This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/may/29/texas-death-row-inmate-lester-bower
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| 30 years on death row and many appeals later, 'deck is always stacked against you' | 30 years on death row and many appeals later, 'deck is always stacked against you' |
| (about 3 hours later) | |
| Lester Bower made for an unlikely mass murderer. | Lester Bower made for an unlikely mass murderer. |
| At the time when four men were shot dead in an aircraft hanger near Dallas, Bower was a 35-year-old, college-educated, married father of two who made a comfortable living as a chemicals salesman and did not have a criminal record. | At the time when four men were shot dead in an aircraft hanger near Dallas, Bower was a 35-year-old, college-educated, married father of two who made a comfortable living as a chemicals salesman and did not have a criminal record. |
| That was in 1983. Bower was convicted of the killings the following year and has been on death row ever since, maintaining his innocence and launching appeal after appeal. Texas has attempted to kill him six times only for Bower to be granted stays when facing imminent execution, most recently in February. | That was in 1983. Bower was convicted of the killings the following year and has been on death row ever since, maintaining his innocence and launching appeal after appeal. Texas has attempted to kill him six times only for Bower to be granted stays when facing imminent execution, most recently in February. |
| The state will try again 3 June, when the 67-year-old is scheduled to die by lethal injection. He will be the oldest inmate executed in Texas since capital punishment was restored in the US in 1976. | The state will try again 3 June, when the 67-year-old is scheduled to die by lethal injection. He will be the oldest inmate executed in Texas since capital punishment was restored in the US in 1976. |
| Texas has executed 522 prisoners during Bower’s 11,341 days on death row. Of the 265 people currently on the state’s death row, nine have been there longer. Raymond Riles, who is seriously mentally ill, has been on the row since 1976. | Texas has executed 522 prisoners during Bower’s 11,341 days on death row. Of the 265 people currently on the state’s death row, nine have been there longer. Raymond Riles, who is seriously mentally ill, has been on the row since 1976. |
| Bower will be the second-longest tenured Texas inmate to be put to death in the modern era after David Powell, a cop killer who spent 32 years on death row before his execution in 2010. | Bower will be the second-longest tenured Texas inmate to be put to death in the modern era after David Powell, a cop killer who spent 32 years on death row before his execution in 2010. |
| Yet Bower is philosophical about his extended stay and the probability that it is about to end. “I’m not overly earth-shaken about what’s going on,” he said from behind glass in a cage the size of a phone booth at Texas’s death row in Livingston, 70 miles north of Houston. | |
| “Once you’ve been through the dates three or four times, once you’ve been to seven … you get down to the captain’s office to go through the last protocols, ask for your witnesses and stuff like that – geez, we’re all on a first name basis now. They’re used to it. It’s kind of, I walk in and say, ‘same as last time. Just get last time and re-duplicate it’.” | |
| Related: Supreme court asks if execution drugs are like being 'burned alive at the stake' | Related: Supreme court asks if execution drugs are like being 'burned alive at the stake' |
| He expects to mount a last-minute appeal to the US supreme court, which declined to take up the case in March after granting a stay in February to give them time to decide whether to hear it. In 2013 the court opted not to stop Arizona from executing Edward Schad, a 71-year-old who had been on death row for nearly 35 years. | He expects to mount a last-minute appeal to the US supreme court, which declined to take up the case in March after granting a stay in February to give them time to decide whether to hear it. In 2013 the court opted not to stop Arizona from executing Edward Schad, a 71-year-old who had been on death row for nearly 35 years. |
| The average time on Texas death row is 10.82 years, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. That Bower has been there nearly three times as long has formed part of his appeal strategy. The supreme court is considering whether drug protocols using midazolam violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Bower argues the duration of his stay breeches the eighth amendment by effectively being a form of torture. | The average time on Texas death row is 10.82 years, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. That Bower has been there nearly three times as long has formed part of his appeal strategy. The supreme court is considering whether drug protocols using midazolam violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Bower argues the duration of his stay breeches the eighth amendment by effectively being a form of torture. |
| Courts in Texas have not bought that argument, but a federal judge in California ruled last year that the state’s death penalty was unconstitutional because a “random few” who are put to death “will have languished for so long on death row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary”. | Courts in Texas have not bought that argument, but a federal judge in California ruled last year that the state’s death penalty was unconstitutional because a “random few” who are put to death “will have languished for so long on death row that their execution will serve no retributive or deterrent purpose and will be arbitrary”. |
| Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said it is legitimate to ask whether any useful penological purpose is served by keeping inmates on death row for so long, often in harsh and isolated conditions that may affect their mental health. “Three decades is an extraordinary period of time. When you tell people that somebody has been on death row for 30 years, one of the first things you hear from them is, ‘well, what’s the point?’” he said. | Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said it is legitimate to ask whether any useful penological purpose is served by keeping inmates on death row for so long, often in harsh and isolated conditions that may affect their mental health. “Three decades is an extraordinary period of time. When you tell people that somebody has been on death row for 30 years, one of the first things you hear from them is, ‘well, what’s the point?’” he said. |
| Bower said he listens to NPR and BBC news reports on the radio in his cell, especially when there’s an election on – though as a felon he is not allowed to vote. | Bower said he listens to NPR and BBC news reports on the radio in his cell, especially when there’s an election on – though as a felon he is not allowed to vote. |
| “You have to keep yourself occupied. You’ve got to do something,” he said. “For some that’s drawing, painting; some people just read. A lot of people just enter into correspondence with pen pals around the world. Everybody kind of handles it different ways. You can keep a reasonable chess game going.” | “You have to keep yourself occupied. You’ve got to do something,” he said. “For some that’s drawing, painting; some people just read. A lot of people just enter into correspondence with pen pals around the world. Everybody kind of handles it different ways. You can keep a reasonable chess game going.” |
| He has been entangled in litigation for so long, he said, that changes in the legal process have complicated his appeals and left them vulnerable to being dismissed on technicalities. “If you’re here long enough the laws change so much that it gets messed up,” he said. “I’ve got the best attorneys in the world. Even the best attorneys in the world can be thwarted by the system … the deck is always stacked against you.” | He has been entangled in litigation for so long, he said, that changes in the legal process have complicated his appeals and left them vulnerable to being dismissed on technicalities. “If you’re here long enough the laws change so much that it gets messed up,” he said. “I’ve got the best attorneys in the world. Even the best attorneys in the world can be thwarted by the system … the deck is always stacked against you.” |
| You have to keep yourself occupied. You’ve got to do something. | You have to keep yourself occupied. You’ve got to do something. |
| ‘What if I’d been in the jury and heard my own case?’ | ‘What if I’d been in the jury and heard my own case?’ |
| His problems began when he responded to an advertisement in Glider Rider magazine and agreed to buy an ultralight aircraft from a building contractor named Bob Tate on 8 October1983. That day, four men – Tate, Ronald Mayes, Philip Good and Jerry Brown – were shot in the head at close range in a hangar on a ranch near Sherman, 60 miles north of Dallas. Three of the bodies were placed under a carpet pile. The crime bore many of the hallmarks of a professional-grade assassination. | His problems began when he responded to an advertisement in Glider Rider magazine and agreed to buy an ultralight aircraft from a building contractor named Bob Tate on 8 October1983. That day, four men – Tate, Ronald Mayes, Philip Good and Jerry Brown – were shot in the head at close range in a hangar on a ranch near Sherman, 60 miles north of Dallas. Three of the bodies were placed under a carpet pile. The crime bore many of the hallmarks of a professional-grade assassination. |
| Initially the investigation focused on possible connections to drug dealing. Months later it turned to Bower after phone records showed he had talked to Tate. Bower, who did not want his wife to know he had bought the plane because she was firmly against the idea, was questioned by the FBI and lied to them by claiming he had no link to Tate or the aircraft. When parts of the plane were found in his garage, he was arrested. | Initially the investigation focused on possible connections to drug dealing. Months later it turned to Bower after phone records showed he had talked to Tate. Bower, who did not want his wife to know he had bought the plane because she was firmly against the idea, was questioned by the FBI and lied to them by claiming he had no link to Tate or the aircraft. When parts of the plane were found in his garage, he was arrested. |
| “In the long run I’m really responsible for putting myself down here. I didn’t help in the investigation. It’s like the quarterback for the New England Patriots [Tom Brady]; once he decided not to cooperate then they said: ‘well, if you’re not going to cooperate then you know more [than you’re letting on]’. And they came down on him … Now, clearly the state took advantage of that situation. But there’s not much I can do about that right now,” he said. | “In the long run I’m really responsible for putting myself down here. I didn’t help in the investigation. It’s like the quarterback for the New England Patriots [Tom Brady]; once he decided not to cooperate then they said: ‘well, if you’re not going to cooperate then you know more [than you’re letting on]’. And they came down on him … Now, clearly the state took advantage of that situation. But there’s not much I can do about that right now,” he said. |
| “It’s a difficult job being on a jury. I’ve thought about this. What if I’d been in the jury and heard my own case? I think that given what the jury had to go with, the evidence before them, I think I would probably have reached the same conclusion.” | “It’s a difficult job being on a jury. I’ve thought about this. What if I’d been in the jury and heard my own case? I think that given what the jury had to go with, the evidence before them, I think I would probably have reached the same conclusion.” |
| No witnesses or evidence directly linked Bower to the crime scene and the murder weapon was not recovered. But prosecutors built the case that Bower killed Tate to steal the aircraft and shot the other three – one of them a former police officer, another a sheriff’s deputy – when they unexpectedly turned up. | No witnesses or evidence directly linked Bower to the crime scene and the murder weapon was not recovered. But prosecutors built the case that Bower killed Tate to steal the aircraft and shot the other three – one of them a former police officer, another a sheriff’s deputy – when they unexpectedly turned up. |
| Bower’s lawyers contend that much of the evidence the state relied upon at trial was dubious, such as the speculative claim that the murders were carried out using a very rare kind of subsonic ammunition previously bought by Bower, who was a licensed weapons dealer. Prosecutors wrongly told the jury that only 15 people in Texas had access to the type of bullets. | Bower’s lawyers contend that much of the evidence the state relied upon at trial was dubious, such as the speculative claim that the murders were carried out using a very rare kind of subsonic ammunition previously bought by Bower, who was a licensed weapons dealer. Prosecutors wrongly told the jury that only 15 people in Texas had access to the type of bullets. |
| They say that since the conviction in 1984, witnesses have come forward and documents have been unearthed to suggest that the killings were indeed sparked by a drug deal gone wrong. | They say that since the conviction in 1984, witnesses have come forward and documents have been unearthed to suggest that the killings were indeed sparked by a drug deal gone wrong. |
| They also argue that the jury was not given the option to take mitigating circumstances such as Bower’s previous good character into account during the sentencing phase of the trial. In his dissent last March after the supreme court refused the case, justice Stephen Breyer said this was a “glaring” and unconstitutional error that should entitle Bower to a new sentencing proceeding. | They also argue that the jury was not given the option to take mitigating circumstances such as Bower’s previous good character into account during the sentencing phase of the trial. In his dissent last March after the supreme court refused the case, justice Stephen Breyer said this was a “glaring” and unconstitutional error that should entitle Bower to a new sentencing proceeding. |
| Prosecutors have insisted in court filings that the new witnesses were not credible, that there is no hard evidence the murders were drug related and that the case against him remains highly persuasive. As for the lengthy stay on death row? According to Texas’ attorneys, this is Bower’s own fault for fighting his conviction so doggedly. “Bower has consistently litigated his case without stop over the last thirty years. Any delay is purely of his own making,” they wrote earlier this year. | Prosecutors have insisted in court filings that the new witnesses were not credible, that there is no hard evidence the murders were drug related and that the case against him remains highly persuasive. As for the lengthy stay on death row? According to Texas’ attorneys, this is Bower’s own fault for fighting his conviction so doggedly. “Bower has consistently litigated his case without stop over the last thirty years. Any delay is purely of his own making,” they wrote earlier this year. |
| Bower was calm and measured throughout an hour-long interview, never becoming emotional and discussing his situation with clinical detachment. “I don’t know if the futility has mellowed me or whatever; I have found it doesn’t do any good to yell and scream and wave my hands,” he said. | Bower was calm and measured throughout an hour-long interview, never becoming emotional and discussing his situation with clinical detachment. “I don’t know if the futility has mellowed me or whatever; I have found it doesn’t do any good to yell and scream and wave my hands,” he said. |
| “If it’s my time to go it’s my time to go … If next week I end up in the execution chamber, my final words probably will be: ‘Hey, I’m out of here, this hasn’t been fun. I’m going on someplace else. Tired of this.’” | “If it’s my time to go it’s my time to go … If next week I end up in the execution chamber, my final words probably will be: ‘Hey, I’m out of here, this hasn’t been fun. I’m going on someplace else. Tired of this.’” |