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CNN Live At Daybreak

Attorney Discusses Using Constitutional Clause to Defend Death Row Prisoner Juan Raul Garza

Aired June 15, 2001 - 08:31   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: Juan Raul Garza is appealing his death sentence to the Supreme Court, and he is asking President Bush for clemency. The former Texas drug kingpin was convicted in three drug-related killings, and he is scheduled to be executed next Tuesday, at Terre Haute, Indiana, where Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh died, on Monday.

We want to take a little bit of a look at this today.

Garza's lawyer, John Howley, is in New York and joins us now.

Mr. Howley, thanks for being here.

JOHN HOWLEY, JUAN GARZA'S ATTORNEY: Thank you.

MCEDWARDS: You've been in court a lot lately. You've argued that the execution would violate international treaties. You've asked that his sentence be changed to life in prison. What have the courts said to you so far?

HOWLEY: So far, the courts have told us that we need to go to President Bush on the international law claim. Yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit, in Chicago, did not really dispute our claim that executing Mr. Garza will violate international agreements, but they said that the decision on whether to violate those international agreements has to be made by the president, not the courts.

MCEDWARDS: Given Mr. Bush's stand on capital punishment, in certain cases, in Texas, what do you think your chances are?

HOWLEY: Well, I don't know what my chances are with President Bush. I'm hopeful that because of all the pressure he has received in Europe and around the world that he will not want to violate international agreements and go forward with the execution of Mr. Garza.

But we're not done with the courts yet. I was up all night with my colleagues, and we prepared papers, which we will file in the U.S. Supreme court today.

MCEDWARDS: It's off to the Supreme Court today. What will your strategy be there? HOWLEY: Well, there's something in the U.S. Constitution called the Supremacy Clause, and it says that treaties entered into by the United States are the supreme law of the land. So what we're saying to the Supreme Court is if President Bush is allowed to violate a treaty, he is in effect violating the U.S. Constitution, because the treaties are incorporated in the Constitution, and the courts should prevent the president from violating the Constitution.

MCEDWARDS: Has this kind of argument ever been made before, that you know of?

HOWLEY: This argument has been made a lot. And when the international treaty contains the same rights as our U.S. Constitution, courts have enforced the international treaty. What we have here is the courts in the United States have already said that the execution of Mr. Garza will not violate the U.S. Constitution, but we have a treaty that the United States has signed that says Mr. Garza has broader rights. So this would be the first time that the court would say that you have more rights from a treaty than you have from the Constitution.

MCEDWARDS: Mr. Howley, I know there's pressure from politicians, and some pressure around your cases, as well, for a moratorium on federal executions until there's a review of any geographical or racial biases. I know there was a report out, just a few weeks ago, that said there is no racial bias. I'm wondering what your thoughts are about that.

HOWLEY: Well, that is the Bush administration's interpretation of the report. The report does state that 90 percent of the people on federal death row today are minorities, blacks and Hispanics. Mr. Ashcroft has said that he doesn't find intentional discrimination as the cause of that, but obviously, there's something going wrong with our system when 90 percent of the people we execute are blacks and Hispanics.

MCEDWARDS: John Howley, we have to leave it there. Off to Supreme Court today. Thanks very much for your time this morning.

HOWLEY: Thank you.

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