed in the United States since 1952.

                  Bush said he wouldn't let the criticism affect his decision. "No one is going to threaten the governor of the state of Texas," he said during an appearance in San Antonio.

                  "My job is to enforce the laws of the state of Texas. That is my job and that is what I intend to do. We're not going to let people come into our state, commit capital murder and get away with it," Bush said.

                  Bush said he is waiting for the Board of Pardons and Paroles to review the case and make a recommendation. Bush can halt an execution for 30 days, but he cannot commute a death sentence unless the
board recommends it.

                  Faulder, an auto mechanic from Alberta, was not allowed to speak with Canadian consular officials until 15 years after his arrest in the 1975 slaying of a wealthy East Texas widow. Texas officials have said they weren't aware Faulder was Canadian.

                  The Canadian government has filed a legal brief with the U.S. Supreme Court requesting clemency for Faulder. In a Nov. 27 letter, U.S. Secretary of State  Madeleine Albright asked Bush to grant Faulder a 30-day reprieve.

                  This article includes material from The Associated Press. 

Court turns down Faulder appeal bid          Decision could put Canadian back on Texas execution list
BY KATHLEEN KENNA   WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON - Canadian Stan Faulder could find himself back on Texas' execution list after losing a bid to have the United States Supreme Court hear his case.
The court yesterday declined to hear an appeal by the former Jasper, Alta., resident. The 61-year-old, who has been on Texas' death row for a third of his life, would be the first Canadian executed in the U.S. since
1952.
Faulder, sentenced to death for the 1975 murder of a wealthy Texas widow, had asked the court to review his case over a troubling violation of international rights.
It was his contention that Texas ignored the Vienna Convention, which guarantees the right of those arrested or detained in other countries to contact their native governments for help.
Texas admitted the treaty was broken, but blamed it on an almost 20-year-old clerical error and said Faulder's execution was legitimate because a jury found him guilty of the brutal murder of Inez Phillips, an oil dynasty matriarch.
The court's refusal is a blow to the Canadian government, which had filed a 'friend of court" brief supporting Faulder's request.
Texas also ignored a request by U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Aibright to review Faulder's case, based on the Vienna Convention violations, even though it's rare for her to inteivene in such cases. South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu had also asked the state to show clemency.
Barb Allen, Faulder's niece, said  yesterday  her  uncle doesn't have many chances left.
"There was a lot of hope hanging on this," she said from her home in Jasper. "It looks like his avenues of appeal are running out. . . But there's always hope."
Faulder was set to die Dec. 10 when the supreme court issued a last-minute execution stay,'pending this latest appeal request.
The court offered no reason for rejecting Faulder's bid. Written statements are usually released weeks after a court decision.
Texas prison officials said they expect a new execution date will be set soon. It will be Faulder's 10th, but can't be set until his lawyer and the state argue the issue in a rural court near the murder scene.
Faulder's lawyer vowed to stall his execution.
"While I am very disappointed by the supreme court decision. this battle is not over," Sandra Babcock said in a state-ment. "Although the court's action means that Mr. Faulder's stay of execution will be lifted, I am hopeful that Texas will not set another execution date in the immediate future."
Another appeal is pending in a senior southern U.S. court, based on a constitutional argument against Texas' clemency system. However, officials can schedule Faulder's execution without walting for that.
"I am fully prepared to take this issue to the supreme court as well," Babcock said.
Yesterday's  court  ruling sparked outrage in Canada among those asking Texas to spare Faulder's life.
"This is a deeply disappointing ruling by the court," said Amnesty International official Mark Warren, from Ottawa. "It raises profoundly serious legal questions."
Americans arrested or imprisoned abroad risk deprivation of their rights by such a precedent, Warren said.
"This may have profound repercussions, not only for Stanley Faulder but for human rights in general and the credibility of the United States in the eyes of the world community."
But Calgary Reform MP Art Hanger. heading a Canadian delegation on a visit to Texas. said Ottawa should stop interfering, Canadian Press reports.
"We feel he has, indeed, received due process More than due process, actually. Now the time has come ... that he jusi be executed."
The  Canadian  Coalition Against the Death Penalty is organizing an international boycott of Texas over the court decision, a spokesperson said.

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