View Full Version : Tx.- Beazley gets new date.


nighthawk_75253
04-26-2002, 10:25 PM
From: "Mozes Curiel" <mozescur@c...>
Date: Fri Apr 26, 2002 5:28 pm
Subject: I CAN'T STAND THIS ANYMORE....Please HELP!!!!!

ADVERTISEMENT
I'm going to send Mr President of the U.S.A one baseball on may 02, 2002 to stop the death-penalty for Juvenile
offender.
Let us all just do it !!!!!
We have to do what we can to stop those executions
I can't stand this anymore.
Mozes
----- Original Message -----
From: Mozes Curiel
To: lampofhope@***********.com
Sent: Friday, April 26, 2002 6:09 PM
Subject: [lampofhope] Judge sets May execution date for convicted killer Beazley

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.