Joy
05-31-2002, 08:30 AM
* URGENT ACTION APPEAL Final Update
30 May 2002
Further information on EXTRA 36/02 issued 05-03-02
Death penalty / Legal concern
USA: (Texas) Napoleon Beazley
Napoleon Beazley(m), black, aged 25, was executed in
Texas on 28 May 2002 for a murder committed when he
was 17 years old. International law prohibits the
execution of those who were under 18 at the time of
the crime.
In a final written statement, Napoleon Beazley wrote:
'The act I committed to put me here was not just
heinous, it was senseless. But the person that
committed that act is no longer here - I am. I'm sorry
that John Luttig died. And I'm sorry that it was
something in me that caused all of this to happen to
begin with. Tonight we tell the world that there are
no second chances in the eyes of justice. Tonight, we
tell our children that in some instances, in some
cases, killing is right... No one wins tonight. No one
gets closure. No one walks away victorious'.
A few hours before the execution, the Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles (BPP) announced that they had
voted 10-7 against clemency. Governor Rick Perry
refused to intervene, stating: 'To delay his
punishment would be to delay justice'.
It is believed that tens of thousands of people in the
USA and around the world appealed to the Texas
authorities to spare Napoleon Beazley's life. A single
website in a Swedish national newspaper, for example,
raised more than 13,000 appeals for commutation in an
online petition, which Amnesty International Sweden
then arranged to be handed over to the BPP. Among the
individuals who have appealed for clemency in this
case are the District Attorney from Napoleon Beazley's
home county, a former warden of Texas death row, and
the judge who oversaw Napoleon Beazley's trial.
US organizations which appealed for clemency included
the American Bar Association, the American Civil
Liberties Union, the American Society for Adolescent
Psychiatry, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal
Justice, the Child Welfare League of America, the
Children's Defense Fund, The Constitution Project, the
Juvenile Law Center, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban
League, and the Youth Law Center.
Internationally, the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights, the European Union, the Council of
Europe, the Swiss and Mexican governments, the Law
Society of England and Wales, and the Canadian Bar
Association are among those to have called for the
execution to be halted.
Six Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Archbishop
Desmond Tutu of South Africa called for clemency. In a
six-page letter to the BPP, Archbishop Tutu wrote: 'I
am astounded that Texas and a few other states in the
United States take children from their families and
execute them...The State forces the innocent family to
atone for the death of the victim by causing it
unbearable grief...As a pastor, I ask this Board to
join in the world unity protecting the rights of
children... Spare the child. Spare the family. Spare
the community. Spare us all the degradation of the
death of another child offender, when by opening the
hope of a future for him and his family, you give hope
to us all... I humbly plead with you to spare the life
of Napoleon Beazley, the integrity of his family, and
the hope of his community for a more just society'.
One of the seven Board members who voted for
clemency, when told of the execution, said: 'I'm
really apprehensive that this is a day we're going to
be sorry about for a long time. I just feel like
something really wrong has happened.'
Napoleon Beazley becomes the 10th child offender to be
executed in the USA since 1995. Six of them were
killed in Texas. In the same period, seven child
offenders were reported to have been executed in the
rest of the world combined, three in Iran, two in
Pakistan, one in Democratic Republic of Congo, and one
in Nigeria. Last year, President Musharraf of Pakistan
announced that he would commute the death sentences of
all child offenders in Pakistan.
Napoleon Beazley was the 30th person to be executed in
the USA this year, and the 779th since judicial
killing resumed there in 1977. Texas accounts for 270
of these executions.
Napoleon Beazley's lawyer had appealed for a stay of
execution -- in the courts and to the Governor of
Texas -- pending an imminent ruling by the US Supreme
Court on whether 'standards of decency' in the USA
have evolved to the extent that executing people with
mental retardation is now unconstitutional. If the
Court rules that such a national consensus has
emerged, it could undermine its 1989 decision allowing
child offenders to be put to death and lead to a
ruling that a national consensus also exists against
the execution of child offenders.
Shortly before Napoleon Beazley was killed, the
Missouri Supreme Court stayed the execution of
Christopher Simmons, which had been set for next week.
Simmons, like Beazley, was sentenced to death for a
crime committed when he was 17. The Missouri court
issued the stay pending the Supreme Court decision on
the mental retardation issue, on the same argument
raised by Napoleon Beazley's lawyer. The Missouri
Supreme Court evidently believes there is merit to the
argument, whereas the Texas courts and governor
refused to countenance a delay in Napoleon Beazley's
execution. It was a brutally stark reminder of the
arbitrariness of the death penalty.
Those who wish may send a letter protesting Governor
Perry's failure to intervene to stop this
internationally illegal execution.
Governor Rick Perry
c/o Bill Jones General Counsel
PO Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Fax 1 512 463 1932 (General Counsel's Fax), or 463
1849 (Governor's fax)
30 May 2002
Further information on EXTRA 36/02 issued 05-03-02
Death penalty / Legal concern
USA: (Texas) Napoleon Beazley
Napoleon Beazley(m), black, aged 25, was executed in
Texas on 28 May 2002 for a murder committed when he
was 17 years old. International law prohibits the
execution of those who were under 18 at the time of
the crime.
In a final written statement, Napoleon Beazley wrote:
'The act I committed to put me here was not just
heinous, it was senseless. But the person that
committed that act is no longer here - I am. I'm sorry
that John Luttig died. And I'm sorry that it was
something in me that caused all of this to happen to
begin with. Tonight we tell the world that there are
no second chances in the eyes of justice. Tonight, we
tell our children that in some instances, in some
cases, killing is right... No one wins tonight. No one
gets closure. No one walks away victorious'.
A few hours before the execution, the Texas Board of
Pardons and Paroles (BPP) announced that they had
voted 10-7 against clemency. Governor Rick Perry
refused to intervene, stating: 'To delay his
punishment would be to delay justice'.
It is believed that tens of thousands of people in the
USA and around the world appealed to the Texas
authorities to spare Napoleon Beazley's life. A single
website in a Swedish national newspaper, for example,
raised more than 13,000 appeals for commutation in an
online petition, which Amnesty International Sweden
then arranged to be handed over to the BPP. Among the
individuals who have appealed for clemency in this
case are the District Attorney from Napoleon Beazley's
home county, a former warden of Texas death row, and
the judge who oversaw Napoleon Beazley's trial.
US organizations which appealed for clemency included
the American Bar Association, the American Civil
Liberties Union, the American Society for Adolescent
Psychiatry, the Center on Juvenile and Criminal
Justice, the Child Welfare League of America, the
Children's Defense Fund, The Constitution Project, the
Juvenile Law Center, the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban
League, and the Youth Law Center.
Internationally, the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights, the European Union, the Council of
Europe, the Swiss and Mexican governments, the Law
Society of England and Wales, and the Canadian Bar
Association are among those to have called for the
execution to be halted.
Six Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Archbishop
Desmond Tutu of South Africa called for clemency. In a
six-page letter to the BPP, Archbishop Tutu wrote: 'I
am astounded that Texas and a few other states in the
United States take children from their families and
execute them...The State forces the innocent family to
atone for the death of the victim by causing it
unbearable grief...As a pastor, I ask this Board to
join in the world unity protecting the rights of
children... Spare the child. Spare the family. Spare
the community. Spare us all the degradation of the
death of another child offender, when by opening the
hope of a future for him and his family, you give hope
to us all... I humbly plead with you to spare the life
of Napoleon Beazley, the integrity of his family, and
the hope of his community for a more just society'.
One of the seven Board members who voted for
clemency, when told of the execution, said: 'I'm
really apprehensive that this is a day we're going to
be sorry about for a long time. I just feel like
something really wrong has happened.'
Napoleon Beazley becomes the 10th child offender to be
executed in the USA since 1995. Six of them were
killed in Texas. In the same period, seven child
offenders were reported to have been executed in the
rest of the world combined, three in Iran, two in
Pakistan, one in Democratic Republic of Congo, and one
in Nigeria. Last year, President Musharraf of Pakistan
announced that he would commute the death sentences of
all child offenders in Pakistan.
Napoleon Beazley was the 30th person to be executed in
the USA this year, and the 779th since judicial
killing resumed there in 1977. Texas accounts for 270
of these executions.
Napoleon Beazley's lawyer had appealed for a stay of
execution -- in the courts and to the Governor of
Texas -- pending an imminent ruling by the US Supreme
Court on whether 'standards of decency' in the USA
have evolved to the extent that executing people with
mental retardation is now unconstitutional. If the
Court rules that such a national consensus has
emerged, it could undermine its 1989 decision allowing
child offenders to be put to death and lead to a
ruling that a national consensus also exists against
the execution of child offenders.
Shortly before Napoleon Beazley was killed, the
Missouri Supreme Court stayed the execution of
Christopher Simmons, which had been set for next week.
Simmons, like Beazley, was sentenced to death for a
crime committed when he was 17. The Missouri court
issued the stay pending the Supreme Court decision on
the mental retardation issue, on the same argument
raised by Napoleon Beazley's lawyer. The Missouri
Supreme Court evidently believes there is merit to the
argument, whereas the Texas courts and governor
refused to countenance a delay in Napoleon Beazley's
execution. It was a brutally stark reminder of the
arbitrariness of the death penalty.
Those who wish may send a letter protesting Governor
Perry's failure to intervene to stop this
internationally illegal execution.
Governor Rick Perry
c/o Bill Jones General Counsel
PO Box 12428
Austin, Texas 78711
Fax 1 512 463 1932 (General Counsel's Fax), or 463
1849 (Governor's fax)