US Gov't Executes Second Man In 8 Days

U.S. gov't executes second man in 8 days Federal death sentences the first
carried out in 38 years TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (AP) - Strapped to the same
padded gurney on which Timothy McVeigh died, drug kingpin Juan Raul Garza
received a chemical injection Tuesday and became the second inmate in eight
days to be put to death by the U.S. government.

While the Oklahoma City bomber died stoic and remorseless, Garza was
fidgety as he awaited execution, and apologized for the murders for which
he was condemned to die.

''I just want to say that I'm sorry and I apologize for all the pain and
grief that I have caused,'' the 44-year-old Garza said. ''I ask your
forgiveness, and God bless.''

Garza's pleas for clemency were rebuffed the night before by a Bush
administration that ended 38 years of no federal executions by having two
in just over a week. On June 11, McVeigh became the first federal inmate
put to death since 1963. Garza, the second, was pronounced dead at 8:09 EDT.

''With this administration there's no doubt that they are more clearly in
favour of supporting the death penalty at all costs than doing anything of
substance to correct the system,'' Garza lawyer Gregory Wiercioch said.

It could be months or even years before there is another execution at the
Terre Haute prison, home of the only federal death row. No execution dates
have been set for any of the 18 other men there under death sentences.

Death penalty opponents and some former Justice Department officials have
complained of racial and geographic bias in the way capital punishment is
imposed, questioning whether Garza - a Mexican-American born in the United
States - would have been sentenced to death if he had been white or had
committed his crimes somewhere other than Texas.

Six of the 18 men under federal death sentences were convicted in Texas; 16
are minorities.

Garza was a ruthless killer who operated a smuggling ring from his Texas
home of Brownsville, bringing tonnes of marijuana across the Mexican border
into the United States.

He shot one suspected informant in the head, dragged him from a car into a
field and shot the corpse four more times. He also ordered the deaths of
two men, one killed in an auto body shop, the other in a Brownsville nightclub.

One witness testified that Garza arranged for the death of his own
son-in-law because he suspected he was a snitch and had a woman beaten to
death for the same reason. Garza was not charged with those two killings.

The prison grounds that were filled with hundreds of reporters last week
during McVeigh's execution were nearly empty by comparison Tuesday.

About 50 anti-death-penalty protesters outside the U.S. Penitentiary sang,
We Shall Overcome, and other protest songs. Not a single death-penalty
supporter made the trek to the area designated for the pro-side.

Prison Warden Harley Lappin, looking weary, demonstrated how much focus had
been put on McVeigh when he announced Garza's death to the news media by
saying, ''Inmate Tim . . .'' He quickly corrected himself.

Garza was the first person executed under the 1988 federal Anti-Drug Abuse
Act, which imposes a death sentence for murders stemming from drug
trafficking. President George W. Bush and the U.S. Supreme Court refused on
Monday to delay the execution.

''Some day this precise savagery will end, but not today,'' Wiercioch said.
''Today President Bush had the last word. But he will not have the final
say on the death penalty. History will.''

Attorney General John Ashcroft said Monday there was no evidence of racial
bias in Garza's case.