On Nov. 20, Duane Buck’s appeal for new sentencing was denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, paving the way for the Harris County District Attorney to move forward with an execution date.
During Buck’s trial, psychologist Walter Quijano testified that Buck was more of a “danger to society” because he is African American. This outrageously racist testimony was permitted by the court and used in Buck’s 1997 sentencing to death by lethal injection.
Years later, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn cited Quijano for giving racially influenced testimony to juries. Cornyn who is now a U.S. senator presented seven cases that needed to be reviewed where Quijano’s testimony, deemed racially biased, had influenced juries in their sentencing. The other six cases have been granted new sentencing hearings.
The blatant racism exhibited in this case is being challenged by two of the trial prosecutors, 100 civil rights leaders, faith leaders, elected officials and thousands of signers of a petition on the internet.”With today’s decision, Texas has once again reneged on its promise to ensure that Mr. Buck would not be executed pursuant to a death sentence that was the unfair product of a prosecutorial appeal to racial bias and stereotype,” Kate Black, attorney, Christina Swarnis, director of the Criminal Defense Project at the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund, and Kathryn Kase, executive director of the Texas Defender Service, said in a joint statement.
Every day observations of the cops and the courts point to the need for a new system based on workers’ justice, free of any racist bias. A growing movement exposing the racist criminal justice syst echoes this call for real justice. To join in with the voices of those fighting the racist death penalty and criminal justice system, please visit the petition to send a message to the racist courts that their days are numbered: chn.ge/15dC3o5
