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Morning News

Death Row Appeal: Days Before Scheduled Lethal Injection, Gary Graham Maintains Innocence

Aired June 16, 2000 - 10:11 a.m. ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The latest debate over the death penalty centers on the state of Texas and an inmate named Gary Graham. His execution date is now set for next week. But Graham insists, he is innocent. He contends he was wrongly convicted based on the testimony of a single witness.

More now from Charles Zewe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLES ZEWE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Days before his scheduled lethal injection, Gary Graham insists...

GARY GRAHAM, DEATH ROW INMATE: It's never too late to stop the execution of an innocent man.

ZEWE: To overturn his conviction for murdering 53-year-old Bobby Lambert in a Houston supermarket parking lot 19 years ago.

(on camera): The place where the murder happened is now a used car lot. Graham's backers say there was only one witness who could positively identify Graham as the shooter.

(voice-over): But six witnesses near the supermarket that night either couldn't identify Graham, or, described someone else as Lambert's killer. None of those witnesses were called by Graham's lawyer, and the prosecution case rested on just one witness.

GRAHAM: We're talking one witness who claimed to have seen a total stranger, OK, and in the dark, 9:30 at night, in the dark from a distance of 40 feet away for two seconds, and that's what they're trying to put me to death for.

BERNADINE SKILLERN, MURDER WITNESS: I saw Mr. Graham shoot and kill Mr. Lambert.

ZEWE: That witness is school secretary Bernadine Skillern.

SKILLERN: I saw him for a matter of one and a half minutes, I looked at him from different angles, and I know that that's the young man that shot Mr. Lambert 19 years ago.

ZEWE: Anti-death penalty celebrities and legal scholars championing Graham's cause, contend Skillern's identification was flawed because Graham's picture was the only one police showed her of a man resembling her description of the gunman. Skillern, who claims she's received death threats, stands by what she saw.

SKILLERN: Believe me, Mr. Graham shot that man, and he killed him on that parking lot, and that's not going to change.

ZEWE: Charles Zewe, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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