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Morning News

Gary Graham Awaits Decision of Texas Parole Board

Aired June 22, 2000 - 10:24 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 clock is ticking in Huntsville, Texas, where less than nine hours from now, convicted killer Gary Graham is scheduled to die. Maintaining his innocence to the very end, Graham's best hope now rests with state's parole board. It could recommend a reprieve, a decision that is due sometime this afternoon.

Texas Governor George W. Bush, awaiting that decision at his office in Austin, that's where CNN's Tony Clark is now standing by live for us -- Tony.

TONY CLARK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Bill.

The governor has cleared his calendar of any political campaigning today so he can remain in Austin, awaiting the parole board's decision on Gary Graham. Just a short time ago, he left the governor's mansion, behind me here, to go the short distance over to the state capital. He will stay in his office, doing work as governor of the state of Texas, until sometime afternoon, local time, that's when the parole board expected to let him know their decision.

Texas law is designed to insulate the governor in cases, death penalty cases just like this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARK (voice-over): Under Texas law, it is the 18-member Board of Pardons and Paroles which holds the key to Gary Graham escaping the death chamber. Before the governor can step in, the majority of the board must vote to make a recommendation. The panel can recommend the governor commute the death sentence to a lesser penalty; recommend a reprieve, a delay and grant a hearing into any part of the process; or not recommend commutation of the death sentence, which would allow the execution to go forward.

Texas law allows governors to grant only one reprieve from execution in a death penalty case without the board's recommendation, but in Graham's case that gubernatorial reprieve came several years ago from then Governor Ann Richards, leaving Bush powerless to stop the execution without the board's recommendation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CLARK: If history is any indication, the board has only granted a commutation one time while Bush has been governor, and one other thing adding to the likelihood that they would not commute this sentence: under Pardon and Parole Board policies, they must first have a majority of the trial officials from Gary Graham's trial to go along with a recommendation for commutation. And so far, no indication of that, in fact, the only indication was the district attorney arguing very strongly that Graham got a fair trial. The board is expected to make its decision around 12:00 p.m. Central time today.

Tony Clark, CNN, Austin, Texas.

HEMMER: Tony, thank you.

We're watching this developing story throughout the day here on CNN. We'll also carry a news conference to be held by prison officials around 12:00 p.m. Eastern. And we'll have the parole board announcement from Austin when it is made available, expected right now, possibly as early as 1:00 Eastern time, that's about 2 1/2 hours from now.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Let's turn now to our expert on legal issues, there are key ones in this Texas death row case, CNN legal analyst Roger Cossack, joining us from Washington.

Roger, good morning.

ROGER COSSACK, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: Quickly looking at the options here, if this board, if the majority of the board votes against clemency, is that it for Gary Graham?

COSSACK: Well, I would think pretty much so. They are going to -- obviously, their legal team would then appeal to the courts and ask for a delay and a stay, but he has been turned down several times in the past, and I would say that obviously anything can happen. We don't want to predict what could happen, but it would look very, very bad for him.

KAGAN: And if they vote for clemency then it goes in the hands of governor?

COSSACK: That's right. What's been previously said, you know, the governor -- even if he wanted to stop this, can't stop it, because a reprieve has already been given by his predecessor and you're only allowed one under Texas law.

So it's up to parole board to make a -- to, in fact, to make a decision that would either put this off or commute a sentence and then Governor Bush can go along with that. But he couldn't stop this now even if he wanted to. He could, I suppose, make a recommendation to the parole board, asking them to do a certain thing, but even that wouldn't be binding.

KAGAN: And then, Roger, I think a point that gets lost in a lot of this coverage, we're not talking necessarily about an innocent man here, we're just talking about the death penalty phase. This is man who has pleaded to some very serious crimes. So he's at best looking at life in prison.

COSSACK: Well, that's right. But I think you have to understand what this issue is all about. And what the issue is all about here is the very strong argument that he did not just get a fair trial, that there are two -- there were two witnesses who were available to his lawyer to be called, each of which were precipitant (ph) witnesses to this crime, and each of which would say Gary Graham was not the man that committed the murder.

Now there was one -- there is one woman who stands by her testimony that she saw the event happen and that, in fact, Gary Graham was the one that pulled the trigger. There are two other witnesses who would dispute that, whether or not the jury would have believed them, who knows.

But the question is and the issue is, is did he get a fair trial by his lawyer not calling those witnesses to come in and give the jury that information so they could make the decision? and that's what the issue is here. In terms of Gary Graham being a person who has committed other terrible crimes, there is no argument about that. He has done bad things and he has admitted to those bad things.

KAGAN: Roger Cossack, thank you for giving us your legal input, appreciate it.

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