DRUG LORD ASKS FOR A STAY OF EXECUTION

Racial Discrepancy Is Cited In Appeal To Court

CHICAGO -- The impending execution of drug lord Juan Garza faced
opposition in Congress and the courts Wednesday, highlighting
controversy over the death penalty that did not die with Timothy
McVeigh.

Garza, who is scheduled to die Tuesday, has asked President George W.
Bush to commute his sentence to life without parole, citing a racial
disparity in how the death penalty is applied. He has also appealed in
court for a stay, and the Justice Department filed a response Wednesday
opposing that request.

Garza's lawyers argue that a death sentence violates international
treaties signed by the United States. They also contend his sentencing
hearing in Texas was flawed by hearsay evidence and improper jury
instruction, and reflected racial bias by prosecutors.

But defenders of Garza, a 44-year-old who was born in Mexico but is a
U.S. citizen, are trying to stop what would be the second federal
execution since 1963.

Sentenced to die for committing a drug-related murder and ordering two
other killings as leader of a huge marijuana smuggling ring, Garza is
scheduled to receive a lethal injection in the same death chamber at the
federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Ind., where Oklahoma City bomber
McVeigh was executed Monday.

"If someone could guarantee that we only execute people like Timothy
McVeigh, then I would support the death penalty. But McVeigh is the
exception; the people we execute are poor and uneducated," Garza's
attorney John Howley said.

Last year, former President Bill Clinton delayed Garza's execution to
allow time for a comprehensive review of the racial issue by the Justice
Department's National Institute of Justice.

Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin said Wednesday at a Senate
subcommittee hearing that Garza's execution should be put on hold until
that study is done.

In what Garza's lawyers described as a misleading study of the death
penalty in the federal system, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said
last week that black and Hispanic defendants were found to be less
likely to be subjected to the death penalty at each stage of the process
than white defendants.

The review did find that more whites than minorities reached plea deals
to avoid a death sentence. But Ashcroft suggested that the reason 18 of
20 federal prisoners awaiting execution at the prison in Terre Haute
were minorities was due in part to the racial makeup of the violent drug
trade.

"That in itself is a racist statement," Howley said.