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URGENT ACTION APEAL FROM AMNESTY FOR
GARY :
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
10 June 2002
EXTRA 45/02
Death penalty / Legal concern
USA (Texas) Gary
Wayne Etheridge
Gary Etheridge, white, aged 38, is scheduled
to be executed in Texas
on 27 June 2002. He was sentenced to
death in November 1990 for
the murder of Christi Chauvierre in
February of that year.
Fifteen-year-old Christi Chauvierre
was sexually assaulted and
stabbed to death during a robbery of
her home in Brazoria County.
Her mother, Gail Chauvierre, was also
stabbed during the crime, but
survived.
Gary Etheridge was convicted of the
murder. At the sentencing phase
of the trial, his court-appointed lawyer
called no mitigation witnesses,
and Etheridge was sentenced to death.
In December 1996, Gary Etheridge was
appointed another lawyer for
his state habeas corpus appeals.
This lawyer had only graduated
from law school two years earlier and
had been licenced by the Texas
Bar in May 1995. He had never represented
a capital defendant at
trial, and had never filed a state
or federal habeas appeal in any
case, capital or non-capital.
Within weeks of this lawyer being appointed,
Gary Etheridge
repeatedly attempted to have him removed
from the case, fearing
that he was not sufficiently experienced
or resourced to handle such
an appeal. Etheridge himself filed
a motion seeking the appointment
of another lawyer. The Texas Court
of Criminal Appeals denied the
motion.
The lawyer subsequently filed the appeal.
He had discovered that
there was substantial mitigation evidence
which the trial lawyer could
have presented at the sentencing phase
for the jury to set against the
aggravating evidence of Gary Etheridge's
criminal record and
involvement with illegal drugs which
the state had presented as
reasons for his execution. The mitigating
factors included evidence of
Gary Etheridge severely abusive upbringing.
He was allegedly
physically abused by his father, who
was often drunk; his mother
suffered mental illness and made repeated
suicide attempts, one of
which Gary Etheridge had witnessed
as a child. Gary Etheridge was
allegedly raped by an older brother
when he was six years old, as a
result of which he had to be hospitalized.
He was also allegedly raped
when he was in prison prior to the
murder of Christi Chauvierre.
The appeal lawyer nevertheless failed
to raise a claim that Gary
Etheridge's trial representation had
been inadequate at the
sentencing phase of the 1990 trial.
His failure apparently stemmed
from his incorrect understanding of
the law in this area as it related
to Texas capital cases.
After the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
denied the appeal in April
1998, the case moved into the federal
courts. A new lawyer raised a
claim that Gary Etheridge's trial lawyer
had been ineffective at the
sentencing phase of the trial. The
federal courts have dismissed the
claim on the grounds that it had been
'procedurally defaulted', that is,
unavailable for federal review because
it was not properly raised in
the state courts.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Amnesty International opposes the death
penalty in all cases,
regardless of questions of guilt or
innocence, the seriousness of the
crime, the existence or absence of
mitigating evidence, or the method
used by the state to kill the prisoner.
The organization believes that
every death sentence is an affront
to human dignity, and every
execution a symptom of a culture of
violence rather than a solution to
it. The victims of violent crime and
their families are deserving of
respect, compassion and justice; retributive
killing is surely not the
way to achieve these goals.
A clear majority of countries - currently
111 - have abolished the
death penalty in law or practice. The
international community has
ruled out the death penalty as a sentencing
option in international
courts for even the worst crimes -
genocide, war crimes, and crimes
against humanity. The USA's continuing
resort to this punishment,
often in ways and cases which violate
international minimum
safeguards, starkly gives the lie to
its claims to be a progressive
force for human rights in the world.
Since resuming executions in 1977,
780 men and women have been put to
death across the United
States. Texas accounts for 271 of these
executions. Fifteen of the 31
prisoners executed in the USA this
year have been killed in Texas.
Texas has regularly violated international
law or safeguards in its
pursuit of judicial killing. One such
safeguard requires that capital
defendants receive adequate legal representation
'at all stages of
proceedings', above and beyond that
provided in non-capital cases.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals
to arrive as quickly
as possible, in your own words:
- expressing sympathy for the family
of Christi Chauvierre, and
explaining that you are not seeking
to condone the manner of her
death or the suffering it will have
caused;
- opposing the execution of Gary Etheridge;
- expressing concern that Gary Etheridge's
trial lawyer failed to
present the jury with compelling mitigating
evidence relating to Gary
Etheridge's background, and that his
state habeas lawyer failed to
raise a claim of ineffective trial
representation, thereby causing the
issue to be procedurally barred from
federal judicial review;
- arguing that the State of Texas must
take responsibility for the
competency of the lawyers it provides
for indigent defendants, adding
that the failings of Gary Etherige's
state-appointed counsel have
meant that his case has not been fully
heard in the courts;
- calling for clemency for Gary Etheridge.
APPEALS TO:
Gerald Garrett, Chairperson
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles
P.O. Box 13401
Austin, Texas 78711-3401
Fax: 1 512 463 8120
Salutation: Dear Mr Chairperson
COPIES TO:
The Honorable Rick Perry
Governor of Texas
State Capitol
PO Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711
Fax: 1 512 463 1849; or 1 512
463 0039; or 1 512 463 1932
You may copy appeals to the following
newspaper, and/or send brief
letters to its editor (not more than
250 words):
Viewpoints
c/o Houston Chronicle
PO Box 4260
Houston, Texas 77210
Fax: 1 713 220 3575
E-mail: viewpoints@chron.com
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Amnesty International is a worldwide
grassroots movement
that promotes and defends human rights.
Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
PO Box 1270
Nederland CO 80466-1270
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 303 258 1170
Fax: 303 258
7881
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