Duane Edward Buck committed the 1995 murders of his former girlfriend and her friend, as well as the non-fatal shooting of his step-sister near Houston. That conviction isn’t in doubt. What is in contention is that race played an inappropriate role in the decision to sentence Buck to death for his crimes, rather than life in prison.
The controversy stems from the testimony of defense witness psychologist Walter Quijano. When first asked if Buck was likely to be a “future danger” to those around him, Quijano said no, citing Buck’s lack of previous violent crimes. However, when a prosecutor asked if Buck being black increased the likelihood that Buck would commit violent crimes in the future, Quijano changed his answer to yes. Jurors, who must take the likelihood of future violence into account during deliberations for a death sentence, sent Buck to death row.
Quijano gave similar racially-tinged testimony during the trials of six other death-row prisoners; Buck is the only prisoner to be denied a new trial after former Attorney General John Cornyn requested in 2000 that all seven be given another chance in court to remove the taint of racism from the decisions. All six of those given new punishment hearings were again sentenced to death.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole voted on Wednesday to deny Buck a recommendation of clemency to Texas Governor Rick Perry, despite the pleas of his former prosecutor Linda Geffen and Phyllis Taylor, the sister he injured in the shooting.
Buck is scheduled to be put to death at 6:00 PM tonight unless Texas Governor Rick Perry steps in and grants Buck a 30-day reprieve from execution. This seems unlikely given Perry’s comments at the Republican presidential debate last week, where he claimed that Texas has “a very thoughtful, a very clear process in place” for sending people to death row.
Update: Initial report that Buck’s execution is on hold until the Supreme Court rules on the case.
Update 2: The US Supreme Court has issued a stay until a decision is made regarding a writ of certiorari.
