Duane Buck gets stay of execution

Outside the death house at Texas’ Huntsville prison on Sept. 15, what began as a hot, humid afternoon filled with apprehension and fear, protests and praying, ended with shouting, cheering, hugging, kissing and singing hymns. Open racism in trial proceedings had lost the day.

Duane Buck’s relatives happy execution was stayed. WW photo: Gloria Rubac

Duane Buck, an African-American man from Houston, had been scheduled for execution that day. After a double murder conviction, he was sent to death row in 1997 after “expert witness” and psychologist Walter Quijano testified at his sentencing hearing that African Americans were likely to be a future danger to society just because they were Black.

Seven other men, all Black or Latino, were also sent to Texas death row largely on Quijano’s testimony, but all of them, except for Buck, had received new sentencing hearings. As Buck’s execution approached, his attorneys fought for a new sentencing, free from racist testimony.

One of the surviving victims of Buck’s crime was his sister, Phyllis Taylor, who was shot in the chest. She had forgiven Buck and spent the days before his execution traveling to Austin to personally meet with Rissie Owens, chair of the Texas Board of Pardons, to demand a stay and a new sentencing trial. Taylor also participated in a press conference in Houston with another sister, Monique Winn, calling on the Houston district attorney to withdraw the execution date. Both denied her pleas.

As the execution date of Sept. 15 approached, the Buck family was in high gear. Buck has 22 siblings, due to several marriages and a blended family. This large family had their last visits with Buck that morning and then descended on Huntsville, all wearing white T-shirts with a big picture of a smiling Buck on the front and Bible scripture on the back.

About 25 family members joined a demon­stration outside the death house, holding signs and hoping for justice. Two brothers and Buck’s fiancée were inside the prison administration building, waiting to witness the lynching of their loved one.

But as the 6 p.m. time for execution approached, nothing was happening. No media and no witnesses were seen entering the death house. The U.S. Supreme Court was still deliberating. Protests continued and the Buck family demonstrated, prayed and sang hymns. Then 7 p.m. came and went and still no movement toward the death house.

Armed prison police and guards normally guard 12th Street, where the death house is located. The block is cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape in preparation for the judicial murder

At 7:40 an ABC reporter walked down the hill to the family and told them to gather around. “I have some news,” she said. “Duane was given a stay by the Supreme Court.”

By then, Avenue I at 12th Street was filled with death penalty abolitionists and the large Buck family, everyone screaming, hugging and crying out in joy: “Justice has prevailed!”

Davis family to join Oct. 22 march

The whole family gathered at a nearby house that had hosted them that afternoon. In the large living room the family and abolitionists held hands, prayed and sang. The annual march in Texas for abolition was discussed, and family members said they would join this year’s event.

Later, attorneys for Buck issued a statement: “We are relieved that the U.S. Supreme Court recognized the obvious injustice of allowing a defendant’s race to factor into sentencing decisions and granted a stay of execution,” said Katherine Black, one of Buck’s lawyers with the Texas Defender Service.

“No one should be put to death based on the color of his or her skin,” she said. “We are confident that the court will agree that our client is entitled to a fair sentencing hearing that is untainted by considerations of his race.”

In granting the stay late Thursday, the high court said it would halt the execution at least long enough for the submission and consideration of legal briefs. If the court denies Buck’s petition, the stay would automatically end and Texas would again be free to proceed with a scheduled execution, the order says.

It adds that if the court agrees to hear the case, the stay would remain in effect until the court issues its final judgment. Most execution days in Huntsville do not end with smiles, only tears and another grieving family. Just two days before, Steven Woods’ family left in tears and distress. Woods was the 474th person Texas had put to death since executions resumed in 1982.

Texas has executions scheduled for Sept. 20 and 21, as well as five others.

The family of Cleve Foster, a man who is likely innocent and whose co-defendant admits that Foster had nothing to do with the crime, also left Huntsville with smiles after a Supreme Court reprieve.

On Sept. 21 Russell Brewer, one of three white men involved in the brutal and racist dragging death of James Byrd Jr., is set to die. Civil rights activist and comedian Dick Gregory will visit Byrd’s grave in Jasper, Texas, and then camp in front of the Texas death house and fast for 18 hours, beginning early in the morning of Sept. 21, to oppose Brewer’s execution.

Texas’s death chamber remains the most active in the U.S. Death penalty abolitionists are organizing for the 12th Annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty in Austin, Tex., on Oct. 22.

Witness to Innocence, an organization made up only of people who were on death row and then exonerated, and their families, will begin a Texas Freedom Tour 10 days before the march to tell their stories and to build support in Houston, Dallas, Corpus Christi, Huntsville and Austin for the annual march. Then 30 to 40 more exonerees will converge on Austin for their semi-annual conference and will lead this year’s march.

For more information, see www.MarchforAbolition.org.