Gonzales, War on the Disabled

Alberto R. Gonzales’ War Against the Disabled

Ignored in the post-election clamor, November 13th and 14th marked the fourth annual Convention of Campaign to End the Death Penalty, (CEDP) held in Chicago, Illinois. Fitting choice, as Illinois is also same state that held a Black mentally Disabled young man, Anthony Porter, on Death Row for eighteen years before DNA testing and years of advocating led to the overturn of his wrongful incarceration. Also ironic is that it came on the heels of George Bush’s announcement of Alberto Gonzales to succeed John Ashcroft as Attorney General. While as legal counsel, Gonzales demonstrated an appetite for executing the disabled.

In Texas, Gonzales was responsible for who would get a stay, clemency or death on Texas’ Death Row. Now Mr. Gonzales closet is wide open to the public and we get to see the case of Terry Washington and other mentally disabled death row inmates that were put to death with his help. Many advocates and articles have stated During Bush's six years as governor 152 people were executed in Texas: a record unmatched by any other governor in modern American history.

Mr. Gonzales’ duties included preparing summaries of death row cases for Bush but many did not mention the inmates’ mental disabilities. Gonzales went on to become the Texas Secretary of State and a justice on the Texas Supreme Court. He continued to guide Governor Bush into executing Death Row inmates who were mentally disabled, such as Terry Washington and Oliver David Cruz although there was a national campaign against execution of the mentally disabled. Texas ignored the Supreme Court decision on June 20, 2000 in the Artkin v Virginia that says executions of mentally retarded criminals are “cruel and unusual punishment” prohibited by the Eighth Amendment.

In Spring of 2000 with Mr. Gonzales at his side, Bush voted against a bill that would ban executions of the mentally disabled. Today, President Bush continues his state violence against people with disabilities, people of color and the poor by choosing Alberto R. Gonzales as the new Attorney General. President Bush has consistently appointed cabinet members who share the same attitude against people with disabilities throughout his first term.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was Governor of Pennsylvania when another Black disabled man, Michael Manning, spent years in prison on a clear case of self-defense but received no assistance from the ex-Governor at that time. Matter-of-fact Tom Ridge helped the case against Manning. Just like Anthony Porter and Earl Washington Jr., Michael Manning also is a free man today because of the work of families, advocates, progressive lawyers etc. Unfortunately there are more wrongful deaths than exoneration of disabled inmates like Jerome Bowden, Ricky Ray Rector and Wanda Jean Allen to name a few.

Chicago’s convention was set against a national context that is clearly getting worse for anti-death penalty advocates and people with disabilities. Chicago was also the home May Molina Ortiz, a disabled Puerto Rican, who was a co-founder of Families of the Wrongfully Convicted and a founder of Comite Exigimos Justicia (We Demand Justice Committee) died early this year, 2004, in police custody. A local Bay Area advocate and founder of Idriss Stelley Foundation, Mesha Irizarry, attended the fourth annual conference to speak about her son who had mental health disabilities and was shot in 2002 by San Francisco Police. The work of activists and organizations i.e. Kiilu Nyasha, Yuri Kochiyama, Prison Focus, California Coalition for Women Prisoners and Claude Marks etc. with national campaigns to end the death penalty and to ban execution of prisoners who are “mentally retarded” is our only protection against President Bush continuous state violence against people with disabilities.


By Leroy F. Moore Jr.
http://www.leroymoore.com
http://www.poormagazine.org Illin-N-Chillin