Juan Raul Garza Could Become First Federal Prisoner Executed Since 1963
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Another federal prisoner is condemned to die June 19, but Juan Raul Garza's lawyer gave CNN a videotape that may change Garza's fate. The tape now in Dave Mattingly's report.</s>DAVE MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ten years a kingpin drug smuggler, Juan Raul Garza was responsible for importing tons of marijuana into the United States from Mexico. Killing one man and ordering two others killed, he was sentenced to death under federal law in 1993. Now, eight years later, his execution just two weeks away, a videotape given to CNN by his attorney shows Garza pleading for his life.</s>JUAN RAUL GARZA, DEATH ROW INMATE: I'm here to ask that you have mercy on me.</s>MATTINGLY: The nearly seven-minute videotape was made last fall, intended for the eyes and ears of then President Clinton, who had already once before delayed Garza execution so that his attorneys could request clemency. In the tape, Garza thanked the president for the reprieve, and then took full responsibility for his crimes.</s>GARZA: I regret what I've done.</s>MATTINGLY: It is not known if the president or anyone in his administration actually viewed the tape, but on December 7, the president ordered a second delay, this time so that the Justice Department could investigate racial and geographical differences in how the federal death penalty is applied -- an issue that is critical to Garza who is Hispanic and was sentenced in Texas, which leads the nation in executions.</s>BRUCE GILCHREST, GARZA'S ATTORNEY: That increased exponentially the likelihood that federal prosecutors would select him for capital punishment.</s>MATTINGLY: Texas and Virginia account for half of the 20 inmates on federal death row. Seventeen of the 20 are minorities.</s>REP. BOB BARR (R), GEORGIA: In the vast majority of cases involving blacks and other minorities, the requests to prosecute a death penalty case are turned down, so very few of them even reach the level of being prosecutable.</s>MATTINGLY: It is unclear if the Justice Department review of the federal death penalty as ordered by President Clinton is complete. There has been no public comment by the Bush administration. In the meantime, Garza shares death row in Terre Haute, Indiana, with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. If McVeigh is successful in winning a new delay this week, Garza could become the first federal prisoner executed since 1963. David Mattingly, CNN.