HOUSTON, Oct. 12   Halfway through the presidential debate on Wednesday, after Vice President Al Gore expressed support for hate crimes legislation and cited the 1998 slaying of a black Texas man,
James Byrd Jr., the moderator Jim Lehrer turned to Gov. George W. Bush of Texas and asked his views on hate crimes laws.

 Mr. Bush did not mince words.

 "We've got one in Texas and guess what," he said. "The three men who   who murdered James Byrd. Guess what's going to happen to them? They're going to be put to death. A jury found them guilty and   it's going to be hard to punish them any worse after they get put to death.

 "And it's the right cause so it's the right decision."

 The moment was noteworthy for two reasons. First, as his campaign later conceded, Mr. Bush had his facts wrong   two of the three defendants were sentenced to death, the third received life in prison. But by seeming to endorse the executions, he also violated his own policy as Texas governor of maintaining his silence and impartiality about pending death penalty cases until court appeals are exhausted and the cases reach his desk.

 Whether his segue from hate crimes to the death penalty was spontaneous or a calculated response was a matter of speculation today. The Gore campaign accused Mr. Bush of trying to deflect
attention from his unwillingness to push for an enhanced 1999 hate crimes bill named for Mr. Byrd that died in the State Senate. And Mr. Byrd's daughter, Renee Mullins, who lobbied Mr. Bush in 1999 to
help pass that bill, said in an interview today that the governor pointedly told her that he would not work to do so.

 "I pleaded with him," Ms. Mullins recounted of her meeting with Mr. Bush. Ms. Mullins said she did not watch the debate on Wednesday but that she was offended when she learned that Mr. Bush
expressed support for hate crimes legislation. "He's not practicing what he's preaching," she said. "I just went to him last year and he didn't support me. So how could he support one?"

 Dan Bartlett, a Bush campaign spokesman, attributed the governor's inaction on the Byrd bill in 1999 to several factors. He said Mr. Bush often did not get involved with bills that were not part of his own legislative package. He also noted that critics of the Byrd bill, which calls for stiffer penalties for crimes motivated by race, gender, religion and sexual orientation, argued that it might weaken a statute in effect since 1993. That statute says that penalties can be enhanced if a crime is committed out of bias or
prejudice, but it does not specify which groups are protected.

 Advocates of the Byrd bill argued that the existing law was too vague.

 "He did not show any leadership," said State Senator Rodney Ellis, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation. Mr. Ellis and other Democrats attribute the governor's studious avoidance of the bill
to concerns that specifying protections for gays and lesbians would offend Christian conservatives.

 By so bluntly invoking the death penalty, Mr. Bush brought attention to an issue that he had sought to play down in the campaign. Since taking office in 1995, Mr. Bush has presided over 146 executions, including 33 this year, by far the most of any governor in the nation.

 As governor, Mr. Bush's powers to stop an execution are limited. He can grant clemency only with the approval of the state parole board, though he does appoint its members. Otherwise, he can either
grant an inmate a 30-day reprieve or approve the execution.

 Critics of the Texas capital punishment system have faulted Mr. Bush for defending a system that executes inmates who are mentally retarded, who committed slayings as juveniles and who, in many
cases, have been represented by court-appointed lawyers regarded as inadequate. This year, Mr. Bush has interrupted his campaign to preside over the high- profile execution of Gary Graham, who was
convicted of murder on the word of one eyewitness.

 Mr. Bush also granted the first reprieve of his tenure to Ricky McGinn to allow additional DNA testing in the case. The tests later confirmed his guilt and Mr. McGinn was subsequently executed.

 Mr. Bush's blunt endorsement of the executions of the defendants in the Byrd case   even though the appeals process has only begun brought a swift response from some legal scholars and other critics
who say the comments undermine the legal principle of due process.

 "There has been a thought that he doesn't really take the appellate system seriously," said a University of Houston law professor, David Dow, who has represented death row inmates. Of his comments on the Byrd defendants, Mr. Dow said: "He was celebrating their death sentences. I think even most supporters of the death penalty do not celebrate death sentences. It's a somber event."

 The seriousness with which Mr. Bush's undertakes his obligations toward the death penalty has been questioned before in the campaign. In an interview in Talk Magazine, Gary Bauer, the conservative who was then a Republican presidential candidate, criticized Mr. Bush for appearing to mock Karla Faye Tucker, the Texas killer of two, for pleading for her life in a television interview. Mr. Bush campaign aides said his comments were misinterpreted. Ms. Tucker was executed in 1998.

 In early March, in a Republican primary debate in Los Angeles, Mr. Bush laughed when a questioner asked about a case in which a Texas lawyer fell asleep while representing an inmate who later received
the death penalty. Mr. Bartlett said the response was not laughter but an expression of incredulity at the question. He also said that Mr. Bush regards his review of death cases as "his most important duty" and addresses them in a very serious and factual way.

 Julian Bond, chairman of the board of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, yesterday joined Ms. Mullins via a telephone conference call and said the N.A.A.C.P. National Voter
Fund would announce a national advertising campaign on Friday to publicize Ms. Mullins's story and bring attention to the issue of hate crimes.

 Mr. Bond accused the governor of invoking the sentences in the Byrd case to distract attention from his unwillingness to support the Byrd hate crimes bill.
                                                                                       New York Times  - By Jim Yardley

A smile crept across George W. Bush's lips as he talked about yet another
set of executions.

He looked positively delighted as he shared his good news with all of
America: He will preside over the deaths of the white men who murdered
James Byrd, a 49-year-old black man, in 1998.

"Guess what's going to happen to these men?" he grinned at the camera
during last night's debate with Vice President Gore. "They're going to be
put to death."

Bush beamed in happiness. He was so enthusiastic at the prospect of new
executions that he said he would execute all 3 of Byrd's killers.

The death penalty was a topic both candidates agreed on in last night's
debate.

Texas does not need anti-hate-crime laws, Bush said.

"We cannot enhance the penalty any more than putting those 3 thugs to
death," he said.

He grinned again.

There is a problem here: Only 2 of Byrd's killers have been sentenced to
death. The 3rd was sentenced to life in prison.

Most of America supports the death penalty for murder, and so does Gore,
and so do I. But that hangman's grin gives me the willies.

It brings back Bush's mockery of killer Karla Faye Tucker, whose appeals
for life he rejected and whom he mimicked as saying, "Please don't kill
me," shortly before Texas executed her.

Bush's death-penalty smirk marred a presidential debate that was about as
combative as a game of pat-a-cake for most of its 90 minutes.

Bush praised Clinton administration foreign policy decisions so much he
remarked that his confrontation with Gore sounded like a lovefest.

Gore, unveiling yet another personality to the voters, bent over backward
not to seem either too aggressive or overly informed on public matters,
lest he be seen as a pushy know-it-all.

As he did in the 1st debate, Bush bristled, but could not refute, Gore's
statistical accusations. This time, Gore attacked Texas for ranking last
and next to last in the country on 2 measures of health coverage.

Bush took the criticism personally.

"If he's trying to allege that I'm hardhearted ... he's absolutely
wrong," Bush said. But he couldn't deny the numbers: 1.4 million Texas
children without health insurance.

The 2 candidates went into the debate dead even in most polls, though
Gore has not lost ground in the key battleground states of the Middle West.

Though he appeared to have won his 1st debate with Bush, the verdict
turned out to be illusory: During the past week, Gore's superior command
of the facts in that contest was forgotten as focus shifted to his
sighing and childish eye-rolling at Bush's statements.

Gore was on his best behavior last night. He looked both solid and
knowledgeable and made none of the body-language mistakes that cost him
victory in the 1st outing.

Bush, too, was error-free - except for that eerie smile when he talked
about the executions.

Such morbid mirth may not hurt him with most of America. But even
supporters of the death penalty are probably scratching their heads,
wondering if Bush really enjoys putting people to death. He certainly
seemed delighted with death last night.

(source:  Lars Nelson, New York Daily News)

                                                                                                    return to The Texecutioner