WASHINGTON, 29 MAG - A pochi minuti dall'esecuzione in Texas di Napoleon Beazley, condannato a morte per aver ucciso a 17 anni il padre di un giudice, la Corte suprema si e' rifiutata di concedere la grazia in extremis.

   Tre giudici dell'Alta corte -David Souter, Clarence Thomas e Antonin Scalia- si erano chiamati fuori dal caso  perche' amici del figlio della vittima.

   La commissione carceraria del Texas aveva in precedenza escluso la commutazione della pena con 10 voti contrari e 7 favorevoli. Un margine insolitamente ristretto per una commissione che quasi sempre respinge tali richieste alla unanimita'. Successivamente la stessa commissione ha bocciato, per 13 voti a 4, la richiesta di rinviare l'esecuzione. 

 WASHINGTON, 29 MAG -

Le autorita' del Texas hanno annunciato martedi' sera l'esecuzione di Napoleon Beazley, condannato a morte per avere ucciso un uomo all'eta' di 17 anni per rubare una Mercedes.

   Un portavoce del carcere di Huntsville ha comunicato che Beazley era stato messo a morte, alle 18.17 locali (ore 1.17 di mercoledi' in Italia), con una iniezione. Il condannato e' morto senza fare dichiarazioni. Alla domanda se aveva qualcosa da dire prima di morire Beazley, guardando in direzione di Suzanne Luttig, figlia della vittima, ha risposto 'No'.

   Il caso aveva assunto rilievo internazionale per la giovane eta' del condannato al momento del delitto e per il fatto che Beazley, un afro-americano, era stato giudicato da una giuria composta esclusivamente di bianchi.

   Poche ore prima della esecuzione la Commissione per la Clemenza (in Texas) e la Corte Suprema (a Washington) avevano respinto gli appelli dei legali del condannato per una sospensione della esecuzione.

   Nove mesi fa i legali di Beazley erano riusciti a bloccare la esecuzione del condannato quattro ore prima dell'appuntamento con la fatale iniezione. La Commissione di Clemenza aveva votato martedi' per 10 a 7 contro la commutazione della pena. Un margine insolitamente ristretto per una commissione che quasi sempre respinge tali richieste alla unanimita'.

   Successivamente la stessa commissione aveva bocciato, per 13 voti a 4, la richiesta di bloccare l'esecuzione. Le speranze del condannato restavano affidate alla Corte Suprema degli Stati Uniti dove tre dei nove giudici si erano ricusati in passato dal caso perche' amici del figlio della vittima. Ma anche la Corte Suprema rifiutava di bloccare la esecuzione.

   Beazley aveva ucciso otto anni fa John Luttig, un eminente cittadino di Tyler (Texas), durante una rapina per rubare la sua Mercedes. L'adolescente, che aveva agito con due complici, aveva sparato due proiettili nella testa della vittima.

   La vicenda di Beazley, che non aveva precedenti penali, ha suscitato proteste internazionali, comprese quella del vescovo sudafricano Desmond Tutu.

   Beazley e' diventato la diciannovesima persona, dal 1976 ad oggi, ad essere messa a morte negli Stati Uniti per un delitto commesso prima dei 18 anni. 

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29-MAG-02 

TEXAS - juvenile execution

Beazley executed for crime committed at 17

Napoleon Beazley, whose death sentence for killing the father of a federal judge during a 1994 carjacking at 17 stirred national debate over capital punishment for youths, was executed Tuesday evening.

Beazley, now 25, had repeatedly expressed remorse for shooting John Luttig, 63, while trying to steal the man's Mercedes.

 When asked by the warden if he had a final statement to make Tuesday night, Beazley turned and looked toward Suzanne Luttig, the victim's daughter, pausing for several seconds before saying "no." He shook his head and said "no" again.

 Then Beazley turned his head and closed his eyes. As the lethal drugs began to take effect, Beazley coughed 4 times, gasped and sputtered as his head bounced against the gurney pillow.

 He was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m., 9 minutes after the drugs began to take effect.

 Beazley was high school class president, star athlete and college material in his small East Texas hometown, but he also was known to some in Grapeland as a drug peddler who carried a pistol and told some friends he'd soon be driving a Mercedes.

 "Napoleon Beazley's case unfortunately typifies the endemic ills of the U.S. death penalty system," said William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty International USA, which opposes capital punishment in all cases. "This case adds another important factor: the defendant was a child when this crime occurred."

 According to Texas law, Beazley was not a child.

 Texas is among 5 states that allow the death penalty for 17-year-olds. Another 17 states allow capital punishment for 16-year-olds.

 In Texas, Beazley was among 29 death row inmates who were under 18 at the time of their crime. His was the 11th prisoner in the state and the 19th in the United States to be put to death since 1976 for a murder committed when the killer was younger than 18.

 Last month, in a tearful statement in a Tyler courtroom where he received his execution date, he apologized again for the crime.

 "It's my fault," he said. "I violated the law. I violated this city, and I violated a family - all to satisfy my own misguided emotions. I'm sorry. I wish I had a 2nd chance to make up for it, but I don't."

 Less than two hours before his execution, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal and a request to halt the punishment. Gov. Rick Perry issued a statement shortly before the execution denying Beazley's request for a 30-day reprieve.

 "To delay his punishment would be to delay justice," Perry said, noting denial of appeals and clemency requests by the Supreme Court and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

 Earlier in the day, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles refused Tuesday by 10-7 vote to commute his death sentence to a life prison term. The board also rejected 13-4 a request to stop the punishment from 120 to 480 days. 

"They're always complicated," said Gerald Garrett, chairman of the parole board, of the decisions. "The level of public attention varies from case to case but the challenge remains the same."

 While in the majority to deny a reprieve, Garrett was among the minority in voting for commutation. He said each member's decision was independent and he would not encourage others to vote his way.

 "The overall facts of the case as presented led me to conclude commutation was appropriate," he said. "In this regard, I'm one of 17."

 The vote against Beazley was not unexpected. The last time the board commuted a death sentence to life was 4 years ago when Henry Lee Lucas, who gained notoriety as a self-confessed serial killer and then recanted his confessions, was sent to general prison population after questions were raised about the conviction that put him on death row. Lucas died in prison last year of natural causes.

 Beazley faced execution in August and the parole board voted 10-6 against commuting his punishment to life. He then was spared by a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decision. When that reprieve was lifted, the new execution date was set for Tuesday.

 Earlier Tuesday, Beazley had 4 hours to meet with family members at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in Livingston, where death row is located. Then he was transported about 45 miles to the west to the Huntsville Unit, where executions are carried out.

 He made no final meal request, prison officials said.

 In Austin, about 100 death penalty opponents rallied at the governor's mansion to protest Beazley's execution. "Governor Perry, you can't hide; we've got justice on our side," protesters chanted.

 "It's just one more in a long line of injustices in this state," said Lily Hughes, who led the protesters in their march back-and-forth in front of the mansion gates. "He, like everyone else on death row, is a human being."

 Luttig was the father of J. Michael Luttig, a judge on the Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and former clerk or adviser to 3 Supreme Court justices. Those 3 justices - Clarence Thomas, David Souter and Antonin Scalia - did not participate in high court rulings on Beazley's case.

 A popular student and athlete, Beazley had been dealing drugs for several years. He was carrying a .45-caliber pistol and had stowed a shotgun in his mother's car before he and two companions went to Tyler, about 60 miles north of Grapeland, stalked and then ambushed Luttig and his wife April 19, 1994.

 Beazley shot Luttig once, turned the gun on his wife but missed, then returned to the wounded man and fired again point-blank into Luttig's head. He stepped through a pool of blood to go through the man's pockets to get the car keys, hit a wall while driving away and was forced to abandon the damaged vehicle. The two companions received life in prison. Beazley got death.

 "The decision to seek the death penalty was based on the calculated, deliberate, premeditated, predatory hunt-down nature of the crime," said Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen, who prosecuted Beazley.

 Beazley becomes the 14th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 270th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982.

 Beazley also becomes the 30th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 779th overall since America resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

 Texas as 11 more confirmed execution dates through mid-September, including 2 for juvenile offenders. 

In Similar Cases, One Inmate Is Executed, One Wins Stay

May 29, 2002 

By SARA RIMER HOUSTON, - Napoleon Beazley, 26, of Texas, andChristopher Simmons, 26, of Missouri, both committed murderwhen they were 17. They filed identical claims beforefederal and state courts, arguing that executing an inmatewho was younger than 18 at the time of his crime violatesthe Eighth Amendment's provision against cruel and unusualpunishment. 

Today the Missouri Supreme Court granted Mr. Simmons, whowas to be executed next week, a stay pending the outcome ofa related United States Supreme Court case that will bedecided by the end of June. Mr. Beazley was put to death bylethal injection in Huntsville shortly after 6 p.m. afterthe United States Supreme Court refused to hear hispetition and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied hismotion for a stay, and after the Texas Board of Pardons andParoles voted 10 to 7 against clemency. Gov. Rick Perry accepted the board's recommendation anddenied Mr. Beazley's request for a 30-day reprieve. "Todelay his punishment would be to delay justice," thegovernor said in a statement shortly before Mr. Beazley'sexecution. Mr. Beazley shot John Luttig, 63, the father of a federaljudge, in a botched carjacking in 1994.

 Mr. Luttig'sdaughter, Suzanne Luttig, watched the execution inHuntsville but did not speak to reporters. Mr. Beazley, who had been his high school senior classpresident and a football star in Grapeland, Tex.,apologized today in a handwritten statement for a murderthat was "not just heinous, it was senseless." Paddy Burwell, one of the board members who voted tocommute Mr. Beazley's punishment to a life sentence, wasworking on his ranch, between San Antonio and Victoria,when he learned that Mr. Beazley had been executed.

 "I'mreally apprehensive that this is a day we're going to besorry about for a long time," Mr. Burwell said in atelephone interview. "I just feel like something reallywrong has happened." The pending United States Supreme Court case is expected todecide whether there is now a "national consensus" thatexecuting the mentally retarded constitutes cruel andunusual punishment. Lawyers for both Mr. Beazley and Mr.Simmons, as well as other legal experts, said that if thecourt outlaws the execution of the mentally retarded, theruling could also undermine the opinion that allows theexecution of inmates who committed capital murder when theywere younger than 18. 

The decisions made today by courts and officials inMissouri and Texas show "how incredibly arbitrary the deathpenalty system is," said Elisabeth Semel, the director ofthe death penalty clinic of the Boalt School of Law at theUniversity of California at Berkeley. "Missouri looks to the Supreme Court and is apparentlyconcerned that a decision is imminent that may haveimplications for the execution of Christopher Simmons," Ms.Semel said.

 "So it says stop. But Texas goes ahead." The Texas pardons board's vote of 10 to 7 against clemency- in the form of a commutation to a life sentence - was aslim margin in a state where the overwhelming majority ofthe board votes since 1996 have been unanimous in favor ofexecution. Brendolyn Rogers-Johnson, 52, is a board member who alsovoted for clemency. "I weighed all the information andagonized over it and dreamt about it and thought about it,"she said in a telephone interview. 

Ms. Rogers-Johnson, a former high school English teacher,said that a number of factors had influenced her decision,including Mr. Beazley's age at the time of the crime andthe fact that he had no prior criminal record. "There was astrong possibility that he would not be a danger," shesaid. To win a death sentence for Mr. Beazley, prosecutors had toprove his "future dangerousness," a difficult taskconsidering his age and his lack of a record, but onehelped greatly by the testimony from the two brothers whowere his co-defendants. 

One of them, Donald Coleman,testified that before the killing Mr. Beazley had talkedabout "wanting to hurt someone" and that he said he wanted"to see what it feels like to see somebody die." Mr.Coleman later recanted his testimony, saying it was part ofa deal with prosecutors to avoid the death penalty, butprosecutors deny that.

The Smith County district attorney, Jack Skeen, Jr., whoprosecuted the Beazley case, and Ed Marty, an assistantdistrict attorney who handled the appeals, were present atthe execution today. But both refused to talk to reporters.

Man Who Killed at 17 Is Scheduled to Die

May 27, 2002

By SARA RIMER Nine months after he came within hours of execution,Napoleon Beazley, 26, whose case has prompted debate overthe execution of those who commit murder before the age of18, is scheduled to die by lethal injection tomorrow nightin Texas. The Supreme Court on Friday denied Mr. Beazley's requestfor a stay and review of his case. 

His lawyers had arguedthat executing Mr. Beazley, who was 17 when he killed JohnLuttig, 63, in a botched carjacking, would violate theEighth Amendment's provision against cruel and unusualpunishment. The lawyers also argued that executing an inmate who wasunder 18 at the time of his crime would violateinternational treaties on civil and political rights. Just as they had last August, when Mr. Beazley had anotherappeal before the Supreme Court, three justices, AntoninScalia, David H. Souter and Clarence Thomas, disqualified them selves because each had had a professional relationshipwith the victim's son, J. Michael Luttig, a federal appealsjudge in Virginia. Mr. Beazley's lawyer Walter C. Long said on Friday that hewould file one final petition with the Supreme Courttomorrow morning. Also tomorrow morning, the 17-member Texas Board of Pardonsand Paroles will vote on Mr. Beazley's petition forclemency in the form of a temporary reprieve or acommutation to a life sentence. Last August, the boardvoted 10 to 6 against clemency, a slim margin in a statewhere the pardon board's votes are often unanimously infavor of execution. Mr. Beazley shot Mr. Luttig, who was a civic leader andchurch elder in Tyler, Tex., twice in the head in April1994 while he and two friends tried to steal Mr. Luttig'sMercedes-Benz from his driveway.

 Mr. Luttig's wife, Bobbie,escaped injury by falling to the pavement and playing dead.Last August, about four hours before Mr. Beazley was to beexecuted, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted astay. When that court lifted its order last month, Mr.Beazley's trial judge, Cynthia Stevens Kent, who lastAugust asked Gov. Rick Perry to commute the sentencebecause of Mr. Beazley's age, set the execution date. International opposition to Mr. Beazley's execution ismounting because of his age at the time of the crime.Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa recently wrote a letterto the Texas pardons board asking for clemency. 

"I amastounded that Texas and a few other states in the UnitedStates take children from their families and execute them,"Bishop Tutu wrote. In this country, there are signs of growing opposition tothe death penalty for those who commit murder before theyare 18.

 Of the 38 states that permit the death penalty, 22permit the execution of juvenile offenders and only 7 ofthose states have executed juvenile offenders since thedeath penalty was reinstated in the 1970's. This year Indiana abolished the death penalty for peoplewho commit murder before the age of 18.

 Mr. Beazley, who was president of his senior class and afootball star, lived in Grapeland, a tiny town about 60miles from Tyler. He had no arrest record, though he hassaid he sold crack and owned a gun. He has apologized tothe Luttig family and said there was no excuse for what hehad done.

 "Napoleon Beazley should be executed for the predatorynature of this case," Ed Marty, an assistant districtattorney who handled the case on appeal, said in atelephone interview on Friday. "Why did he have to shootJohn Luttig to get his Mercedes?" Mr. Marty dismissed the defense's contention that whilejuvenile offenders should be held accountable and punishedfor their crimes, they are not as morally culpable asadults. 

In their appeal, Mr. Beazley's lawyers cited agrowing body of scientific evidence that the brain is stilldeveloping through adolescence and so those under 18 aredevelopmentally unable to "control their actions as amature adult would." Mr. Marty said, "That's junk science." Paddy Burwell is apardons board member who voted for clemency for Mr. Beazleylast year.

 "I lay awake thinking about that the othernight," Mr. Burwell said, referring to the issue of thekiller's age. "I could not commute a person just because hewas 17 at the time of the crime." But Mr. Burwell, 69, a rancher and a supporter of the deathpenalty, said that tomorrow he would again vote forclemency. "I don't think he got a fair trial," Mr. Burwellsaid. Every member of Mr. Beazley's jury was white. "He was nottried by a jury of his peers," Mr. Burwell said. Mr.Beazley is black. 

Mr. Burwell estimated that in three years on the board, hehas cast 50 to 60 votes for execution while supportingpetitions for clemency five or six times. Mr. Burwell said that in the Beazley case he was troubledby reports that the victim's son, Judge Luttig, had movedhis office to Tyler from Virginia for the trial and thatprosecutors regularly consulted with him. In addition, Mr.Burwell said he did not think prosecutors had proved Mr.Beazley's "future dangerousness," which is necessary for adeath sentence. 

Mr. Beazley needs nine votes from the pardons board forclemency. Mr. Burwell said he expected the vote to beclose. The pardons board makes recommendations on executions tothe governor, who can either accept or reject thoserecommendations. The board has voted for clemency only oncein the last 30 years, in 1998. Texas has executed 12 people this year.