The Texas Clemency Memos [New Attack on Bush/Gonzalez]

The Atlantic Monthly ^ | July/August 2003 | Alan Berlow

[Wordsmith]

All:

Heard an interview this morning on NPR with the author of this piece (yes, I know, but I don't get AM in my area). I expect this to be a MAJOR angle of assault against Gonzalez if he is nominated for a vacancy on the Supreme Court. Conservatives should be aware of this and prepared to counter it. The author came across as a rabid Bush-hater, and stated that the "mistakes" Gonzalez made would have been inexcusable for even a legal intern.

[Wordsmith]

"A close examination of the Gonzales memoranda suggests that Governor Bush frequently approved executions based on only the most cursory briefings on the issues in dispute. In fact, in these documents Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence. "

[Wordsmith]

H - Could you do a big "ping" for me on this? I expect this to blow up big, considering the prominence of NPR and The Atlantic Monthly, and the coming election season.

[Republican Wildcat]

It's a separate board in Texas that reviews this, not the governor. The governor, as I understand it, has no power to commute death sentences

In any event, the first shots are being fired in the SCOTUS battle.

[Wordsmith]

"Gonzales's lack of attention to Washington's mental retardation is particularly surprising because demand was growing nationwide to ban executions of the retarded, and because the most highly publicized case of a retarded defendant, that of Johnny Paul Penry, was even then playing itself out in Texas courts. The miscarriages in the Washington case were also precisely the kind of thing Bush claimed to want to be told about. "I don't believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own," he wrote in his autobiography, A Charge to Keep (1999), "unless there are new facts or evidence of which a jury was unaware, or evidence that the trial was somehow unfair." Such information had indeed come to light in Washington's case, yet Gonzales's memorandum did not tell Bush about it."

[billbears]

bump for later

[Wordsmith]

"Did Gonzales reserve the most important issues and documents in the Washington case for a more extensive oral briefing of the governor? Only he and Bush know. It is highly unlikely, however, given that Gonzales usually presented an execution summary to the governor on the day of an execution and that, as he has acknowledged, his briefings typically lasted no more than thirty minutes—far too little time for a serious discussion of a complex clemency plea. Bush's appointment calendar for the morning of Washington's execution shows a half-hour slot marked "Al G—Execution."

[Wordsmith]

"In his summaries of the cases of Terry Washington, David Stoker, and Billy Gardner, Gonzales did not make Governor Bush aware of concerns about ineffective counsel, essential mitigating evidence, and even compelling claims of innocence. These were all matters of life or death, requiring in-depth explanation and discussion, that no attorney in Gonzales's position should leave out of a written case summary or save for a thirty-minute oral briefing—especially if both are to be delivered on the very day of a scheduled execution. In a state where the criminal-justice system has erred with well-documented regularity, this was a grave failing.

[Wordsmith]

It's a separate board in Texas that reviews this, not the governor.

From the article: "Admittedly, the governor's clemency authority is far more limited in Texas than in, for example, Illinois, where Governor George Ryan unilaterally commuted the death sentences of 167 men and women last January, shortly before leaving office. Nevertheless, Bush's failure to intervene was governed as much by personal choice as by legal limitation. Had Bush wanted to commute a sentence or otherwise prevent an execution, he unquestionably could have done so. Members of the BPP are appointed by the governor to six-year rotating terms. By the end of his governorship Bush had appointed all eighteen members. If he or Gonzales had had any serious doubts about a particular case, even on the morning of a scheduled execution, Bush could easily have prevailed on the board to reconsider the matter—to conduct an investigation, hold hearings, interview witnesses, or do whatever else was necessary to resolve those doubts."

[lady lawyer]

What a stupid, internally inconsistent article. He admits that clemency is a political act. Therefore, all the legal technicalities that sometimes let the guilty skate have no application here. Bush's concern was that the innocent not be punished. That's perfectly appropriate.

And, if this guy really had the capacity of a 7 year old (and that was probably just the defense lawyer's contention, not necessarily an established fact), he was a particularly vicious and murderous "7 year old." Execution was still appropriate, I think.

[Dan from Michigan]

I quit reading 1/2 through. I'm far from a "bushbot", but this is a piece of crap.

Gonzales was doing his job.

[Dick Steele]

NO, the physical evidence makes it pretty clear that, case after case after case, he was most certainly NOT doing his job.

[Republican Wildcat]

That seems to confirm what I said rather than refute it. It is quite an assumption that the governor steps in and does the job of another governing body. It's baloney.

[Uncle Hal]

The hit pieces on Gonzales has started and this is not the first and will not be the last. The left is just getting warmed up.

[Wordsmith]

I'm afraid you're quite right. And if the Left can slam Bush while they're slamming his nominees, they'll be quite pleased with themselves.

[Wordsmith]

While I agree with you on the technicalities of the distinction, politically I don't think it matters. The Left isn't seeking to show that Bush/Gonzalez broke any laws. They're seeking to show that they are guilty of the far worse offense (in their eyes) of a lack of caring and compassion and mercy. It's an attempt to drum up another controversy about "heartless Republicans".

[Howlin]

I'll be glad to!

[kevkrom]

his briefings typically lasted no more than thirty minutes—far too little time for a serious discussion of a complex clemency plea

Say what? 30 minutes is much longer than you might think, especially when spent on a single topic...

[Wordsmith]

Thanks!

[hobbes1]

I don't Want Gonzales anyway. They are doing us a favor.

Three words.

Janice Rogers Brown.

To quote the great Mills Lane "Let's get it on!".