Beazley remorseful as execution date is set
Posted on 04/27/2002 4:01:58 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Beazley remorseful as execution date is set
04/27/2002
TYLER - After an emotional Friday hearing in which he voiced remorse for the first time in court, Napoleon Beazley was sentenced to die on May 28 for the 1994 murder of a local oilman.
State District Judge Cynthia Kent set the date after speaking at length about her "principled" discomfort over imposing a death sentence for a crime that Mr. Beazley committed as a 17-year-old.
Mr. Beazley, an honors graduate from Grapeland, about 60 miles from Tyler, was sentenced to die in 1995 after a jury found him guilty of gunning down John Luttig in a botched carjacking.
AP Napoleon Beazley, right, is escorted from the Smith County Courthouse in Tyler. |
Mr. Luttig, 63, was shot at close range in his driveway as he and his wife, Bobbie, returned home from a Bible study. Mrs. Luttig survived by playing dead after being wounded by Mr. Beazley.
Mr. Beazley asked to address the court after being sentenced and expressed regret that members of Mr. Luttig's family were not there to hear him. He then stood weeping in chains as he asked "for everybody's forgiveness."
| Beazley statement | |
|
"Eight years ago, I involved myself in a crime I instantly regret. I knew it was wrong. I know it is wrong now. I've been trying to make up for it ever since that moment. I've apologized ever since that moment, not just through words, but through my acts," he said.
"I want everybody to know, those people, the reason y'all are here is because of me. It's my fault. I violated the law. I violated this city, and I violated a family all to satisfy my own misguided emotions. I'm sorry. I wish I had a second chance to make up for it, but I don't."
Mr. Beazley , 25, has faced two previous execution dates. He came within hours of being put to death in August before a stay from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Just three days earlier, the U.S. Supreme Court had announced an unprecedented 3-3 deadlock that denied Mr. Beazley a federal reprieve. Three justices abstained because of personal ties to Mr. Luttig's son 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig of Virginia.
The case has drawn international attention, including pleas for clemency from the European Union, the American Bar Association and even the district attorney in Mr. Beazley's home county because of his age and lack of prior criminal convictions.
But prosecutors have maintained that Mr. Beazley should be executed because he was an adult under Texas law when he and two accomplices came to Tyler, stalked the Luttigs' Mercedes-Benz and shot the couple because they wanted to steal a luxury car.
Many Tyler residents believed Judge Kent played a role in Mr. Beazley's 11th-hour execution stay in August because it came the day she sent a letter to Gov. Rick Perry asking that his life be spared because of his age at the time of the murder.
Local media reports last summer included speculation that Judge Kent's membership in the Roman Catholic Church which opposes capital punishment had influenced her actions.
After the Texas appeals court lifted the stay last week, Smith County District Attorney Jack Skeen said that he considered seeking the judge's recusal from the case because of concerns that her letter showed bias.
That prompted a lengthy defense Friday from the 46-year-old Republican judge. Speaking to a courtroom packed with Mr. Beazley's supporters, Judge Kent noted that state statutes allow trial judges, prosecutors and sheriffs to offer their opinions on cases being considered for clemency.
Judge Kent said she sent a letter voicing "principled objection" to the execution of a youthful offender after being asked by defense lawyers "only hours" before Mr. Beazley was scheduled to die.
She added that she faxed her letter directly to Mr. Perry because she knew that the parole board would not have time to consider it.
The governor can order a 30-day reprieve but can commute a death sentence only if the parole board recommends it. In a rare close vote, the board decided 10-6 against commutation for Mr. Beazley.
The judge said Friday that she wanted to make clear that she was not responsible for last year's execution delay, as some critics suggested. She noted that she sentenced each of the five people executed from Smith County since 1938.
"It is not that this court is some weak-kneed judge. ... If I were a judge who did not follow the law, I had many chances to be intellectually dishonest and cause actions that would've resulted in the case being reversed."
She noted that judges are required to "be obedient to the law, but we don't have to be silent about it," and she suggested repeatedly that her letter was part of an ongoing national debate on capital punishment.
"I think the courts are very bound by the constraints of the law. When it comes to mercy, I do not see that within the purview of the courts to individually dole that out as if we are gods. We are not. We're just people. Just like Mr. Luttig. Just like Mr. Beazley."
Email lhancock@dallasnews.com
I would bet that Mike Luttig was pro-death penalty prior to his father's murder, but can you imagine how he must feel now?
. . .and this means???
Cannot connect any dots from 'honor student' to killing a man (husband)point blank and attempting the same on his wife.
I always think of this fact while looking at this form of death. What would be only fair would be to put the person to death in the very same manner in which they took it. But then, we'd have to have people trained in stabbing, slashing, and strangling, ect. That would be a heavy burden on regular folks. I guess it's really more humane for the executioners if they can just put the guy to sleep.
I doubt that he will get much consideration from the Higher Courts considering who he killed.
. . .and this means???
That made me scratch my head too. It would have been nice if the DMN
had included a little more on who this person was that said that. Better yet,
maybe just leave it out completely......
This guy should be publicly hanged.
There is something rather sobering about watching a person die, and that is lost when we do this in private.
Sure, he looks sorry -- sorry he was caught.
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