Texas Court Grants Stay for Juvenile Offender
Aug 17: Napoleon Beazley was granted a stay of execution by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals just hours before his scheduled execution.
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Napoleon Beazley, now 25, was stunned into silence, then broke out in a smile when told the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals wanted time to study his lawyer´s appeals questioning the legality of executing someone who was not an adult at the time of his crime.
"He sat on his bunk and stopped writing. Chaplain Jim Brazzil asked him if he was okay and he said, ´Yes, I´m fine, I just have to comprehend this, give me a second,´" Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Larry Todd told reporters gathered beneath the red-brick Walls prison unit in downtown Huntsville, where Texas operates the nation´s most active death chamber.
"We gave him five or six minutes, then went back to talk to him and asked him if he was okay. He broke out in a smile and said ´Yes,´" Todd said.
The former student body president and high school football star from tiny Grapeland, Texas, was solemnly writing out his final statement when he got news of the stay three hours before he was to receive a lethal injection, Todd said.
TEXAS COURT TAKES RARE ACTIONTexas is one of five states in the U.S. that allows 17-year-old offenders to be put to death.Its courts rarely grant execution stays, even in controversial cases. Court officials said Wednesday´s decision came in a 6-3 vote.
Critics ranging from Amnesty International to the European Union had urged Texas not to kill Beazley. In a recent report, Amnesty International called the United States a "rogue state" with regard to capital punishment and said Texas, which leads the nation in executions, was the worst of all.
Beazley was condemned for shooting oilman John Luttig, 63, to death while stealing his Mercedes Benz in the east Texas town of Tyler on April 19, 1994.
Luttig was the father of a well-connected federal judge in Virginia, J. Michael Luttig, sparking allegations in some circles that prosecutors sought the death penalty only because of the judge´s prominence. They have denied the accusation.
The case caused an unusual split in the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday when it refused to stay the execution in a 3-3 tie vote. Three other justices recused themselves because of links to the younger Luttig.
— SOURCES
- Sources: REUTERS NEWS SERVICE, 15/08/2001
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