| Return to Wallace Fugate's Homepage |
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
Go to - http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html
to read this month's newsletter.
10 June 2002
EXTRA 44/02
Death penalty / Legal concern
USA (Georgia) Wallace
Marvin Fugate
Wallace Fugate, white, aged 52, is scheduled
to be
executed in Georgia at 7pm local time
on 18 June 2002.
He was sentenced to death in 1992 for
the murder of
his former wife, Pattie Dianne Fugate,
in 1991.
Wallace and Pattie Fugate were divorced
in 1990 after
20 years of marriage. At the time of
her death, Pattie
Fugate was living in the former marital
home near
Eatonton in Putnam County with their
15- year-old son,
Mark. On 4 May 1991, Wallace Fugate,
who was living in
another town, came to the Eatonton
house. Later that
day he shot Pattie Fugate.
Wallace Fugate's defense was that his
gun had gone off
accidentally as he and his former wife
engaged in a
physical struggle. However, Mark Fugate,
who was
murdered five years later in an unrelated
case,
testified at the trial that he had
seen his father
'grab [Pattie Fugate], holding her
by the hair, tilt
her head back, put the gun in her face,
and pull the
trigger'. The state-appointed defense
lawyers did not
bring to the attention of the jury
Mark Fugate's
earlier statement to the police in
which he had said:
'I heard a shot. I saw my mother's
head hit the
ground. I could not tell if he held
her head back or
not'.
This failure to raise the different
pre-trial version
of the killing in order to challenge
the credibility
of the state's key witness is one of
numerous
instances where Wallace Fugate's trial
representation
appears to have been inadequate. For
example, the
lawyers offered no objections during
the two-day
trial. They did not seek funding for
any experts, such
as an independent weapons expert who
could have
testified (as one did during post-conviction
proceedings) that the brand of gun
used in the
shooting had a manufacturing defect
which made it
susceptible to accidental discharge.
The defense
position was even further undermined
when, during
closing arguments, one of the defense
lawyers
reportedly argued that the killing
was accidental, and
the other described it as self-defense.
The whole sentencing phase of the trial
lasted 64
minutes, its evidentiary portion less
than half an
hour. The defense presented four mitigation
witnesses
whose testimony covered only 20 pages
of transcript.
The lawyers did not do any investigation
of Wallace
Fugate's medical, military, employment
or school
history in preparation for the sentencing.
On appeal, affidavits were obtained
from 13 potential
character witnesses who indicated that
they would have
testified on Wallace Fugate's behalf
if asked. During
post-conviction proceedings, one of
the two trial
lawyers recalled that they had 'shared
the work' on
the case, 'particularly on mitigation'.
He testified
that they had divided contacting the
potential
witnesses between them. However, the
other lawyer
testified that he had not participated
in contacting
potential sentencing phase witnesses,
and that his
co-counsel had 'talked to whatever
had to be talked
to'.
During post-conviction proceedings one
of the lawyers
reportedly stated that he had heard
of neither Furman
v Georgia, the landmark US Supreme
Court decision in
1972 which imposed a de facto moratorium
on the death
penalty in the USA, nor Gregg v Georgia,
the equally
momentous decision in 1976 which allowed
executions to
resume.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
To win an appeal on a claim of ineffective
assistance
of counsel, a US prisoner must prove
that not only was
the trial lawyer's performance inadequate,
but that it
had affected the outcome of the trial.
Under the US
Supreme Court precedent, Strickland
v Washington
(1984), the judicial scrutiny of legal
representation
must be 'highly deferential' and 'must
indulge a
strong presumption that counsel's conduct
falls within
the wide range of reasonable professional
assistance'.
In rejecting Wallace Fugate's claim
of inadequate
trial counsel, the US Court of Appeals
for the 11th
Circuit applied an arguably even higher
standard,
holding that 'in order to show that
counsel's
performance was unreasonable, the petitioner
must
establish that no competent counsel
would have taken
the action that his counsel did take'.
The 11th
Circuit was quoting its 2000 decision
in Chandler v
United States, in which it upheld the
death sentence
of federal death row inmate David Ronald
Chandler.
Chandler was convicted on the basis
of testimony given
by the actual killer, who later recanted.
Chandler's
lawyer failed to conduct any sentencing
phase
investigation. The death sentence was
subsequently
commuted in January 2001 by President
Bill Clinton in
one of his last acts of office, because
of doubts
about Chandler's guilt (EXTRA 03/01
issued 12 January
2001 and update 22 January).
When the 11th Circuit upheld Wallace
Fugate's
conviction and death sentence in August
2001, one of
the three judges noted: 'I remain convinced
that our
court set the acceptable level of attorney
assistance
for preparation for the penalty phase
of a capital
case too low in Chandler v United States'.
International safeguards require adequate
legal
representation for capital defendants
'at all stages
of proceedings', above and beyond that
provided in
non-capital cases.
Amnesty International opposes the death
penalty in all
cases. It 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. Since resuming executions
in 1977, 780
men and women have been put to death
across the USA.
Twenty-nine of these executions have
been in Georgia.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals
to arrive as
quickly as possible in your own words:
- expressing sympathy for the family
and friends of
Pattie Dianne Fugate, and explaining
that you are not
seeking to excuse the manner of her
death;
- opposing the execution of Wallace Fugate;
- expressing concern at the trial lawyer's
failure to
draw attention to the inconsistencies
in the
eyewitness testimony, and other evidence
supportive of
the defence position that the shooting
was accidental;
- expressing concern at the brief nature
of the
sentencing phase, and the lawyers'
failure to do more
investigation of potential mitigating
circumstances,
citing international safeguards;
- calling on the Board of Pardons and
Paroles to grant
clemency.
APPEALS TO:
Walter S. Ray, Chair,
State Board of Pardons and Paroles
Floyd Veterans Memorial Building
Balcony Level, East Tower
2 Martin Luther King Jr Drive, S.E.
Atlanta, GA 30334
Fax: 1 404 651 8502
Salutation: Dear Mr Ray
You may also copy your appeals, or write
brief letters
to the editor (not more than 250 words)
to:
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
PO Box 4689,
Atlanta, GA 30302
Fax: 1 404 526 5611
E-mail: www.accessatlanta.com/partners/ajc/letters
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
| Return to Wallace Fugate's Homepage |
