Pressure mounts on Bush, Texas parole board to stop execution

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - The Texas parole board and Gov. George W. Bush came under increasing pressure to stop Thursday's execution of Gary Graham, convicted of murder on the word of a single eyewitness to a holdup outside a supermarket.

In the nation's most active death penalty state, the case has drawn exceptionally close attention - largely because of Bush's status as the Republican presidential candidate and the recent national re-examination of capital punishment.

Graham, 17 at the time, pleaded guilty to 10 aggravated robberies during a weeklong spree in 1981 but has steadfastly denied the rampage began with a fatal nighttime shooting in a Houston parking lot.

No physical evidence tied Graham to the crime, and ballistics tests showed that the gun he had when he was arrested was not the murder weapon. Graham's backers have also argued that his lawyer did a poor job at the trial and that at least two other witnesses never were allowed to testify that he was not the killer.

Prosecutors say that his case has been reviewed repeatedly, as many as three dozen times, and that it is time to bring the case to an end.

The parole board, made up of 18 people appointed by Bush, is considering Graham's request for a 120-day reprieve or a commutation to a life sentence. The board was expected to announce its decision by noon Thursday, six hours before the scheduled execution.

''We do give these cases a thorough evaluation. We do not take our responsibility lightly,'' board chairman Gerald Garrett said.

Bush is empowered to grant a one-time 30-day reprieve in death penalty cases, but Graham already got one in 1993 from Bush's predecessor, Democrat Ann Richards. That means Bush cannot act in Graham's case on his own without a recommendation from the parole board.

Two years ago, Bush told the parole board to review the case of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas because of questions about the slaying for which Lucas was about to die. Lucas' death sentence eventually was commuted to life.

Bush has sent no similar message about Graham's case to the board, whose members include a former Secret Service agent, former parole workers, a teacher, a psychologist and a rancher.

Graham, who is black, has said the lack of prompting from Bush is racial. Lucas is white.

The attention on Graham's case increased this week when demonstrators interrupted him at an appearance in California.

Bush on Wednesday repeated his contention that no innocent person has been executed in Texas during his 5 years in office. Graham would be the 222nd person executed in Texas since the state resumed carrying out capital punishment in 1982; he would be the 135th of Bush's 5-year tenure.

''I analyze each case that comes across my desk and look at the innocence and guilt of each person,'' Bush said in Los Angeles. ''That's my job, to uphold the laws of the land of the state of Texas. I will continue to do so as long as I'm the governor. I believe the system is fair and just.''

Graham has said he would not go quietly and would ''fight like hell'' when led to the death chamber. At one point he urged supporters to come to Huntsville armed to protest what he called his legal lynching and assassination.

The entire block around the prison system office building across the street from the Huntsville Unit prison, which houses the death chamber, was ringed with yellow police tape Wednesday. The building, normally open during business hours, was locked, and visitors needed an escort to enter.

''We're aware of threats and we'll react accordingly,'' prison spokesman Larry Fitzgerald said. Most offices in the building will be closed Thursday and prison employees who live on the grounds close to the unit's front door were advised to leave for the day.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has been speaking in support of Graham and planned to attend the execution, said ''those of us who protest on the outside ... should be nonviolent and disciplined.''

Graham was convicted of the killing of Bobby Lambert, 53, on May 13, 1981. The key testimony came from a Houston woman, Bernadine Skillern, who watched from inside her car as Lambert was confronted by the gunman, struggled with him and was shot.

Skillern has been pressured over the years by Graham backers but has never wavered. Last week she vehemently insisted it was Graham she saw that night.

The courts have rejected Graham's claims that his lawyer at his trial was ineffective. As for the witnesses he wants heard, they initially told police they couldn't identify the killer, and prosecutors said they were not actual eyewitnesses.