This is a press release on Andrew Flores that the TCADP in Houston put
out yesterday. Flores is scheduled for execution today. You can see the
vast difference in emphasis from the AP report on the execution which was
put out on the internet yesterday and is in today's Houston Chronicle.
The AP report does not mention Flores' mental illness, his drug and
alcohol problems, abusive upbringing or ineffective legal counsel during
trial. If you want to complain to Mike Graczyk at AP about his
incomplete reporting, call (281)872-8900.






Texas About to Execute Another Mentally-Ill Man


Andrew Flores is scheduled for execution on September 21, 2004. Flores
has a history of mental illness. A court psychiatrist examined Flores
and diagnosed him with organic affective disorder and developmental
mental disorder.

Like many other cases in Texas, Flores received ineffective assistance of
counsel during his trial. His trial attorney failed to have an
independent psychiatric evaluation conducted and failed to inform the
jury of several mitigating factors such as Flores' long-term drug and
alcohol abuse, including his intoxication at the time of the offense.
There was also evidence that Flores was physically and sexually abused
during his childhood.

Texas has a well-known history of executing people with mental illness.
In recent years, four people who were paranoid schizophrenic were
executed: Larry Robison, Monty Delk, James Colburn and Kelsey
Patterson. The case of Scott Panetti is currently being reviewed by the
courts.

If Flores is executed, it will be the 326th execution since the death
penalty was resumed in Texas in 1982. Texas has over one third of all
the executions in the United States, which has earned it the reputation
as the "Death Penalty Capital of the Western World". Ten more executions
are currently scheduled through December of this year.