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Dec. 15, 1998 - SEE
Magazine,
Edmonton, AB
http://www.greatwest.ca/see/Issues/1998/1217/news.html
NEWS
FRONT BY SCOTT LINGLEY
Canadian
death-row inmate Stanley Faulder may have received a month
reprieve from execution, but a Canadian human rights group is forging
ahead with
a plan to convince international tourists to cross Texas off their list
of destinations.
Faulder,
originally from Jasper, was scheduled to die by lethal injection
Thursday, Dec. 10 for the 1975 murder of Inez Phillips in
Gladewater, Texas.
A mere 18 minutes before the execution, the
U.S.
Supreme Court issued Faulder a 30-day reprieve while it reviewed
claims that Texas violated international law by not informing
Faulder of his
right to contact the Canadian consulate at
the time
of his arrest. The government of Canada was not aware of
Faulder's
situation until 1991, about 14 years after Faulder was sentenced to die.
Prior to
the reprieve, the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty (CCADP),
a human rights group based in Toronto, announced a planned
international
tourist boycott should Faulder's
execution go through. Now, says coalition co-director Dave Parkinson,
they're proceeding with the boycott based on Texas' record of
human rights abuses, the state's intransigence on
Faulder's death sentence, and its heavy reliance on capital punishment.
Fully half
of the 74 prisoners executed in the U.S. last year were executed
in
Texas.
"Seeing
as the state of Texas themselves and anybody who has any
authority to do anything there have refused to even look at the case,
and the fact that
it was the Supreme Court that intervened in his case, we have decided,
given the support from the international community, we will go forward
with the boycott regardless of Faulder's status.
"This is
actually growing into being more than just the issue of capital
punishment. The actual number of human rights abuses in Texas is just
ridiculous. They lead the Western World when it
comes to
prison abuses and human rights abuses, not to mention the violation of
the Vienna Convention for not advising people to consular rights, and
violations of international law for the execution of juveniles and the
mentally disabled, etc. On these grounds, we've gotten so much support
it's unbelievable, so we've decided to go ahead on the boycott."
Tracy
Lamourie, a CCADP co-director, says the Faulder case has opened up the
anti-death penalty movement to whole new constituencies.
"We're
talking about everything from the abolitionist groups and various
human rights groups, student organizing groups, even some
political
parties and travel agents. So we're really taking this way outside the
normal
anti-death penalty movement."
She says
the most positive effect so far is their boycott has Texans talking
about the issue. Lamourie and Parkinson have been interviewed on
Texas radio and in the press in the past week, a
rare
level of public discourse given the supposed popularity of
capital punishment in the Lone Star State. According to polls quoted in
every article on the Faulder case since it broke, public
support
in Texas for the death penalty sits at about 80 per cent.
"For the
first time in years, people in the abolitionist community have actually
gotten a response from the powers that be. Usually, they're
simply
ignored but, taking this tack, they're beginning to get the
attention
to bring this issue to the forefront. And that's why we can stop this
(execution), this thing's going full out," Parkinson said.
The
CCADP is also concerned about capital punishment issues at home.
Public
figures such as Ontario solicitor-general Bob Runiciman recently
announced
his support for the death penalty
and the
Edmonton Journal recently reported two Reform MPs are at work on a
private members' bill to reintroduce the issue in Parliament.
Proponents of capital punishment claim the majority of
Canadians are in support of the death penalty, even though there have
been no executions here since 1962.
"They
always tout that 80-per-cent figure for support, the way they do
in the States," Lamourie says.
"But the
main concern is really with the protection of society,"
Parkinson added. "If people are offered an alternative, if they
can protect
society without killing people, they're more in favor of that
than
they are of the death penalty, and that's something that never comes
out in those polls."
SEE
Magazine Copyright © 1998. All
Rights Reserved.
Dec. 15, 1998 - SEE
Magazine, Edmonton, AB
http://www.greatwest.ca/see/Issues/1998/1217/web.html
ON THE WEB BY
RICHARD CAIRNEY
This
week's news section of SEE Magazine examines a call for a tourist
boycott of Texas, by a Toronto-based group called the Canadian
Coalition Against the Death Penalty. The group has been
in the
news recently because of its efforts to save the life of Stanley
Faulder, a Jasper, Alta. man convicted of murder in Texas and sentenced
to death. So this week, we'll look at on-line activities
surrounding the Faulder case and the death penalty in general.
First,
the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty website: it's enough
to
make a Reformer's blood boil. The site is clean and orderly and
easy
to use. It allows surfers to immediately
find
what they're looking for, or something of interest to dig
into. And then, because there is so much substance to
this site, it keeps you there for a long, long time. Visitors to
the site can read up on the
group's news releases, learn about its mandate or find out about the
Texas
tourism boycott.
The
group originally planned to call for a boycott of the Lone Star State
if Faulder were executed. His fate remains undecided. Now the group has
pulled the
trigger on the boycott anyway, citing the state's pathetic overall
human
rights record. That includes the execution of juveniles and the
mentally
disabled, and the state's habit of failing to inform foreigners
charged
with a crime that they
can seek assistance from
their own governments. That failure on the state's part led to a
stay of execution for Faulder last week, hours before he was scheduled
to die from a lethal injection for the
1975 murder of a Texas
woman. (Ironically, the execution had been set for Dec. 10,
International Human Rights Day.)
The site
is deep, with links that open your eyes to the enormous efforts being
made on behalf of death row inmates. In fact, you can link from
this site to a web ring of sites dedicated to death row
prisoners. I counted 23 links to sites about inmates and the death
penalty, most dealing with specific prisoners.
If these
sites have a downfall, though, it is that they lack some vital
information. Namely, they are too blatant in their protestations
of innocence
on the part of inmates. You can't convince anyone of a
convict's innocence by merely stating the inmate was wrongly convicted.
And
while the sites do offer up witness statements and partial courtroom
transcripts, this evidence is not convincing because it is not
presented in an unbiased context. You begin to wonder where
the
prosecution's case is. If these sites were to post the
prosecution's best evidence as well as the inmate's best defence,
we'd have something to chew
on. As things stand, we're asked to
accept
one version of the story on blind faith.
Not that
faith is a bad thing: these sites are effective in whipping the
converted into a frenzy, if they're not likely to spark any
conversions. If
you believe even Charles Manson should be
spared the death penalty, you'll like these sites.
If you
think some guilty people say they're not guilty in order to avoid
death,
but should not have been sentenced to death in the first place,
you
might feel these sites are deceptive,
though
honorable in intent.
Still,
they are enormously informative.
SEE
Magazine Copyright © 1998. All
Rights Reserved.
Austin Chronicle
December 10, 1998
Texas vs. International Law
Barring a last-minute
political miracle, Joseph Stanley Faulder, a Canadian citizen,
will be executed by the state of Texas at 6pm tonight, Dec. 10.
Faulder's imminent death
by lethal injection has been the subject of an unusual amount of
controversy in recent weeks due to what anti-death penalty
advocates see as irregularities in his trial
and violations of the Vienna
Convention on Consular Relations, ratified in 1969. Under that
international
rule, when Faulder was arrested, the state was obliged to inform
Canadian authorities and alert Faulder of his right to to seek help
from his country's consulate. For 15 years, Texas authorities did
neither.
Faulder's execution, scheduled
to occur on International Human Rights Day, which commemorates the 50th
anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights,
has sparked outrage from international human rights activists, and drew
a large delegation of Canadian activists, government officials, and
media
to town on Monday. Among the group was Sid Ryan, spokesman for
the
Canadian Labor Congress, who decried the state's failure to abide
by the international convention's rules. "You cannot have one set
of laws for the 140 countries who are signatories to the Vienna
Convention
and another set of laws for the state of Texas," Ryan said. "That's
unacceptable."
The Canadian delegation,
accompanied by a number of Texas activists, pointed to letters written
by U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright to Gov. George W.
Bush and Texas Board
of Pardons and Paroles Chairman Victor Rodriguez -- requesting a 30-day
stay of Faulder's execution and further consideration of his
clemency petition -- as evidence that justice was not served in the
Canadian national's sentencing and conviction. Faulder's attorney,
Sandra Babcock, had hoped that last week's District Court ruling,
which determined for the second time that the Board of Pardons and
Paroles' secret clemency hearing process was unconstitutional, might
"have a dramatic effect" on the request for a stay of execution for
Faulder. But the plans for a public clemency hearing on Faulder's case
were immediately scrapped on Tuesday when the Texas Supreme Court
stayed the lower court's ruling.
Texas has executed several
foreign citizens in the past, most recently Tristan Montoya, a Mexican
native who was killed by lethal injection last year. Although
American and Canadian activists hold out hope that Bush will agree to
grant a 30-day reprieve to Faulder, members of the Canadian
Coalition Against the Death Penalty say they are prepared to
launch a tourist boycott of Texas beginning Dec.11 if Faulder is
executed. According to Dave Atwood, president of the Texas Coalition
to Abolish the Death Penalty, a similar boycott is being
considered by several European countries. Besides Faulder, three other
men were scheduled to be executed this week: Daniel Corwin, Jeff
Emery, and Danny Barber. Texas activists say the Dec. 15 execution of
James Robert Means in Huntsville for the 1981 murder of a Houston
security guard, will likely mark the 500th death-row execution since
the United States reinstated the death-penalty in 1978. In
Austin, the occasion will be observed with
a 5:30pm demonstration and vigil at the Capitol steps, sponsored by the
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. -- E.C.B.
10 December 1998 - World
Socialist News
The Texas killing machine targets Canadian
Stanley Faulder
By David Walsh
Stanley Faulder, a 61-year-old
Canadian citizen, will die by lethal injection Thursday evening in
Huntsville, Texas unless the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles
grants a clemency request. The board has granted only one
prisoner clemency on humanitarian
grounds since executions resumed in Texas in 1982.
Faulder's execution will be
another barbaric act carried out by the state of Texas and its
Republican governor, George W. Bush. Four executions, including
Faulder's, are scheduled this week; another is set for next Tuesday.
After a break for the holidays,
four more executions will take place in Huntsville in January,
including
three in consecutive nights, January 11 to 13. The US has
put
to death 439 people since 1977, 163 in Texas.
The Faulder case has become the
focus of international protest because of the failure of authorities to
inform the Jasper, Alberta native at the time of his arrest in 1977 of
his
right to contact the Canadian consulate and ask for
assistance. This was done in
violation of Article 36 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations,
a treaty
signed by the US and 140 other countries. The Canadian government was
not
informed of Faulder's situation
until he had been in prison for
15 years. The human rights group Amnesty International reports that it
knows of 73 foreign nationals from 24 countries currently sitting on
death row in America; only three were informed of their
rights. If Faulder dies he will
be the first Canadian executed in the US since 1952.
Paraguayan citizen Ángel
Francisco Breard was executed earlier this year in Virginia despite an
International Court of Justice order that his death sentence be
suspended. Breard was also denied the right to assistance from
Paraguayan officials. Texas has
executed three foreign nationals--Carlos Santana, Ramon Montoya and
Irineo
Tristan Montoya. The US State Department contacted Bush shortly before
29-year-old Irineo Tristan
Montoya was put to death June 18,
1997. State officials refused to investigate the violations of his
rights on the grounds that Texas was not a signatory to the Vienna
Convention!
According to his supporters Montoya
underwent a lengthy police
interrogation without the presence of an attorney or the assistance of
the Mexican consulate. He allegedly signed a four-page confession in
English, a language that
he did not read, speak or understand. The systematic
violation of the Vienna Convention is another example of official US
hypocrisy and arrogance. Endlessly denouncing "international criminals"
and violations of
"international law" and UN resolutions when it suits Washington's
purpose, the American ruling class simply disregards with
contempt any treaties and rulings
that do not serve its immediate interests.
Responding to international
pressures, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright sent letters to Bush
and Victor Rodriguez, chairman of the Board of Pardons, urging them to
give "serious consideration" to the granting of a
30-day reprieve and a full
clemency review of Faulder's case.
Texas officials appear unmoved.
Bush continued to respond provocatively to criticism. During an
appearance
in San Antonio this week he declared, "No one is going to threaten the
governor of the state of Texas.... 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."
As for the Board of Pardons,
Amnesty International described the current clemency review process in
a report
issued earlier this year as "killing without mercy". Under the board's
current
procedures, no minutes are kept,
the voting process is not open to
public scrutiny and its decisions are not formally explained. Board
members, scattered around the state, receive clemency petitions by fax,
make individual decisions on the appeals and
respond by fax within three hours
of the scheduled execution. The board has convened only one clemency
hearing in the past 10 years. Texas put 37 people to death in 1997;
Amnesty International found that not one of the 18 board members voted
for commutation on any
of the 16 clemency petitions that were filed. One member failed to vote
at
all in 15 of the cases.
On Tuesday the Texas Supreme
Court ruled that the Board of Pardons could continue to deliberate
secretly. Travis County District Judge Paul Davis ruled last week that
closed board proceedings violated the Constitution
and the Texas Open Meetings Act.
A delegation of Canadian human
rights activists and union officials visited Texas earlier this week to
bring attention to the Faulder case. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the
former boxer framed up in Newark, New Jersey and
jailed for 19 years for a
murder he didn't commit, denounced Texas officials.
"Texas is demonstrating a
forerunner of a final solution, just as it happened in Nazi Germany
from '39 to '45, loading up the prisons with illiterate people,
loading them up with the disenfranchised, loading them up with the
disadvantaged," he declared.
Carter is now executive director of the Association in Defense of the
Wrongly
Convicted. Fellow ADWC member Joyce Milgaard, whose son spent 23
years
in a Canadian prison before DNA
evidence proved him innocent,
called Texas "a killing machine." Sid Ryan of the Canadian Union of
Public Employees delivered a letter to Bush from Bob White, president
of the Canadian Labour Congress, asking for a stay of execution. The
Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty has called for a tourist
boycott of Texas.
The facts of the Faulder case
point to the social reality of the death penalty in America: it is an
instrument of class justice. Faulder was first convicted in 1977 for
the murder of
75-year-old Inez Phillips in Gladewater, Texas two
years earlier on the basis of a
confession he gave to police. That confession was later thrown out by
an
Appeals Court on the grounds that his constitutional rights had been
violated.
At his second trial, in 1981, the
testimony of his alleged
accomplice in the robbery-murder, a sometime prostitute, and her
common-law husband led to his conviction. The woman was given complete
immunity for her testimony, and both she and her
husband were offered money to
testify against Faulder by the Phillips family.
The victim's son, a wealthy
oilman, spent $155,000 hiring private prosecutors to pursue the case.
There was
no physical evidence linking Faulder to the crime. Recently, Faulder's
lawyer has discovered notes in the files of one of the private
prosecutors indicating that his accomplice's husband was in on the
crime from the beginning. This evidence was withheld from the
trial. Unable to afford a private attorney, Faulder had to rely
on a court-appointed lawyer. His attorney conducted no pre-trial
investigation and called no witnesses at the retrial. The lawyer
admitted years later that he had been ignorant of his responsibility to
present testimony to the jury about Faulder's character, background and
state of
mind.
Moreover, evidence could have
been presented showing that Faulder had suffered a massive head injury
at a young age that caused permanent brain damage, impairing his
ability to make appropriate behavioral decisions in
stressful situations.
The jury that sentenced Faulder
to death heard testimony from psychiatrist
Dr. James Grigson--who is known
as "Doctor Death" for his willingness to testify in such cases--that
the
accused was a violent sociopath. Grigson has since been expelled from
the
American Psychiatric Association for his
conduct.
None of these facts have had any
impact on the courts. Last November the US Supreme Court refused to
review Faulder's appeal, setting the stage for the new execution date,
his ninth in 20 years.
In addition to the poor and the
illiterate who have actually committed or participated in crimes, no
one
really knows how many of those sitting on death row in the US are
entirely
innocent. Since 1976, 75 condemned
inmates have been cleared, some
of them only hours away from execution.
With new laws limiting appeals
and reduced spending for legal services, the possibility of wrongful
conviction is that much greater. Two years ago Congress cut off funding
to death penalty resource centers, which provided
legal assistance in 20 states.
Alabama currently has 35 death row inmates who have no legal
representation at all.
Bush's role in presiding over
Texas's assembly line of death is significant. He is being promoted in
the media and within sections of his party as a "moderate Republican"
and a presidential hopeful. It is an indication of the
current state of bourgeois
politics in the US that he obviously considers demonstrating the
slightest human
compassion a form of political suicide.
Faulder and the others must
die--a small price to pay!--to prove to the "Christian" right that Bush
is not
soft on crime. There is something horrifying in the
spectacle
of the state systematically organizing executions. It is a black mark
against
an entire society. Civilized international public opinion increasingly
regards the US as a pariah when it comes to human rights, as well it
should. In 1997 American states carried out 74 executions--only China,
Saudi Arabia and
Iran were known to have put to death more prisoners.
While there is an irrational and
vindictive element, a demented quality, to the current "law and order"
campaign, there are real social factors driving it forward. Neither
Bush nor Clinton nor any of the Democrats and
Republicans have any answer to
the social problems in the US. The polarization between the wealthy
elite and virtually everyone else is unprecedented in modern times.
Overshadowing every political event is the
growing global economic crisis.
What will be the consequences for the US of a serious downturn, under
conditions where welfare and other social programs have been destroyed,
millions live in poverty and millions more are struggling to make ends
meet? In the first place, the exposure of all the myths about the
wonders of the market and, more generally, a discrediting of the profit
system in the eyes of broad layers of the population. Sharp social
struggles will inevitably erupt.
Official society anxiously and
instinctively seeks to strengthen the state, the police and the courts,
as it seeks to divert public attention by scapegoating immigrants and
generally criminalizing the poor and the young. The recourse to ever
stiffer sentences, the virtual ending of parole, the use of the death
penalty--these are all efforts to intimidate
and terrorize, to display the power of the state machinery. At the same
time
executions serve to brutalize society, cheapening life, inuring people
to
state violence, softening them up for repression on a far wider
scale.
In the final analysis, capital punishment is part of the assault on the
democratic
rights of the entire population.
Governor Bush and his counterparts in Virginia, Florida
and elsewhere, who operate their own killing machines, believe that
there are no consequences for their inhuman actions. Public "support"
for capital punishment in the US, such as it is, is composed of one
part lack of knowledge, another part apathy, another bewilderment in
the face of terrible social
ills. Once working people enter into struggle, begin to orient
themselves
and coalesce around a program that truly represents their interests, a
socialist
program, support for capital punishment and other brutal policies of
the
American ruling class will rapidly decline.
CCADP Makes headlines in Texas !
Bush responds to the CCADP Boycott !
Tuesday, Dec. 8, 1998 Associated Press:
Death penalty opponents plead for Canadian's
life Coalition including Madeleine Albright ask Gov. Bush to halt
convicted killer Faulder's execution
By RENAE MERLE Associated Press
AUSTIN - An international delegation of death penalty opponents
asked Gov. George W. Bush on Monday to halt the execution of a Canadian
citizen whose cause has won backing from Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright.
"I
know that Texas will do the right thing if it's brought to their
attention," said Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, director of the
Toronto-based Association
in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted.
Joseph Stanley Faulder, 61, was convicted of the 1975 murder of
Inez Phillips, the matriarch of a wealthy oil family in
Gladewater.
Barring
a stay of execution, Faulder on Thursday will become the first Canadian
executed in the United States since 1952. Appeals are pending in
state and
federal court.
"We are urging the Texas people, particularly the governor of Texas,
not to kill this man," said Carter, who spent nearly 20 years on
death
row in New Jersey for a triple homicide he didn't commit.
The delegates made their case before Bush's general counsel, Margaret
Wilson. Rick Halperin of Amnesty International cited what he called
outrageous
trial procedures, a lack of qualified attorneys and a flagrant
disregard
of international treaties.
"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.
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. We're not going
to let people come into our state, commit capital murder and get
away
with it," Bush said.
The
Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty has pledged a tourist
boycott
of Texas if the execution takes place.
Published: Dec. 8, 1998
- American-Statesman
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
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.
MEMENTO, PQ
Texas : Capitale des peines capitales
Mercredi le 9 décembre 1998
La situation
est tellement ironique qu'on pourrait en rire si ce n'était pas
aussi tragique. Le jeudi
10
décembre, jour de la Déclaration universelle des droits
de l'homme, un Canadien qui a subi
un
procès digne des belles années des républiques de
bananes risque
de subir au Texas la
peine la plus
cruelle qui soit : l'exécution.
À
l'approche du jour fatidique, les appels se sont multipliés pour
que la peine de Stanley
Faulder soit
commuée ou qu'il subisse un nouveau procès tellement les
irrégularités ont été
nombreuses et
ahurissantes. Amnistie Internationale, la Secrétaire
d'État américain Madeleine
Albright,
l'Association in Defense of the Wrongly Convicted sont intervenus pour
tenter de le
sauver. Stan
Faulder n'a pas été instruit qu'il pouvait contacter les
autorités canadiennes lors de
son
arrestation, comme l'exige la convention de Vienne dont sont
signataires les deux pays. Le
gouverneur du
Texas Georges Bush Jr est un chaud partisan de la peine de mort et se
montre
peu
impressionné par les manifestations de solidarité.
« J'ai été élu pour faire respecter la loi du
Texas »,
rapporte le réseau CNN qui cite le fils de l'autre George Bush.
Que le fils
de la victime présumée de Faulder, un très riche
propriétaire pétrolier ait entrepris
une poursuite
privée alors que le détenu avait été
acquitté une première fois pour une question
technique;
qu'il ait payé ceux qui sont venus témoigner contre
l'Albertain
de 61 ans; que le
psychiatre qui
a « examiné » Faulder durant quinze minutes ait
été rayé de son ordre
professionnel
pour de graves manquements professionnels, voilà qui
n'émeut pas le gouverneur
texan.
Pourquoi le
serait-il ? Ses commettants sont d'accord avec la peine capitale. Un
sondage
révèle que plus de 80 pour cent de la population texane
est en faveur de la peine de mort. Le
sujet demeure
toutefois controversé, même dans cet état du Sud.
À preuve : le forum de
discussion le
plus actif du Dallas Morning News est celui sur la peine de mort.
Mario
Grenier
Sources
Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty
Dallas
Morning News
Death
Penalty Information Center
Office of
the Texas Governor
Texas vs
Canada : Stanley Faulder
Dec. 8,1998 - National
Post
pages A1 & A2
Celebrities show clemency for their would-be killers
Stewart Bell - National Post
Susan Sarandon carries one. So does Martin Sheen. They
are called "declaration of life" cards, and they
state that if the person carrying one is murdered,
the killer should not be executed.
The cards were introduced two years ago by Sister
Camille D'Arienzo, a New York City nun opposed to capital
punishment. An estimated 9,000 to 11,000 people,
mostly in the U.S., carry them.
"It's growing," said Sam Jordan, director of the
Program to Abolish the Death Penalty at Amnesty International in
Washington, D.C. "It's important, I believe, its not
just symbolic.
"Many times the prosecutors are supported [in seeking
the death penalty] if there's proof that the victim or the victim's
families really want the execution."
"And if the person has signed a declaration of life,
the prosecutor can't claim that, so there is some pre-emptive value
with this card."
The campaign has been boosted by the support of
Hollywood actors such as Mr. Sheen and Ms. Sarandon, who won an Oscar
for her role as a nun who comforts a condemned man in Dead Man Walking.
The issue has gained prominence because of the case of
Stanley Faulder, the Alberta mechanic set to die by lethal injection on
Thursday
for the 1975 murder of a 75-year-old Texas woman.
His sentence been controversial and has brought forth
pleas for intervention by Canadian authorities.
The declaration reads, in part: "Should I die as a
result of a violent crime, I request that the person or persons found
guilty of homicide for my killing not be subject to or put in jeopardy
of the death penalty." It also notes, however, that the killer
should not go unpunished. The declaration would be unlikely to have any
real legal weight, but advocates say a prosecutor would have to take it
into consideration when deciding
whether to seek a death sentence.
Toronto residents Tracy Lamourie and Dave Parkinson,
directors of the Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty, have
both
signed similar statements.
"I know we don't have the death penalty in Canada,
but we go to the States," Ms. Lamourie said.
"It's an emotional thing. If a family member was
killed you would have the anger, you'd want the other person to feel
pain, but
the fact is our justice system has to be beyond that whole thing."
During filming of Dead Man Walking, Ms. Sarandon made
friends with Sister Helen Prejean, the U.S. nun whose book about her
experiences with inmates on death row formed the basis of the movie.
AUSTIN, Texas, Dec. 7 - United Press International
Faulder to get public hearing AUSTIN, Texas,
Dec. 7 (UPI)
Attorneys for Texas death row inmate Stanley Faulder
say a state appeals court has ruled that the Texas Board of Pardons and
Paroles must hold a public meeting on Faulder's clemency request.
Faulder, a Canadian citizen, is scheduled to be
executed Thursday for the 1975 murder of an elderly Gladewater woman.
Faulder argues in his clemency petition that he was never allowed to
notify Canadian consular officials that he had been arrested and
charged with murder in the United States.
Sandra Babcock, Faulder's attorney, said the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals ruled today that the Board of
Pardons and Paroles must abide by the Open Meetings Act
by posting its meetings and holding clemency hearings in public.
Under current practice, the 18 parole board members
usually review cases individually and vote by
telephone.
Babcock says she believes the court ruling "entitles
Mister Faulder to a reprieve from the December 10th execution so that
the board may sort out the mess they've gotten themselves into."
Gov. George W. Bush has pledged that Faulder will get
a fair hearing but that he intends to uphold state
law, "regardless of the nationality of the person
involved."
Last week, Bush assured Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright that the board has had adequate time to review
Faulder's clemency petition. The Canadian government
asked Albright to intervene, claiming Texas violated an
international agreement by not allowing Faulder to talk
with Canadian
consular officials.
In San Antonio today, Bush brushed off the claim of
Canadian human rights activist Tracy Lamourie. Lamourie
has said that if Bush doesn't stay Faulder's
execution, "it would be difficult for a future President George Bush to
claim that
another foreign government is oppressive or that their laws are unfair."
Faulder was convicted of capital murder for the 1975
robbery and stabbing death of 75-year-old Inez Phillips.
Dec. 5, 1998 - Toronto Star
Tutu
seeks mercy for Albertan
Cancel Thursday's execution, he urges Texas governor
By Kathleen Kenna Toronto Star Washington
Bureau
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 boycott 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 U.S.-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 guarantees the right to contact one's 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.
It's 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 Chrétien, Canadian ambassador to the U.S.
and
nephew of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine 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. It's the first time Albright
has
intervened in a death row case in Texas, which leads the democratic
world
in state executions.
The U.S. 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 Penalty announced the launch of an international tourism
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. ``It's not just Faulder. Bush is notorious for ignoring
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)
recommends it,'' she said. But Canadians should know there is no legal
requirement for that board to consider another review of Faulder's case
and it may not make
any 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 for which he was wrongfully
imprisoned in New Jersey 19 years; and Sid Ryan, president of the
160,000-member Canadian
Union of Public Employees in Ontario.
THE CCADP'S
FIRST MEDIA EXPOSURE - OCTOBER 26, 1998 IN THE TORONTO SUN
Monday October 26 1998 - Toronto
Sun
Support Sought To save Killer
By Lori Fazari - Toronto Sun
Canadians are being asked to
show their support for an Alberta man sentenced to death in Texas.
Joseph Stanley Faulder, 61, has
been on death row in a Huntsville, Texas, prison for 21 years .
He is set top die by lethal injection this December.
The Canadian Coaltion Against
the Death Penalty has set up a web site to inform the public about
Faulder's case, at http://ccadp.org/stanleyfaulder.htm
Clemency
People are being asked to get in touch with Texas
authorities to persuade them to hold a clemency hearing for Faulder.
Faulder, of Jasper, Alta., was
sentenced
to death in 1977 for the 1975 stabbing death of Inez Phillips, 75,
during
the burglary of her home. His first conviction was reversed, but
he
was retried and sentenced to death in 1981.
A previous clemency request
said mitigating evidence about Faulder's character and medical history
weren't brought up at his
trial, and his rights were violated because he wasn't informed he could
contact Canadian officials for help after his arrest.
Radio / TV / Internet
Broadcasts . . .
Some Available Online In Real Audio 
Format.
CCADP on
Talk 640 AM Toronto
Tracy Lamourie from the CCADP on the Faulder case and
the Texas Tourist Boycott
- Dec 10th '98
CCADP on
Talk 640 AM Toronto
Dave Parkinson from the CCADP on the Tom Rivers Show
talking about the Stan
Faulder case and Texas injustice- Dec 10th '98
CCADP
on Talkspot (International)
DEATH PENALTY SPECIAL Friday, December
11th 5 - 6 pm PT on TALKSPOT
TalkSpot brings you this one hour discussion of the
death penalty with analysis and viewpoints from both sides of the
issue. Special guests include, Tracy Lamourie co-founder
Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Sister Helen
Prejean whose story inspired the
movie Dead
Man Walking, Maureen Faulkner, Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced
to death for the murder of her husband, a Philadelphia police officer
killed in 1982. Sam Jordon from Amnesty International, Director of
Program to Abolish the Death Penalty USA as well as others. The CCADP is calling for a boycott
of Texas.
JIMMY
DENNIS UPDATE --CHRY FM 105.5 TORONTO CHRY 5 o'Clock news :
Spoken Word Director and News Anchor Neil Armstrong of CHRY interviews
Tracy
Lamourie of the Canadian Coalition Against the
Death
Penalty on the wrongful conviction of Jimmy Dennis
who
sits at SCI Greene
in Pennsylvania, innocent on death row. Time: 9 minutes.
FOCUS ON
THE DEATH PENALTY - CKLN 88.1 FM TORONTO :
Daniel Rojas of CKLN's biweekly Prisoner
Report,( a segment of The Word Of Mouth show) interviewsDave Parkinson
and Tracy Lamourie of the Canadian Coalition
Against the Death Penalty on various issues, including the
wrongful convictions of Jimmy Dennis
in
Pennsylvania and of Charles Raby in Texas, as well as the
case
of possible extradition of two Canadian Citizens Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns
who may be sent to face the death penalty in Washington State.
CCADP
in the News
CCADP News Archives
including appearances from Newspapers, Online
News, Radio and T.V.
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