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Federal 

Juan Garza (Federal)-L/?    stay of execution 
December 12, 2000 
With a December 12th execution date coming up, Juan Garza faces the prospect of becoming the first federal prisoner put to death by the United States Government since 1963.  He is currently incarcerated on federal death row in Terre Haute, Indiana and his last hope lies with a clemency 
petition submitted to President Clinton. 
Mr. Garza was convicted and sentenced to death in 1993 under the federal drug kingpin statute for three murders committed as part of a marijuana smuggling and distribution ring based in Brownsville, Texas. 
At the sentencing phase of his trial, the Government introduced evidence that Mr. Garza had committed four additional murders in Mexico, for which he was never arrested, prosecuted or convicted.  Although the Mexican authorities were unable to solve any of the murders, the U.S. 
Government sent Customs agents to Mexico to re-investigate these closed cases. At the guilt-finding phase of Mr. Garza’s trial, the prosecution offered no physical evidence tying the defendant to the crimes. The only evidence linking him to the killings was the testimony of three accomplices, including the triggermen in some cases, who received substantially reduced sentences from the  government in exchange for their testimony. 
“The Government made deals with the devil, I think the government wanted to make Juan Raul Garza the poster child of the federal death penalty” said Philip Hilder, Garza’s ex-attorney, in Texas Lawyer.  Mr. Hilder went on to say that he believed the Government was rushing to judgement, not giving him enough time to prepare for trial. 
No state or federal death sentence in the history of the modern era of capital punishment has been based on alleged foreign offenses for which the defendant was never  prosecuted or convicted.  On appeal, Mr. Garza unsuccessfully argued that differences in the laws between Mexico and the United States prevented him from challenging the reliability of the evidence of the four murders in Mexico that ultimately led to his death sentence. 
On December 14, 1999, Mr. Garza filed a complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an international tribunal that sits in Washington, D.C..  The complaint states that the U.S. Government 
violated Mr. Garza’s rights under international law by introducing the unsolved murders in Mexico at the sentencing phase of his trial. The IACHR recently asked the United States not to execute Mr. Garza while the complaint is under review. Proceeding with the execution under these circumstances would constitute a violation of international law and emphasize America’s refusal to join the international trend toward abolition of the death penalty. 
In addition, the European Parliament adopted a resolution urging the U.S. Government to comply with the IACHR’s request and asking President Clinton to “grant clemency to Juan Garza and to impose an immediate moratorium on federal executions…” 
A recent study by the Department of Justice shows both racial and geographic disparities in the implementation of the Federal Death Penalty. 
From 1988 to 1994, the study found that federal prosecutors recommended the death penalty in 52 cases, and that 75 percent involved black defendants, 10 percent involved Hispanics, 2 percent involved Asians or American Indians and 14 percent involved whites. Of the 19  defendants now awaiting execution under federal law, 15 are minorities. 
The disturbing  results of the study have renewed the demands for a Federal Death Penalty Moratorium. 
The power to grant clemency for Juan Garza lies solely with the President Clinton. Please contact him acknowledging the serious nature of the crimes for which Mr. Garza has been convicted, expressing sympathy for the victim’s relatives and friends, and urging the him to spare Mr. Garza’s life by commuting his death sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. 
 

Arkansas 

David Wayne Johnson (AR)   executed
December 19, 2000…9:00pm (EST) 
David Wayne Johnson, who is sentenced to death, did not receive a far trial. His attorney was convicted of criminal charges, betrayed his clients, did not adequately prepare for trial, and suffered from bi-polar disorder. 
Robert Smith, Johnson’s attorney during his capital trial, is now in prison too. Smith is housed in a cell close to the death row building and won’t be far away from Johnson if he is sent to the execution chamber on December 19. 
The circumstances of Johnson’s representation and the personal background of his attorney clearly violate any reasonable definition of adequate legal representation: 
Smith, was sentenced to 10 years for stealing funds and defrauding numerous clients. He was released from this sentence on an early parole, but was arrested again and sentenced to 15 years in prison for stealing original documents containing famous signatures from various university libraries in Arkansas and Kansas. 
It was also revealed that Smith was suffering from bi-polar disorder at the time of Johnson’s trial. He told Johnson that he had tried dozens of capital cases before, when in fact, he had never tried one. Finally he took the case for the sum of $ 1,000. His office mates, Audrianna Grisham and Michael Sherwood, both stated that he did little to prepare for trial, and seemed completely unprepared prior to the case. 
During the time of the trial Smith failed to interview listed witnesses or to visit the crime scene, he would disappear for days, miss court dates and would not tell anyone where he was. He would fail to follow evidence linking the crime to another possible suspect, in part, because of his involvement in other cases. In addition, he falsified documents, stole money from his assistants and tried to sell documents belonging to them to other attorneys. 
Finally, and not surprisingly, Smith lost the case and David Wayne Johnson, father of five children, was sentenced to death for the September 1989 murder of Leon Brown. Johnson’s chances for a lesser sentence were clearly diminished by his counsel’s inadequate performance but during appeals, the courts denied Johnson any relief for ineffective assistance of counsel. 
The State Parole Board has denied clemency for David Wayne Johnson. The final authority about carrying out the execution lays now with Governor Mike Huckabee. 
 

Florida 

Edward Castro (FL)    executed 
Dec. 7, 2000…7:00pm (EST)  
There are four circumstances that usually define the impact of neglect and abuse on a child’s development.  
First, the age at which the person was exposed to it. The younger the child the more lasting the impact tends to be.  
Second, the severity of the abuse.  
Third, the consistency in which the child was exposed to it.  
And Fourth, if there were any forms of treatments to help the child deal with its experiences.  
Edward Castro had been physically abused since the age of two, when his alcoholic mother sent him to acquaintances in Mexico after she had gotten a divorce from Edward’s father. Edward would not see his father again until he was an adult. Edward’s alcoholism began when he was three years old.   
The abuse continued and escalated when Edward returned home to his mother at the age of four. He was physically and sexually abused by babysitters, his uncle and his cousins. He was forced to perform sexual acts and to engage in incest with his sisters.  
There was no significant help and support which would have helped Edward in his miserable situation. He became an outsider and dropped out of high school. At age seventeen he joined the U.S. Marine Corps where he became a chronic alcoholic.  
Edward has been examined by numerous doctors who have diagnosed him with several handicap disorders. Some of them include: Organic Brain Syndrome, Depression, Dependent Personality Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.  Edward Castro was arrested for the two murders he committed in January 1987. After a long trial with three penalty hearings he was sentenced to death. His December 7th execution date was set after he dismissed his lawyers and post-conviction motions.  
He changed his mind several times about waiving his appeal. According to his lawyers he is not competent to make this decision. This opinion is supported by the testimony of Dr. Toomer: “And this, overall, has been consistent in terms of Mr. Castro’s history of poor decision-making, poor impulse control, maladapted behavior, this has been consistent over time”.  
   

Robert Glock    stay of execution 
Dec. 8, 2000…7:00am (EST)  
Robert Glock’s life was marked by neglect and violence. It is scheduled to end by execution on December 8. Together with his co-defendant Carl Puiatti he was sentenced to death for the 1983 murder of Sharilyn Ritchie.  
Both defendants were convicted in a joined trial, although Robert’s lawyers had asked for separate proceedings.  
Furthermore Robert’s defense counsel failed to properly investigate and present evidence of petitioner’s childhood abuse, his mental disturbance, and the domination by his co-defendant. He did not obtain available information and important mitigating evidence from Robert’s family. By doing so he failed to aid the mental health experts in showing the deficiencies in Robert’s character.  
Throughout his lifetime Robert was searching for love and support but in turn he was neglected.  As a child Robert suffered under an abusive and alcoholic mother. According to Roberts sister, Tammy Glock, she “spent most of her time drunk. When she would vomit all over herself we would clean her up and put her in bed so that our stepfather wouldn’t know that she had been drinking. If we didn’t help her in this way, she would get furious at us…We were just too scared not to do anything to keep her from beating us…She would dress (Bobby) up like a little girl and make him to go to school like that. Bobby would try to sneak normal clothes out of the house with him, but if she caught him, she would beat him badly…She did not approve who he was. She did not like him because of who his father was”.  
Robert was not allowed to play with his peers and after he had tried to run away several times, he was sent to a foster home at age thirteen.  
Within a year he moved to his father’s in Florida. There he would endure even more pain, this time by his stepmother. She was jealous at him and considered him a danger to her children’s status, and although Robert desired her sympathy she would be violent against him.  
As a result of his upbringing Robert never developed a healthy self-esteem. Showing self-defeating and schizoid traits, Robert also suffered under Post-Traumatic Sress-Disorder. He was small of statute and became easily dependant on others. Soon he was a follower and an easily led pleaser of people who would make him feel comfortable. At the end this is why he became involved in the killing of Sharilyn Ritchie.  
According to Doctor Merikangas, “Robert Glock has a passive dependant personality disorder and is subject to undue influence and domination. In my opinion, Robert was under the domination of Mr. Puiatti during the offense. If not for this domination and influence by Mr. Puiatti, Robert would not have participated in such an offense”.  
In contrast to his co-defendant, Robert had no significant history of prior criminal activity. He is also deeply remorseful for what he did and evaluations have found him to be a good candidate for rehabilitation. 

Gary Miller (TX)-W/W    executed 
Dec. 5, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
The 21 year-old Gary Miller had no prior criminal record when he was charged with the 1988 rape-murder of April Marie Wilson of Merkel. 
Gary was drunk when he committed the crime. Despite the fact that this was his first unlawful conduct,  Dr. Griffith found him to be a future danger to society. Doctor Griffith, also called “Doctor Death”, is notorious for his unscientific testimonies. On several occasions he testified about defendants he never met or examined. 
 

Daniel Hittle (TX)-W/W    executed 
Dec. 6, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
Few people liked him, even as a child. In school he started to gather attention by being notorious or violent. After finishing High-School Daniel left home and joined the Marines. He wanted to go to Vietnam but was assigned a desk job in San Diego instead. In 1970 he was honorable discharged from the Marines because he was found to be a paranoid schizophrenic. 
In 1973 Daniel killed his adoptive parents at their farm in Minnesota. After 11 years in prison he won parole and moved to Texas. According to his parole officer he seemed to be on a good path, living with his new wife and her 14 year-old daughter. But in 1989 Daniel shot 5 people during a killing-spree. 
During trial, the prosecution described him as a “cold blooded, gutless coward” in order to get a death penalty conviction. The defense argued that he is mentally ill and a paranoid schizophrenic and therefore should not be executed. 
 

Claude Jones (TX)-W/W    executed 
Dec. 7, 2000…7:00pm (EST) 
Claude Jones was convicted in the November 1989 armed robbery and murder of Allen Hilzendager. 
 

Virginia 

Christopher Goins (VA)   executed 
Dec. 9, 2000…9:00pm (EST) 
Chris Goins was 21 years old at the time he was sentenced to die by the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond. The circumstances of Goins’ trial and death sentence were unusual. Goins, an African-American, was brought to trial before a predominantly white jury drawn from rural 
Gloucester County, Virginia. Goins’ trial lawyer had asked for a change of venue due to extensive pretrial publicity within the city of Richmond. Instead of moving the entire trial or picking a venire that more closely represented the City of Richmond, the trial court selected rural Gloucester County 
where jurors would be selected and then brought by bus to downtown Richmond for the trial. Due to this strange circumstance, Goins requested that the potential jurors be questioned on the issue of whether any juror had any fear of a person of another race or believed that blacks were more violent than others. Despite no objection from the prosecutor, the trial court declined to ask jurors anything 
about potential racial prejudice. This issue is being presented in Goins’ petition to the United States Supreme Court. 
Also, Goins counsel provided him ineffective assistance of counsel. Despite having the ability to effectively cross-examine the lone eyewitness to the case (the only survivor to the shootings), Goins’ trial attorney did not bring out critical differences between her description of the events and the descriptions provided by Goins’ alleged accomplice. The only defense they had (that the accomplice was responsible) would have made a difference if properly presented. 
At sentencing his attorney failed to present significant mitigating evidence regarding Christopher’s earlier life. This evidence included the abuse suffered upon him by his family, his mother’s drug addiction, as well as his own psychological and medical problems. Despite all of these circumstances, the courts have turned down all appeals and Christopher is scheduled to die on December 6, 2000. 

(note: This alert was taken from a text submitted by Frank Salvato, Christopher Goins’ attorney.) 
 
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Further Upcoming Execution Dates: 
 
January 4, 2001:             Robert Clayton (OK) 

January 9, 2001:             Eddie Trice (OK) 

January 9, 2001:            Jack Wade Clark (TX) 

January 11, 2001:          Wanda Jean Allen (OK) 

January 16, 2001:          Floyd Medlock (OK) 

January 18, 2001:          Dion Smallwood (OK) 

January 18, 2001:          Allen Godwin  

January 22, 2001:          Steven Anthony Butler (TX) 

January 23, 2001:          Mark Fowler (OK) 

January 25, 2001:          Billy Ray Fox (OK) 

January 30, 2001:          Loyd Lefevers (OK) 

January 31, 2001:          Philip Workman (TN)

February 1,  2001          D L Jones (OK)