Scheduled federal execution debated

The first federal execution in 37 years is scheduled for Dec. 12 at the penitentiary in Terre Haute. Juan Raul Garza, 43, could become the first civilian to die by lethal injection at the U.S. government's lone federal death chamber. \nA federal court in Texas sentenced Garza to death in August 1993 for the murder of three people in connection with a drug-trafficking ring based in Brownsville, Texas. A year ago, the Supreme Court denied his appeal, and an execution date was set for Aug. 5.\nPresident Bill Clinton postponed Garza's execution after the Justice Department issued new regulations outlining the process for seeking clemency from the president. The reprieve gave Garza an opportunity to petition under the revised guidelines, and a new date was set for Dec. 12. \nThere are more than 20 federal death row inmates at the Terre Haute penitentiary, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, according to the Justice Department. In July 1993, a special confinement unit was opened there to house all federal death row inmates. Garza is the only one with a scheduled execution date. The last person executed by the U.S. government was Victor Feguer, who was hanged in Iowa in 1963 for kidnapping and killing a doctor. \nGarza's execution comes at a time of increasing public concern about death penalty procedures in the United States. In September, a Justice Department survey cited significant racial and geographic disparities in cases involving federal capital punishment sentencing. The study showed that between 1995 and 2000, 80 percent of all federal cases submitted by U.S. attorneys seeking the death penalty involved minorities, half of whom were black. U.S. attorneys were almost twice as likely to recommend seeking the death penalty for a black defendant when the victim was not black as when the victim was black. \nThe survey also showed that of the 682 federal death penalty cases submitted to the U.S. Attorney General for review, 40 percent came from only five of 94 federal districts. \nDiann Rust-Tierney, director of the Capital Punishment Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, said that "time and again, statistics confirm what we already know: that racism and unfairness are so pervasive in our nation's death penalty system that it is impossible for a person of color to get equal treatment in that system." \nRecent capital cases have called attention to legal blunders by defense attorneys. In Texas, a court of criminal appeals has been criticized for upholding death sentences where defense lawyers were shown to have slept through parts of trials, The Dallas Morning News reported. \nIn January, Gov. George Ryan of Illinois declared a moratorium on executions to give him time to review the release of 13 death row inmates since Illinois re-adopted the death penalty in 1977. \nThe United States is also under international pressure. Germany has sued the U.S. government at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands, arguing that Karl and Walter LaGrand, German nationals, were not notified of their rights to contact consular officials soon after their arrests. The LaGrand brothers were executed in Arizona last year for murdering a bank manager in 1982. Germany claims the United States violated the Vienna Convention of Consular Relations. \nIn another case involving a foreign national, the Mexican government sent a formal protest to the U.S. State Department in October in an effort to prevent the execution of Miguel Flores, a Mexican citizen. Mexican officials say Flores was not advised of his right to contact his embassy. Flores was executed Nov. 9, in Texas. \nAbe Bonowitz, director of Citizens United for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, said that all these things are happening for people to question the fairness of the death penalty. \nBonowitz, a Florida resident, was one of several organizers of a recent four-day death penalty protest march in Indiana. The march, which included around 30 protesters, began at the Federal Court Building in Indianapolis and ended at the Terre Haute penitentiary. Bonowitz said it was timed to coincide with the scheduled federal execution of David Paul Hammer, whose Nov. 15 execution date was postponed when a U.S. District Judge allowed Hammer to file a request to appeal. \nBonowitz said although many Americans still support the death penalty, there is a growing level of dissent with its procedures. \n"It's not that people are uncomfortable with the idea that murderers should be executed, but with the practice," Bonowitz said. "It's becoming more and more clear that it's proving unfair and ineffective."\nRust-Tierney said there hasn't been this much questioning of the death penalty system since 1972, when the Supreme Court commuted the sentences of 623 death row inmates and effectively suspended the death penalty in Furman v. Georgia. \n"The one other time when there was real questioning was in Furman v. Georgia," Rust-Tierney said. "I think public opinion was down around 50 percent then. It's been quite a while since we've had the issues of fairness and human rights at the forefront." \nSince 1927, the U.S. government has executed 34 individuals, but none since the Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment at the federal level in 1988, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Today, 38 states have the death penalty and more than 3,500 individuals sit on death row. As of Nov. 29, there have been 79 executions at the state level in 2000.