The International Community Supports
The International Tourist Boycott Of Texas

"Governor Bush assures the people of Canada that the courts have ruled
that Mr. Faulder had a fair trial, ample opportunity to be heard and the full protections of the constitution and laws of the United States of America," said Linda Edwards, the governor's deputy communications director.

What the Governors office failed to mention is that International laws and treaties were broken.  Mr. Faulder was on death row 15 years before the Canadian Government was informed he was even in jail,  a breach of the Vienna convention under international law.  As for a fair trial,  if you call the prosecution actually paying the witnesses thousands of dollars to testify against Mr.Faulder a fair trial . . .  Well that's Texas law, we didn't think pay-offs or buying witnesses was legal, let alone fair !

Mr. Bush extends his middle finger to the international community again by scheduling the execution date of Mr. Faulder for December 10, 1998 the 50th anniversary of the Worldwide Declaration Of Human Rights.  Texas violated  the Vienna Convention when it refused to allow Mr. Faulder his right to speak with the Canadian embassy upon arrest (and for another 15 years after !)
If Mr. Bush expects to be able to have this much blatant disregard for international laws and treaties  in his position as Texas State Governor, one has to question whether he will continue to abuse his position, by failing to respect international treaties and laws as the potential future American President.

Click here to read Macleans Magazine's article on Stan Faulder (Nov 23, '98)
         Thanks to  Andrew Phillips and  Macleans Magazine  for this article.

       STAN  FAULDER :  A CASE FOR CLEMENCY

Joseph Stanley Faulder, a 61-year-old Canadian from Alberta, is facing
execution by lethal injection in Texas on Thursday,  December 10th (International Human Rights Day).  After 21 years on death row, he has now exhausted all normal avenues of appeal.

YOUR HELP IS URGENTLY NEEDED in persuading the Texas authorities to hold a full and impartial clemency hearing. All Stan Faulder is asking for is a fair chance to show why his life should bespared, an opportunity to present the evidence in his favour
which the trial jury never heard.

Stan Faulder was sentenced to death in 1977 for the murder of Inez Phillips, age 75, which took place during the burglary of her home in 1975. Mrs. Phillips was the matriarch of a prominent Texas oil family. The conviction was reversed on appeal because
Stan's original statement to the police was illegally obtained.No physical evidence linked him to the crime.

Following the reversal, the victim's wealthy and influential family hired private prosecutors to orchestrate a new death sentence. At the second trial, the pivotal testimony came from an
accomplice in the crime. Although also eligible for the death penalty, the accomplice was granted complete immunity by the private prosecutors and promised a large cash payment by the victim's family in exchange for her implicating testimony. StanFaulder was sentenced to death; the accomplice walked out of court a free woman.

Unable to afford a private attorney, Stan had to rely on a court-appointed lawyer to defend his life. His attorney conducted no pre-trial investigation and called no witnesses at the re-trial.
Years later, the lawyer admitted that he had been ignorant of his responsibility to present testimony to the jury about Stan's character, background and state of mind. Without any 'mitigating evidence' for the jury to consider, a death sentence was inevitable.

But any diligent lawyer would have discovered a wealth of mitigating evidence. At the age of three, Stan suffered a massive head injury that caused permanent brain damage, impairing his ability to make appropriate behavioral decisions in stressful situations. His medical history was never presented to the jury.  Had just one juror been persuaded that Stan's mental impairment made him less than fully responsible for the crime, his sentence
would have been life imprisonment.

The prosecution used 'expert' psychiatric witnesses to convince the jury that Stan Faulder was an extreme sociopath, a person with no conscience. From the defence, the jury heard only silence. But many friends and family members in Canada would have gladly testified that Stan Faulder was a loyal friend, a faithful employee and a loving father--a compassionate man with no prior history of violent behaviour. For instance, Stan once rescued a
car accident victim, driving her through a blizzard to a hospital in time to save her life. Years after the trial, medical experts testified that Stan's personal character and his well-documented brain damage disqualified the prosecution's assertion that he was
a remorseless sociopath.

One other event sealed Stan's fate. After his arrest, Texas authorities failed to inform him of his right to contact and seek assistance from the Canadian Consulate. Because of this serious breach of an international treaty, the only other means for
obtaining favourable evidence from Canada was lost forever. Fifteen years later, the Canadian government finally learned of Stan's imprisonment on death row. The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs is urging Texas officials to convene a clemency
hearing and is calling for the commutation of this death sentence on humanitarian grounds.

Despite a grossly deficient trial, prosecutorial irregularities and a glaring breach of international treaty law, the appeal courts have refused to overturn Stan's conviction and sentence. Last November, the US Supreme Court declined to review his
appeal, paving the way for the new execution date.

Joseph Stanley Faulder has no previous convictions for violent offenses and has an excellent disciplinary record during his incarceration in Texas. He has demonstrated his ability to be a
peaceful and productive member of the prison community. In 1981, he became a prison chaplain.

      TAKING ACTION:

*        Please fax, write, e-mail or call Governor Bush, urging him to do everything in his power to see that a full and fair clemency hearing is convened for Joseph Stanley Faulder.

*       Express your sympathy for the Phillips family's tragic loss, while stating your belief that their are compelling reasons for commuting this death sentence. You may, of course, cite an example from the above material.

 LETTER TO GEORGE BUSH JR AND TEXAS BOARD OF PAROLES

   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

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

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 the day after the Supreme Court refused to hear the Vienna Convention issue.
-  Jan 26th, 1999

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 who's 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.

CBC TV Real Video newsclip re Stan Faulder Jan 25, 1999  The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Newsworld (24 Hour News network)  report on the occasion of the Supreme Court's refusal to hear Faulder's appeal on the issue of the Vienna Convention violation.

CBC TV's Alison Smith interviews Faulder's attorney Sandra Babcock December 12, 1998 The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Newsworld (24 Hour News network) interviews Sandra Babcock (Mr Faulder's attorney)

CBC TV Dec 10 1998 report as media awaited Stan's execution before the stay was issued December 10   Texas officials discuss their preparations for the murder of Stan Faulder on international human rights day.

CBC Morning talks to Joyce Milgaard from Texas  Joyce Milgaard, mother of wrongfully convicted Canadian David Milgaard, was part of the Canadian delegation to Texas.  Here the CBC Morning show conducts an interview with Joyce from Texas during the trip.

CBC TV December 9/99 report on the stay Anna Marie Trimonti of the CBC reports on the stay, Texas determination to execute Faulder, as well as a clip where Joyce Milgaard describes the treatment the Canadian delegation received from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

CBC TV December 7, 1998 Report CBC's report on the Canadian delegations                               arranging a meeting with the head of  the State Board of Pardons and  Parole. (see above)

CBC TV December 1, 1998 CBC News report on the involvement of Madeleine Albright and Lloyd Axworthy in the Faulder case.

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Last updated December 23, 2010  Canadian Coalition Against the Death Penalty
This page is maintained and updated by Dave Parkinson and Tracy Lamourie