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Too young
to vote, old enough to be executed
Texas set to kill another child offender
July 2001SUMMARY AI INDEX: AMR 51/105/2001
DISTR: SC/CO/GR/DP
People
change. You know, to take somebody's life at 17 - you can't hold
a 17-year-old
by the same standards as you do me or you... I've made
poor decisions,
everybody does. But experience - you know, life - life
is a teacher,
and I know even today Napoleon is much better now than he
was then."
Rena Beazley, mother of Napoleon Beazley, May 2001
Napoleon
Beazley's government is planning to kill him on 15 August 2001
for a murder
committed when he was aged 17. If he lived in China, or
Yemen, or
Kyrgyzstan, or Kenya, or Russia, or Indonesia, or Japan, or
Cuba, or
Singapore, or Guatemala, or Cameroon, or Syria, or almost any
other of
the diminishing number of countries that retain the death
penalty,
Napoleon Beazley would not be confronting this fate. But he
lives, and
is scheduled to die, in the United States of America, a rogue
state as
far as capital punishment is concerned. His government
believes
that it is above the fundamental principle of international law
that no
one be subjected to the death penalty for a crime, however
heinous,
committed when he or she was under 18 years old. As a result,
the United
States leads a tiny number of countries which flout this
prohibition.
Within the USA, Napoleon Beazley's home state of Texas -
where under
18-year-olds are considered too young to drink, vote, or
serve on
a jury - is the worst offender.
Napoleon
Beazley was sentenced to death in 1995 for the carjacking
murder in
Tyler, east Texas, of John Luttig, the father of a federal
appellate
judge. The prosecution relied on evidence provided by two
co-defendants
to convince the jury that Beazley, who had no prior
criminal
record or history of violent behavior, would represent a
future threat
to society if allowed to live. In subsequent affidavits,
those same
co-defendants have stated that they gave false or misleading
testimony
in order to themselves avoid the death penalty. The existence
of such
a deal was denied at Napoleon Beazley's trial.
While the
rest of the world has agreed that rehabilitation must win out
over punishment
as the overriding objective in responding to the crimes
of children,
Texas is set to execute a young offender whose
rehabilitative
potential was testified to by a stream of trial witnesses
who had
known him for years. His record in prison would appear to
justify
the confidence they placed in him.
Beyond the
illegality of the execution, and the fact that it flies in
the face
of conventional wisdom relating to the treatment of children,
the case
of Napoleon Beazley raises the sort of issues which continue to
generate
substantial domestic concern about the fairness and reliablity
of the US
capital justice system. Was the state's decision to seek the
death penalty
in any way influenced by the identity and status of the
victim?
Did private vengeance steal into the proceedings against
Napoleon
Beazley? Did prejudice taint the decision by 12 white jurors
to vote
to execute an African American teenager accused of the
high-profile
murder of a senior member of the local white community?
Did the
state's aggravating evidence represent a true picture of the
defendant,
or an embellished portrait painted by two co-defendants out
to save
themselves from execution?
Whether or
not the scales of justice were tipped against Napoleon
Beazley
from the start, his execution does not have to be a foregone
conclusion.
The courts may have ruled in the state's favour all the
way through
the process, including in their rejection of the
international
prohibition on the execution, but the power of executive
clemency
exists precisely to compensate for the rigidities of the
judicial
system. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles should
recommend
to Governor Perry that he commute Napoleon Beazley's death
sentence
on humanitarian grounds and in the interests of justice,
decency
and the reputation of the State of Texas and the USA as a whole.
If
no such recommendation is forthcoming, the governor should grant a
reprieve
and call upon the Board to reconsider. Prosecutors and
legislators
in Texas, as well as the federal administration, should
support
this outcome.
Appendices
to this report include a list of child offenders on death row
and executed
in Texas; a chronology relating to the international
prohibition
on such use of the death penalty; extracts of an interview
with Rena
Beazley; and the text of a clemency letter from the District
Attorney
of Houston County, Napoleon Beazley's home county.
KEYWORDS:
This report
summarizes a 32-page document (15,720 words): USA - Too
young to
vote, old enough to be executed: Texas set to kill another
child offender
(AI Index: AMR 51/105/2001) issued by Amnesty
International
in July 2001. Anyone wishing further details or to take
action on
this issue should consult the full document. An extensive
range of
our materials on this and other subjects is available at
http://www.amnesty.org
**********
(source: INTERNATIONAL SECRETARIAT: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL **********
By planning to execute
Napoleon Beazley for a crime committed
when he was still a child,
the USA is showing its contempt for
international law and
common standards of decency, Amnesty
International said today.
The organization today
issued a new report on the case of
Napoleon Beazley, scheduled
to be put to death on 15 August for a
carjacking murder committed
when he was 17. This would be the
18th execution of a child
offender in the United States -- and
the 10th in Texas --
since judicial killing resumed in the USA.
"Texas accounts for almost
1/3 of the world's known executions
of child offenders in
the past decade," Amnesty International said,
noting that 31 of the
80 juvenile offenders awaiting execution in the
USA are on death row
in Texas.
"In Texas, under 18s are
considered too young to vote, drink or serve
on a jury -- yet the
state shows no qualms in sentencing them to death",
the organization added,
reiterating that international law, recognized
in all corners of the
globe, prohibits the use of the death penalty
against those who were
under 18 at the time of the crime because of
their immaturity, impulsiveness,
vulnerability to peer pressure, and
capacity for rehabilitation.
Napoleon Beazley's case
also highlights other issues that are causing
growing numbers of people
in the USA to rethink their support for this
outdated punishment.
"Racism has once again
reared its ugly head as a possible factor in a
US death sentence," Amnesty
International said, noting that the
prosecution labelled
this black teenager as an "animal" in front of 12
white jurors, one of
whom has since been shown to harbor profound
prejudice against African
Americans. "This should set alarm bells
ringing with the clemency
authorities, given the evidence that race
continues to be a determinant
in US capital justice."
As in over 80 % of the
725 executions carried out in the USA since 1977,
the original crime involved
a white victim. Napoleon Beazley is due to
be killed for the murder
of John Luttig, the father of a federal appeal
court judge, and a well-known
citizen in the east Texas town where the
trial was held.
"While we have the utmost
sympathy for the suffering of the Luttig
family, we are concerned
by the role that the victim's son, a federal
judge, played in the
proceedings," Amnesty International said, pointing
to evidence that his
influence on the prosecution went beyond that of a
"victim impact" witness.
Furthermore, in order
to persuade the jury that Napoleon Beazley posed
a future risk to society,
a prerequisite for a death sentence in Texas,
the state relied on his
2 older co-defendants to portray him as a
remorseless and violent
individual. Those same 2 co-defendants now claim
that they lied for the
state and painted as bad a picture of the
defendant as possible
in order to avoid execution. The existence of
such a deal was denied
at Beazley's trial.
"Napoleon Beazley is about
to pay the ultimate price, not just for his
crime, but for his government's
belief that it is above international
law, and the prosecution's
willingness to twist evidence in order to
obtain a death sentence,"
Amnesty International continued.
A stream of defense witnesses
described a respectful, helpful teenager,
whose involvement in
the shooting of John Luttig appeared to have been
aberrational behavior.
The prosecution told the jurors they should not
treat this evidence of
Beazley's rehabilitative potential as a reason
for leniency.
"The state presented so-called
experts who claimed that Napoleon Beazley
would pose a risk of
future violence even in prison," Amnesty
International said. "It
seems they were wrong. He has been a model
prisoner, one of the
few trusted to do jobs in prison."
The District Attorney
of Napoleon Beazley's home county is among those
calling for clemency.
She has said that, knowing Beazley and the facts
of the case, she would
never have sought the death penalty, a punishment
the USA claims to reserve
for the "worst of the worst".
"Napoleon Beazley had
no prior criminal record or history of violence,"
Amnesty International
reiterated. "This would appear to be a case of
one strike and you're
out."
Background
Amnesty International
is appealing to the Texas authorities to stop the
execution. It is also
calling on the federal government to intervene.
Napoleon Beazley was
sentenced to death a few weeks after George W. Bush
took office as governor
of Texas. In his current role as leader of his
country, President Bush's
administration must, under international law,
ensure that all jurisdictions
adhere to the USA's international
obligations.
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