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"Scam" ads the norm Trail Mix: Hillary haters spam cyberspace Gunning for the center Democrats make Hillary legit The blundering pundit Don Giuliani Campaign video: |
Execution, Texas-style
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Jan. 13, 2000 | AUSTIN, Texas --
Now, as governor and leading presidential contender, Bush will decide the fate of Glen Charles McGinnis, a black man who committed murder when he was 17. On Aug. 1, 1990, McGinnis, who had previously spent time in juvenile custody for auto theft and other crimes, took his mother's .25 caliber pistol and walked into Wilkins Cleaners & Laundry in Conroe, Texas. McGinnis robbed and then shot 30-year-old Leta Ann Wilkerson, once in the head and three times in the back. Two years later, he was found guilty of capital murder. He is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Jan. 25. The facts of McGinnis' crime resemble the deeds perpetrated by many other inmates on Texas' death row. But because he was 17 at the time of the murder, McGinnis' case is placing the spotlight on Bush's attitude toward the death penalty and his position on several international standards on human rights. Every developed nation in the world prohibits the execution of juvenile offenders, and several international treaties prohibit the practice. The American Bar Association and Amnesty International have both appealed to Bush, asking him to commute McGinnis' sentence. That doesn't appear likely. On the campaign trail and as governor, Bush has rarely discussed the death penalty. But during his tenure, Bush has overseen far more executions than any other governor in modern American history. During his tenure, 112 men and one woman have been executed. That's nearly 20 percent of the 600 people who have been executed in the United States since 1976. Two of the men executed during Bush's tenure -- Joseph Cannon and Robert Carter, both of whom were executed in 1998 -- were 17 at the time of their crimes. Scott McClellan, a spokesman for Bush's presidential campaign, said the issue was not a campaign issue and referred calls to the governor's press office at the Texas Capitol. Michael Jones, a state employee at Bush's press office, said Bush "supports the laws that we have here in Texas and whose legality has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court." Jones added that Bush cannot commute McGinnis' sentence without the recommendation from the majority of the members of the state's board of pardons and paroles. Officials at the board have received a plea for clemency from McGinnis' lawyers and have begun reviewing it. While Bush's spokesmen lob the death penalty issue back and forth, opponents of execution for juveniles are trying to apply political pressure. In a Dec. 10, 1999 letter, American Bar Association president William G. Paul asked Bush to spare McGinnis' life. The "execution of people for crimes they committed while children is unacceptable in a civilized society, irrespective of guilt or innocence. Executing this young man, and others who are on death row for their crimes committed as children, serves no principled purpose and only demeans our system of justice," Paul said. But if the Pope was unable to sway the governor to commute the death sentence of Karla Faye Tucker, there's no reason to think a group of trial lawyers will fare any better.
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