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American Morning

Supreme Court Denies Garza Request for Stay of Execution

Aired June 18, 2001 - 10:21   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: We've been waiting to see whether or not the Supreme Court would be issuing any rulings today. Let's go now to our Jeanne Meserve. She's standing by in the Washington bureau, as usual, and we say good morning to her for the first time today -- hi, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Leon.

The case of Juan Raul Garza has been center stage with the Supreme Court. He's a drug smuggler convicted in connection with three drug related murders in Texas. He filed two applications with the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has now ruled on one. Charles Bierbauer joins us now from the court -- Charles, what did they have to say on this matter?

CHARLES BIERBAUER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jeanne, the Supreme Court has denied one of Juan Raul Garza's applications for a stay of execution pending a hearing of his appeal. In this particular case, the court was acting on an appeal which focused on whether the jury had been properly instructed as to whether life without parole was an alternative to the death sentence for Garza. The application for stay of execution sent to, initially, Justice Antonin Scalia and then to the full court, is now denied.

The second application still pending before the court, which obviously has to resolve it before tomorrow morning's scheduled execution time, raises the question of whether the charter of the Organization of American States has been violated in a human rights context because of the introduction of some evidence about some murders in Mexico for which Garza had not been charged. So that is still pending.

Also still pending is Mr. Garza's plea for clemency from President Bush. That would, of course, come from the White House by way of the Justice Department, not here at the court -- Jeanne?

MESERVE: Four opinions from the court today, one of them of particular interest about excessive force. Tell us about that.

BIERBAUER: Excessive force in this case involved an animal rights protester at a speech which was being given by then Vice President Gore at the Presidio of San Francisco. He claims he was picked up by M.P.s on this then military base and hurled into a van and that that was excessive force. What the court has ruled in this case is that the police officers do have a qualified immunity.

They have to be able to react to circumstances which in this case included protecting the vice president. And the court says that the vice president's safety and security was among the responsibilities and the conclusion is that even though dragging Mr. Katz, Dr. Katz had been dragged from the area. He was -- the force was not so excessive that he suffered hurt or injury. They have ruled in favor of the police officer in this case and sending this case back to lower courts for final decisions down there.

In this particular instance, it's sort of an affirmation that police have to be able to act on their impulses at the scene at the time -- Jeanne?

MESERVE: Charles Bierbauer at the U.S. Supreme Court. Thank you. And we wait to see what the court does with the other application from Juan Raul Garza.

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