Juan Raul Garza #720 (original) (raw)

Executed June 19, 2001 by Lethal Injection by U.S. Government at Terre Haute, Indiana

37th murderer executed in U.S. in 2001
720th murderer executed in U.S. since 1976
2nd murderer executed by U.S. Government in 2001
2nd murderer executed by U.S. Government since 1963

Summary:
Garza, 44, was convicted of various marijuana drug trafficking laws, money laundering, and three counts of murder in furtherance of a Continuing Criminal Enterprise. From the early 1980's until 1992, Garza built and controlled an intricate drug trafficking enterprise. Working with friends and associates from the tough neighborhood of his youth, Garza sold thousands of pounds of marijuana in Texas, Louisiana and Michigan, reaping hundreds of thousands of dollars in return. Garza occasionally suffered setbacks when loads of marijuana or cash were seized by law enforcement agencies. In addition to putting a dent in Garza's profit margin, these incidents made him suspicious that certain of his workers and associates were cooperating with the police. Being the object of Garza's mistrust was not a healthy condition - as the victims of Garza's three murder convictions would attest.

Gilberto Matos was an associate of a drug smuggler named De La Fuente suspected by Garza of giving information to the police. Garza ordered his men to go to his shop and kill Matos as a warning to De La Fuente. They did. Five months later, Garza supplied Israel Flores and Jesus Flores with guns and took them to De La Fuente's nightclub to kill him.When De La Fuente left a nightclub and got into his car, a third accomplice shot him twice through the driver's window. After hiding in a ditch, he called Garza, who picked him up.

The third victim was Thomas Rumbo, also suspected by Garza as an informant. Garza went directly to Rumbo's house, taking two of his workers with him. Rumbo reluctantly got into Garza's pickup truck and they drove out to a rural farm road. Garza shot Rumbo in the back of the head, then shot him four more times.

Garza was the first person to be executed under the 1988 federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which imposes a death sentence for murders stemming from a drug enterprise. While the indictment accused him specifically of three murders, prosecutors presented testimony that he ordered or carried out five more killings, four of them in Mexico. Among the victims, prosecutors said, was Garza's son-in-law.

Citations:

U.S. v. Flores, 63 F.3d 1342 (5th Cir. 1995). (Direct Appeal).
Garza v. Johnson, 117 S.Ct. 2443 (1997) (cert. denied).
Garza v. U.S., 117 S.Ct. 542 (1996) (Reh. denied).
Garza v. U.S., 117 S.Ct. 87 (1996) (cert. denied).
U.S. v. Garza, 165 F.3d 312 (5th Cir. 1999) (Motion to Vacate).
Garza v. U.S., 120 S.Ct. 502 (1999) (cert. denied).
Garza v. Lappin, 253 F.3d 918 (7th Cir. 2001).
In re Garza, 253 F.3d 201 (5th Cir. 2001) (Motion to Vacate).
In re Garza, 121 S.Ct. 2543 (2001) (Stay of Execution).
Garza v. Lappin, 121 S.Ct. 2543 (2001) (Stay of Execution).

Internet Sources:

American Civil Liberties Union

FACT SHEET: EXECUTION OF JUAN RAUL GARZA

Juan Raul Garza, 44, is scheduled to be executed on June 19th. He will be the second federal prisoner to be executed since 1963. In 1993 he was convicted under a 1988 federal law that permits the imposition of the death sentence for murders resulting from large-scale drug dealing. The jury that sentenced Juan Garza to death was told repeatedly and inaccurately by the federal prosecutor that Garza could be released from prison in as little as twenty years if he were not sentenced to death. But in fact, under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the jury could have sentenced Garza to life in prison without the possibility of release. Juan Garza is the only inmate on federal death row whose jury did not receive the "life in prison without the posssibility of release" instruction. It is very possible that had the jury received this instruction, Garza's life would have been spared. In a factually similar case in Michigan in which 11 death-eligible defendants were prosecuted for four gang-related murders, the jury sentenced all four defendants to life imprisonment (U.S. v. Bass, E.D. Mich. 1997). Garza's attorneys have raised this issue on appeal, but thus far, no court has agreed that Garza's sentencing should be re-examined. This is in spite of the fact that in March 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that in a similar case arising out of South Carolina, the trial court's failure to instruct the jury was an unconstitutional error (Shafer v. South Carolina). Garza's execution was originally scheduled for December 12, 2000, but five days before that date President Clinton granted him a six-month reprieve "to allow the Justice Department time to gather and properly analyze more information about racial and geographic disparities in the federal death penalty system." On May 30th, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit denied Garza's motion for a delay. His lawyers then asked President Bush to commute Garza's sentence to life in prison without a chance for parole. President Bush has not yet acted on the request.

The Justice Department's Federal Death Penalty Report

In September 2000, the Justice Department released the results of an internal survey ordered by then Attorney General Janet Reno that revealed stark racial and regional disparities in the application of the death penalty in federal cases. Of the 20 people on federal death row, 17, or 85%, were minorities (14 Black; 3 Hispanic; 3 White). Between 1995 and 2000, 80 percent of all federal cases submitted for the death penalty involved minority defendants (20% White; 48% Black; 29% Hispanic; 4% other); During that period, defendants were allowed to plead guilty in exchange for a life sentence in 32% of all cases. Of the total number of guilty pleas, 40% were White defendants, 25% were Black, 28% were Hispanic, and 25% were other. In other words, Whites were much more likely to escape a death sentence through plea bargaining than minorities; The federal death penalty is geographically arbitrary since the death penalty is pursued by only a handful of federal prosecutors. Between 1995-2000, 42% of all federal cases in which a U.S. attorney requested the death penalty were from only 5 of the 94 federal districts. Cases prosecuted in the southern states of Texas, Virginia, Oklahoma, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Georgia accounted for 65% of the total federal death penalty prosecutions. Upon reviewing the report, President Clinton concluded that "the examination of possible racial and regional bias should be completed before the U.S. goes forward with an execution in a case that may implicate the very questions raised by the Justice Department's continuing study. In this area there is no room for error."

Attorney General Ashcroft's Switch

During his confirmation hearings, John Ashcroft agreed that there was "a need for 'continuing study' of possible racial and regional bias in the federal death penalty," and said that "a thorough study of the system" was necessary. On June 6th, Attorney General Ashcroft did an about face and said that there was "no evidence of bias against racial or ethnic minorities" and that he would not authorize further study of the matter. He also said "I know of no reason not to proceed with the Garza execution." Citizens For a Moratorium on Federal Executions On June 4th, Citizens for Moratorium on Federal Executions, the group of prominent Americans that had successfully petitioned President Clinton to delay Juan Garza's execution in light of the Justice Department's findings, sent an open letter to President Bush. The letter asked the President to declare "an immediate moratorium on all federal executions." Signatories included:

Dr. Mary Frances Berry, Chair, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
Harry Belafonte, Artist/Activist
Cardinal Roger Mahony, Archbishop, Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles
Mario G. Obledo, President, National Coalition of Hispanic Organizations
Arturo S. Rodriguez, President, United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO
Senator Paul Simon, U.S. Senate, 1984-1997
John Van de Kamp, California Attorney General, 1983-1991

ProDeathPenalty.Com

Juan Raul Garza was sentenced to death under Federal law on August 10, 1993, in the Southern District of Texas, and five violations of drug and money laundering laws. At sentencing, the Government introduced aggravating factors evidence of four unadjudicated murders in Mexico, in which Garza was involved. Specifically, Garza was convicted of ordering the murders of Thomas Albert Rumbo, Gilberto Matos, and Erasmo De La Fuente in order to further his control over a major drug trafficking organization. In addition to his death sentence, Garza received a life term for conspiracy to import into the United States a quantity exceeding 1,000 Kilos of marijuana. Juan Raul Garza, 43 years old, is one of six inmates who have been convicted under the CCE statute and who have received a death sentence. Garza has exhausted all direct and collateral appeals for his conviction. In accordance with Federal regulations, the method of execution will be by lethal injection. Garza was previously scheduled for execution in December 2000 but received a stay from then-President Clinton.

Fight the Death Penalty in the USA

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) � With an apology for ``the pain and grief that I have caused,'' convicted murderer and drug kingpin Juan Raul Garza was executed Tuesday, eight days after Timothy McVeigh became the first federal inmate put to death since 1963.

Garza died at 7:09 a.m. by chemical injection, strapped to the same gurney where McVeigh was executed last week. He nervously flexed his feet as Warden Harley Lappin tied the curtains back on the witness rooms. As the chemicals entered his veins, he kept his head cocked to the left, toward the room assigned to his own witnesses. His eyes slowly closed half way and his lips turned a light blue. He went to his death calmly and, unlike McVeigh, with remorse. ``I just want to say that I'm sorry, and I apologize for all the pain and grief that I have caused,'' he said. ``I ask your forgiveness and God bless.'' As Garza was being executed, about 50 anti-death penalty activists outside the U.S. Penitentiary sang ``We Shall Overcome'' and other protest songs.

The scene was in stark contrast to the buzz of media activity that met McVeigh's final days. Dan Dunne, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman, said only about 75 reporters had registered for credentials to cover Garza's death. More than 1,000 reporters had credentials for the McVeigh execution. Garza, 44, was convicted of murdering a man by shooting him five times in the head and neck and ordering the deaths of two other men. It was all part of Garza's marijuana smuggling operation, which federal prosecutors say he ran ruthlessly. He was the first person to be executed under the 1988 federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which imposes a death sentence for murders stemming from a drug enterprise.

Despite lingering questions about the racial and geographic equality of the federal death penalty, President Bush and the U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to delay Garza's execution. The court rejected claims that the jury should have been told that the alternative to a death sentence was life in prison with no possibility of release, and that Garza's death sentence would violate two international treaties. Following the two Supreme Court rulings, Bush turned down a clemency request by Garza, a U.S.-born Mexican-American convicted in Bush's home state of Texas in 1993. Garza attorney Gregory Wiercioch said an upcoming report on the death penalty from Attorney General John Ashcroft would someday be placed on the shelves next to the Dred Scott decision and Plessy v. Ferguson, ``as a shameful attempt to justify the unjustifiable.'' ``Some day this precise savagery will end, but not today,'' Wiercioch said. ``Today President Bush had the last word. But he will not have the final say on the death penalty. History will.'' Death penalty opponents and some former Justice Department officials wondered whether Garza would have been sentenced to death if he were white or had committed his crimes elsewhere. Six of the 19 men now on federal death row were sentenced in Texas; 17, including all six from Texas, are minorities.

``There is a question of whether the way the system is set up produces arbitrary and discriminatory results,'' said Robert Litt, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Clinton Justice Department. A Justice Department study released last year found wide racial and geographical disparities in the use of the federal death penalty. Because of that study, then-President Clinton delayed Garza's December execution date, saying, ``In this area, there is no room for error.'' A Justice Department review released earlier this month found no evidence of bias in federal death penalty sentences. Ashcroft ordered further study but said Monday there was no evidence of racial bias in Garza's death sentence and no reason to delay his execution any further. The original Justice Department study found that 80 percent of federal defendants charged with capital offenses over a five-year period were minorities. The study also found that just nine of the 94 U.S. attorney districts accounted for about 43 percent of all cases in which prosecutors sought the death penalty. Garza's attorneys cited 26 cases involving crimes similar to Garza's where prosecutors did not seek the federal death penalty. Garza spent Monday resting, reading, watching television and visiting with his attorneys, said Jim Cross, executive assistant at the prison. Garza also met with the warden, who explained what the inmate could expect in the coming hours. His final requested meal consisted of steak, french fries, onion rings, diet cola and three slices of bread.

Early Tuesday, death penalty opponents arrived together on a bus with a police escort. Some carried signs, some began praying. One man sat by himself in a field about 600 yards from the prison and lit a candle. Dwight Conquergood of Chicago said, ``It's a personal outrage. I'm appalled and aghast. Judicial killing is theater. It's planned, it's staged and it's deliberate.''

CNN.com

Second federal inmate executed in Indiana
June 20, 2001 Posted: 1:53 PM EDT (1753 GMT)

TERRE HAUTE, Indiana -- Convicted killer Juan Raul Garza dies by lethal injection in a U.S. prison after a clemency plea to President George W. Bush failed. It is the second federal execution in eight days -- after 38 without any federal executions. Garza was pronounced dead at 7:09 a.m. local time (8:09 a.m. EDT) Garza showed very little emotion and seemed ready to die, according to several media witnesses. They said he apologized and asked for forgiveness in his final statement before the execution began.

Media witness Karen Hensel said Garza made a final statement before his execution. "He said 'I want to say that I'm sorry. I apologize for all the pain and grief that I caused. I ask for your forgiveness and God bless,' " Hensel said. "At that point he did somewhat of a sigh, like it's over."

Added Karen Grunden, another media observer: "There was not really a point at any time where you could actually say he died. There was no final breath that we noticed at all."

Garza's and McVeigh's deaths are the only two federal executions since 1963.

Prison spokesman Jim Cross said Garza had spent the last few hours watching television, talking with staff, seeing the prison chaplain, and speaking to his spiritual adviser. Cross would not release the name of the witnesses Garza asked to watch his execution. The White House Monday night announced that President Bush had denied Garza's petition for clemency, which argued that the federal death penalty is biased against minorities. Garza is Hispanic.

"The president found no grounds to grant clemency in this case," said White House spokesman Ari Fleischer. Garza's attorneys, who were rebuffed by the Supreme Court twice Monday, were informed of Bush's decision after deciding not to pursue additional appeals. Garza, 44, a confessed drug trafficker, was sentenced to death in August, 1993 in Texas for murdering or ordering the murders of three other drug traffickers in an attempt to gain control of distribution networks. He was sentenced to death for each of the murders under a federal "drug kingpin" statute.

The U.S. Supreme Court, without comment, rejected two petitions by Garza Monday. The first argued that his sentencing jury had not been adequately instructed on the alternative of life in prison without parole, and the second maintained that human rights provisions of an international agreement had been violated. Garza was born in Brownsville, Texas, the son of Hispanic migrant workers. He has two children ages 9 and 12, and had ratcheted up his pleas for leniency as the execution date neared. Last year, he received two stays from President Clinton, including one in December just days before his scheduled execution, delaying it for six months to allow federal authorities to review the case.

The Bush administration had given many signals that it would not approve the clemency request, which argued that the federal death penalty is biased against minorities. In a statement, Attorney General John Ashcroft said there is no reason to spare Garza's life. He said Garza was responsible for the three deaths and five others -- including at least four murders in Mexico for which he was never prosecuted. Ashcroft also said there was no racial bias in the case, emphasizing the prosecutor was Hispanic, as were seven of the eight victims. The Department of Justice, as well, said a recently completed study found no racial bias in the federal system. Garza's attorney John Howley strongly disagreed, saying "there's no question that race plays a big part in every death sentence." "The fact is we only give out the death penalty in this country to poor, to minorities, and to the mentally retarded," he said.

MSNBC.Com

Garza Put to Death; Killer is Second Federal Inmate to be Executed Since 1963

(AP) Terre Haute, Indiana - June 19, 2001 - With an apology for �the pain and grief that I have caused,� murderer and drug kingpin Juan Raul Garza was executed Tuesday, eight days after Timothy McVeigh became the first federal inmate put to death since 1963. Garza died at 7:09 a.m. by chemical injection, strapped to the same gurney where McVeigh was executed last week.

GARZA NERVOUSLY flexed his feet as Warden Harley Lappin tied the curtains back on the witness rooms. As the chemicals entered his veins, he kept his head cocked to the left, toward the room assigned to his own witnesses. His eyes slowly closed half way and his lips turned a light blue. He went to his death calmly and, unlike McVeigh, with remorse. �I just want to say that I�m sorry, and I apologize for all the pain and grief that I have caused,� he said. �I ask your forgiveness and God bless.�

As Garza was being executed, about 50 anti-death penalty activists outside the U.S. Penitentiary sang �We Shall Overcome� and other protest songs. The scene was in stark contrast to the buzz of media activity that met McVeigh�s final days. Dan Dunne, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokesman, said only about 75 reporters had registered for credentials to cover Garza�s death. More than 1,000 reporters had credentials for the McVeigh execution.

Garza, 44, was convicted of killing one man and ordering the deaths of two others as part of a marijuana smuggling ring he operated from Brownsville, Texas. He was the first person to be executed under the 1988 federal Anti-Drug Abuse Act, which imposes a death sentence for murders stemming from a drug enterprise. The Supreme Court refused to delay Garza�s execution, rejecting claims that the jury should have been told that the alternative to a death sentence was life in prison with no possibility of release, and that his death sentence would violate two international treaties. Following the two Supreme Court rulings, President Bush turned down Garza�s request for clemency, removing his last hope to avoid execution. Bush was governor of Texas during much of the appeal process in Garza�s case.

CHARGES OF BIAS
Garza attorney Gregory Wiercioch said an upcoming report on the death penalty from Attorney General John Ashcroft would someday be placed on the shelves next to the Dred Scott decision and Plessy v. Ferguson, �as a shameful attempt to justify the unjustifiable.� �Some day this precise savagery will end, but not today,� Wiercioch said. �Today President Bush had the last word. But he will not have the final say on the death penalty. History will.�

Death penalty opponents and some former Justice Department officials questioned whether Garza, a Mexican American born in the United States, would have been sentenced to death if he were white or had committed his crimes elsewhere. Six of the 19 men now on federal death row were sentenced in Texas. All are minorities. Garza�s attorneys cited 26 cases involving crimes similar to Garza�s where prosecutors did not seek the federal death penalty. �There is a question of whether the way the system is set up produces arbitrary and discriminatory results,� said Robert Litt, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Clinton Justice Department. �I think somebody ought to get some answers and understand what�s going on.�

A Justice Department study released last year found wide racial and geographical disparities in the use of the federal death penalty. Because of that study, then-President Clinton delayed Garza�s December execution date, saying, �In this area, there is no room for error.� A Justice Department review released earlier this month found no evidence of bias in federal death penalty sentences. Ashcroft ordered further study but also said in a statement Monday that there was no evidence of racial bias in Garza�s death sentence and no reason to delay his execution any further.

�Juan Raul Garza�s guilt is not in doubt,� Ashcroft said, and pointed out that the prosecutor, the presiding judge and at least six of the jurors in his case were Hispanic. The original Justice Department study showed that 80 percent of defendants charged with capital offenses over a five-year period were minorities. The study also found that just nine of the 94 U.S. attorney districts accounted for about 43 percent of all cases in which prosecutors sought the death penalty.

Garza spent Monday resting, reading, watching television and visiting with his attorneys, said Jim Cross, executive assistant at the prison. Garza also met with the warden, who explained the process of the execution and what the inmate could expect in the coming hours. His final requested meal consisted of steak, French fries, onion rings, diet cola and three slices of bread.