Beazley seeks stay, but not because of age

Houston Chronicle ^ | 05/27/02 | Janet Elliott

[GalvestonBeachcomber]

LIVINGSTON -- Napoleon Beazley doesn't want to be spared from the death penalty because he was only 17 when he committed capital murder. 

"Whether I was 15, 16, 17, 21, 25, it should have never happened," Beazley said last week. "There's just no way I can walk around that by sitting here saying, `I don't deserve to die because I was 17.' "

Instead of his age, Beazley wants people to look at how he conducted his life before and after the day he and two friends decided to attempt a carjacking.

Then, he was a popular high school athlete in Grapeland, a tiny town in East Texas. During his eight years on death row, he has been a model prisoner.

Beazley, 25, is scheduled to die today for killing Tyler businessman John Luttig on April 19, 1994. Beazley was a high school senior when he and two companions went looking for a luxury car to steal and spotted Luttig's Mercedes Benz. Beazley ambushed Luttig and his wife, Bobbie Luttig, after they pulled into their driveway. He shot Luttig twice in the head and shot at Bobbie Luttig, who played dead to survive.

Appeals on Beazley's behalf from around the world have been pouring in to the Board of Pardons and Paroles and Gov. Rick Perry's office. Most argue that it is inhumane to execute someone who killed when he was younger than 18.

State District Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent, who presided over Beazley's trial, and 18 state representatives have cited age in urging Perry to commute Beazley's sentence to life in prison.

The parole board is expected to issue its recommendation on Beazley's clemency petition today. If the board votes to recommend a reprieve or commutation, the petition goes to Perry, who must agree. If the board denies any relief, Perry's only option would be to grant a 30-day stay.

Also today, Beazley's lawyers will file another appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court, which on Friday declined to intervene in the execution.

Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen, who prosecuted Beazley, describes the Luttig killing as "horrific ... premeditated and predatory."

"I am still convinced the death sentence is the appropriate punishment for this crime," Skeen told the Associated Press.

During the past eight years on death row, Beazley said he has painstakingly examined what he did that fateful day. Although his lawyers have argued that he was the victim of a racist criminal justice system and botched habeas appeals, he blames no one but himself.

"I want people to look at the case and say, `What happened to John Luttig was a tragedy because of the details of his life. It was a tragedy for him to die, and especially like that,' " said Beazley.

"But then I want the person to come back and say, `Hey look, what you are about to do to him, Napoleon Beazley, that's also a tragedy because of the details of his life. It's no different than what he did to John Luttig. That's the argument I look for."

Last year, the Texas House passed a bill that would ban executions of persons who were younger than 18 when they committed capital murder. The bill died in the Senate, but it is likely to be introduced again next year when lawmakers reconvene.

Texas is one of 22 states that allows 17-year-old offenders to be put to death. The federal government doesn't execute juvenile offenders.

Walter Long, an Austin attorney who represents Beazley, predicts that the U.S. Supreme Court soon will ban the execution of juvenile offenders.

Long believes the court will use a Virginia case involving a mentally retarded inmate to issue a rule of law recognizing that non-death penalty states may be included in deciding whether society has rejected the death penalty for certain classes of offenders.

Beazley's appeal to the Supreme Court is complicated by the recusal of three justices, who have personal ties to the victim's son, J. Michael Luttig, a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va.

Last summer, the remaining six justices voted 3-3 to deny a stay. Friday's vote denying a stay apparently was 6-0, said Long.

Beazley was four hours away from being executed last Aug. 15 when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay.

That stay was lifted in April after the court decided in another case that a death-row inmate didn't have a right to competent appellate counsel. Beazley's former lawyer has admitted he failed to investigate claims about the fairness of Beazley's trial before an all-white jury.

Among those appealing on Beazley's behalf are Nobel Peace Prize winners Archbishop Desmond Tutu and F.W. de Klerk, former president of South Africa. The two men helped end apartheid in South Africa.

Tutu is opposed to the death penalty in all cases, but de Klerk, whose ex-wife was murdered in 2001, said he believes the death penalty may be justified in some cases.

"I know how difficult it is to weigh the interests of law-abiding citizens against widely publicized calls for mercy on behalf of killers who themselves have shown no mercy," de Klerk wrote to the parole board. "I would nevertheless recommend that you err on the side of mercy, particularly where the perpetrator was not an adult when the crime was committed."

Beazley would be the 11th juvenile offender to be executed in Texas. Twenty-eight other death-row inmates were under 18 at the time of their crimes.

Beazley said he regrets that he hasn't had a chance to personally apologize to the Luttig family. He said that during his 1995 trial he was still holding on to his pride and was not willing to express how sorry and ashamed he was for his crime.

Beazley said the fact that people around the world are supporting him doesn't provide any consolation.

"I could have the support of the whole world or the peace of the whole world, but if Mrs. Luttig and her family wouldn't give me that (forgiveness), it would be for nothing," he said. "But if they gave me that, I could smile at the world's face."

Beazley said he is glad that his case is making people think about capital punishment.

"If I was the last juvenile executed then I would be pleased with that because I'd know that what I've done for the last eight years mattered."

[GalvestonBeachcomber]

Teenagers can do such foolish, stupid deeds simply because they have not lived longer to become more sophisticated. I am and DP proponent. I do have problems with the DP and youth, however.

I know, I know; most teenagers do not do heinous deeds such as this. I still have my reservations.

[Aim small miss small]

I still have my reservations

With all due respect, I don't.

[Movemout]

He should have expended all that energy on model behavior before he decided to steal a luxury car. Murder is depraved behavior. He is not on trial for how he acted while on death row. Millions of teenagers do thjeir best each and every day. They receive no reward but their own success in life by doing so. Many of them do not even have a luxury car.