RACE SAID NOT A FACTOR IN GARZA DEATH SENTENCE

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Race was not a factor in the death sentence of
drug kingpin Juan Raul Garza, a White House spokesman said on Monday,
a day before Garza is scheduled to become the second federal prisoner
executed in eight days.

``The facts speak for themselves,'' White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer. He had been asked whether the Bush administration believed
race was not a factor in the case.

``All of the jurors individually certified that race, color, religious
belief, national origin and sex were not involved in reaching their
respective decisions,'' he said. The prosecutor, judge and at least
six of the jurors were, like Garza, Hispanic, Fleischer added.

Garza, a Mexican-American, has appealed to President Bush (news - web
sites) to commute his death sentence on charges of three drug-related
killings.

Garza is the only Hispanic among the 19 prisoners under federal death
sentence. His lawyers have said he should be granted clemency because
it was still an open question whether the sentence resulted from bias
against minorities in federal death penalty prosecutions.

Death penalty opponents have called for a halt to federal executions
pending completion of a government study on possible racial and
geographic bias on death row.

Fleischer noted that a large percentage of the victims of death row
inmates were minorities.

``President Bush believes that the death penalty, if it's administered
justly, fairly and swiftly, serves as a deterrent to crime,''
Fleischer told a regular briefing.

``And from that point of view, the president views this ... given the
disproportionate makeup of the victims being minority, (as) a way to
protect vulnerable communities in America through the delivery of a
penalty that is sure and fair, administered fairly,'' he said. ``And
that's the president's overall view of death penalty cases.''

The execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh on June 11 was
the first federal execution in 38 years. Bush was widely criticized on
his first European trip in the days after the execution for his
support for the death penalty.

Garza's request for clemency was being reviewed by a pardon attorney
at the Department of Justice (news - web sites), Fleischer said. He
did not know whether Bush had seen the request but said he would not
comment as long as matters remained pending.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected one request for a stay of
execution and took no action on another appeal and related request for
stay.

A study begun under former Attorney General Janet Reno (news - web
sites) of the federal death penalty system found no evidence of bias,
Attorney General John Ashcroft said last week.

He said he would nevertheless begin a long-planned study of how death
penalty cases ended up in the federal system.