A rchive Date
[ 02-07-2000 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[Guilty as charged
By R. CORT KIRKWOOD
Ottawa Sun
July 2, 2000
Was Gary Graham, the man convicted of murdering Bobby Lambert on May 13, 1981 and executed two weeks ago in Texas, an innocent man?
That's what the liberal news media led many to believe, aided by the coterie of usual suspects. Jesse Jackson, pope of the civil rights movement, virtually canonized Graham, calling him an "innocent martyr."
But he was anything but innocent. Or a martyr. Indeed, he was even guilty of something even worse than murder in the liberal coda of law: hate crimes.
That delicious irony notwithstanding, Graham's rap sheet reveals him to have been a vicious, hateful, lying, lecherous brute who enjoyed mayhem and murder. He was as deserving of a dose of pancurium bromide as any murderer ever has been.
In Wednesday's Wall Street Journal, readers learned the ugly truth about him.
Two anticrime activists, Dianne Clements and Dudley Sharp, began by noting that "on May 20, 1981, Graham was arrested for a crime spree that included 20 armed robberies, three kidnappings, one rape and three attempted murders."
Then they dissected the key arguments of Graham's supporters, first among them that Bernadine Skillern, the "lone" eyewitness, gave doubtful testimony. Supposedly, she "briefly" saw Graham commit the murder from 30-40 feet away in "dim light." At least that's what the anti-death penalty news media said.
In fact, "the crime scene was illuminated by two nearby parking lights," and after the crime, Skillern followed Graham in her car. "Graham walked right in front of Ms. Skillern's car, not 10 feet away, and again turned and looked directly at her. Both the front of the store and Ms.
Skillern's headlights illuminated Graham's face."
Nor was the brave lady's identification "shaky." She identified Graham only after viewing two photo spreads, then picked him out of a lineup. Ironically, Graham had pled guilty to seven crimes involving only a single eyewitness.
Graham supporters also said their friend never harmed anyone. Wrong again. Let's go back to his eight-day crime spree.
He told one robbery victim he had killed six people and would be happy to make it seven. He told the 57- year-old rape victim, whom he brutalized for five hours, "I have already killed three people and I'm going to kill you. You don't mean nothing to me, bitch."
He told one of his shooting victims, "After I kill you, I am going back [to your broken down car] to kill your fiancee and her parents so they can go with you to honky hell. Before I kill your fiancee, I'm going to rape her." He told another victim, "I'll kill you, too. Blowing away another white mother f----- don't mean nothing to me."
These two acts, you should know, violated the latest incarnation of federal hate crimes statute. Had Graham been white and said these things to black victims, you can imagine how the news media would have reacted.
Lastly, and significantly, Graham virtually confessed his murder to a court deputy after he was sentenced to death. Said the stone-cold killer, "Next time, I'm not leaving any witnesses."
Other arguments against the execution were that "alibi" witnesses were never heard in court, and that Graham's legal defence bordered on malpractice. But those witnesses were discredited and his defence was as good as any other. No less than 30 judges reviewed Graham's case.
Despite these facts, the New York Times, having published a tome of anti-death penalty articles aimed at presidential candidate George Bush, opined that "There is powerful evidence that (Graham) did not commit the murder." That was the tone of the media coverage in general, so Americans and others across the world undoubtedly, and mistakenly, believed an innocent black man would die for a crime he did not commit.
With that hackneyed Hollywood script, Graham and his supporters flummoxed a colossal portion of the population. Happily, however, the court system and Texas Board of Pardons ignored the fiction and looked at the facts.
Justice was done.
Kirkwood writes on U.S. affairs for the Sun. Letters to the editor should be sent to oped@sunpub.com
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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