TEXAS - New execution date for juvenile offender

Judge sets May execution date for convicted killer Beazley

An East Texas judge on Friday set a May 28 execution date for Napoleon Beazley, a convicted killer who last year received a stay just hours before he was to be executed by lethal injection.

 State District Judge Cynthia Kent, who presided over Beazley's trial and last year wrote Gov. Rick Perry in favor of commuting the convicted killer's sentence, set the date in the case that has received international scrutiny.

 After the ruling, Beazley, who was 17 when he killed a prominent Tyler businessman, turned and apologized to a packed courtroom as his family members wept.

 "This is a horrible crime," Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen Jr. said. "We've gone as far as we can go in the justice system. Now it's time for the execution to be carried out and justice to be served."

 Beazley, now 25, was a high school class president and star athlete at the time of the 1994 murder of John Luttig, 63. The victim's son, J. Michael Luttig, is a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

 Defense attorneys argued that it was against international law to set an execution date for Beazley because he was 17 at the time of the killing.

 Defense attorney David Botsford had requested a Sept. 17 execution date, which would give him enough time to file another appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

 "Mr. Beazley is not going anywhere," Botsford said. "He's going to be down in Livingston, where he has been all along."

 Beazley and brothers Cedric and Donald Coleman, all from Grapeland, about 120 miles southeast of Dallas, were arrested 7 weeks after the shooting based on an anonymous tip.

 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which issued Beazley's stay in August, lifted it last week.

 On Thursday, the Texas chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked that Beazley's sentence to be commuted to life in prison since he was 17 when he committed the crime.

 Gary Bledsoe, president of the Texas NAACP, said race may have played a factor with an all-white jury deciding the fate of Beazley, who is black. Luttig was white.

 A group of 18 Democratic legislators and Houston County District Attorney Cindy Garner, who calls herself a strong advocate of the death penalty, also have written Perry urging commutation.

 Under Texas law, Perry can grant a 30-day reprieve from execution but can't order a commutation without the recommendation of the state Board of Pardons and Paroles. The board voted 10-6 last year against commuting the sentence.

 Beazley's attorneys filed a motion asking Kent to postpone the rescheduling hearing until after the 2003 legislative session, giving supporters time to lobby for changes in state law.

Dallas Morning News

Beazley remorseful as execution date is set

After an emotional Friday hearing in which he voiced remorse for the 1st time in court, Napoleon Beazley was sentenced to die on May 28 for the 1994 murder of a local oilman.

 State District Judge Cynthia Kent set the date after speaking at length about her "principled" discomfort over imposing a death sentence for a crime that Mr. Beazley committed as a 17-year-old.

 Mr. Beazley, an honors graduate from Grapeland, about 60 miles from Tyler, was sentenced to die in 1995 after a jury found him guilty of gunning down John Luttig in a botched carjacking.

 Mr. Luttig, 63, was shot at close range in his driveway as he and his wife, Bobbie, returned home from a Bible study. Mrs. Luttig survived by playing dead after being wounded by Mr. Beazley.

 Mr. Beazley asked to address the court after being sentenced and expressed regret that members of Mr. Luttig's family were not there to hear him. He then stood weeping in chains as he asked "for everybody's forgiveness."

 Beazley statement

 Mr. Beazley:"I wanted to say something to certain people. As I see, it was, first and foremost, to Mrs. Luttig and her family. As I see, none of them are in the courtroom today. I want to say it anyway, and hopefully, maybe, they will hear it.

 8 years ago, I involved myself in a crime I instantly regret. I knew it was wrong. I know it is wrong now. I've been trying to make up for it ever since that moment. I've apologized ever since that moment, not just through words, but through my acts. If I didn't care about what happened to John Luttig, then I wouldn't have cared enough to change. Nobody is going to win in this situation, and if we all lose, then I know all of those losses start with me. There's a lot of people involved in this -- not just me. The Luttig family, the DA's, Tyler, Grapeland, my family, whole bunch of other people involved. People against the death penalty, for it, everybody involved.

 I want everybody to know, those people, the reason ya'll are here is because of me. It's my fault. 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."

 Courtroom spectator: "You don't have to be sorry, Napoleon."

 Mr. Beazley: "But I don't. And if nothing else, I ask for everybody's forgiveness. That's all."

 "8 years ago, I involved myself in a crime I instantly regret. I knew it was wrong. I know it is wrong now. I've been trying to make up for it ever since that moment. I've apologized ever since that moment, not just through words, but through my acts," he said.

 "I want everybody to know, those people, the reason y'all are here is because of me. It's my fault. 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 second chance to make up for it, but I don't."

 Mr. Beazley , 25, has faced 2 previous execution dates. He came within hours of being put to death in August before a stay from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

 Just three days earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had announced an unprecedented 3-3 deadlock that denied Mr. Beazley a federal reprieve. Three justices abstained because of personal ties to Mr. Luttig's son 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig of Virginia.

 The case has drawn international attention, including pleas for clemency from the European Union, the American Bar Association and even the district attorney in Mr. Beazley's home county because of his age and lack of prior criminal convictions.

 But prosecutors have maintained that Mr. Beazley should be executed because he was an adult under Texas law when he and two accomplices came to Tyler, stalked the Luttigs' Mercedes-Benz and shot the couple because they wanted to steal a luxury car.

 Many Tyler residents believed Judge Kent played a role in Mr. Beazley's 11th-hour execution stay in August because it came the day she sent a letter to Gov. Rick Perry asking that his life be spared because of his age at the time of the murder.

 Local media reports last summer included speculation that Judge Kent's membership in the Roman Catholic Church which opposes capital punishment had influenced her actions.

 After the Texas appeals court lifted the stay last week, Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen said that he considered seeking the judge's recusal from the case because of concerns that her letter showed bias.

 That prompted a lengthy defense Friday from the 46-year-old Republican judge. Speaking to a courtroom packed with Mr. Beazley's supporters, Judge Kent noted that state statutes allow trial judges, prosecutors and sheriffs to offer their opinions on cases being considered for clemency.

 Judge Kent said she sent a letter voicing "principled objection" to the execution of a youthful offender after being asked by defense lawyers "only hours" before Mr. Beazley was scheduled to die.

 She added that she faxed her letter directly to Mr. Perry because she knew that the parole board would not have time to consider it.

 The governor can order a 30-day reprieve but can commute a death sentence only if the parole board recommends it. In a rare close vote, the board decided 10-6 against commutation for Mr. Beazley.

 The judge said Friday that she wanted to make clear that she was not responsible for last year's execution delay, as some critics suggested. She noted that she sentenced each of the 5 people executed from Smith County since 1938.

 "It is not that this court is some weak-kneed judge. ... If I were a judge who did not follow the law, I had many chances to be intellectually dishonest and cause actions that would've resulted in the case being reversed."

 She noted that judges are required to "be obedient to the law, but we don't have to be silent about it," and she suggested repeatedly that her letter was part of an ongoing national debate on capital punishment.

 "I think the courts are very bound by the constraints of the law. When it comes to mercy, I do not see that within the purview of the courts to individually dole that out as if we are gods. We are not. We're just people. Just like Mr. Luttig. Just like Mr. Beazley."