EX-FUGITIVE FOCUS OF WEB CAMPAIGN

After Capture Last Year, He's Serving Sentence For Having Heroin In '68

Something about Charles Edward Garrett's story was too compelling for Rose
Kelleher to ignore.

The 56-year-old maintenance worker began serving a life sentence in February
for a first-offense drug charge. The charge was brought 30 years ago.

"It just kind of stuck in my brain," said Ms. Kelleher, a 34-year-old
computer programmer from suburban Maryland. "It seems so unfair and so wrong."

After reading a news story about the case last March, Ms. Kelleher set up a
Web site, www.freecharlesgarrett.org, to win Mr. Garrett's release. An
electronic petition - spurred in part, she believes, by questions Gov.
George W. Bush has faced in his presidential campaign - is quietly but
steadily filling with names, she said.

In 1968, Mr. Garrett was caught with 2 grams of heroin. Two years later, he
was convicted of possession - his first offense to reach trial. Before the
jury came back with his punishment, and while he was still free on bond, he
left the courtroom, the state and his former life.

By the time Dallas County sheriff's deputies tracked him down in October,
Mr. Garrett had turned his life around.

Living as Kowl Emil Williams, an identity he adopted at the suggestion of a
friend, he settled into steady jobs and quit drugs. He raised several
children, paid taxes and even went to jury duty, Mr. Garrett said.

None of this weighed in his favor last February when a judge formally handed
down the sentence the jury set nearly three decades earlier: life in prison.

"He's never hurt anyone. Murderers and rapists get shorter sentences than
him," Ms. Kelleher said.

Ms. Kelleher said she's arguing for common sense. Culture and laws have
changed, she said, and imprisoning a productive person for a minor crime
from three decades ago accomplishes nothing.

"Imagine how this story would have gone if the state of Texas had had its
way. They would have preferred that Mr. Garrett die in prison," states the
Web site, which has been up for about a month. "Instead, Mr. Garrett
embarrassed them by having the intelligence and willpower to rehabilitate
himself."

Mike Carnes, the Dallas County first assistant district attorney, said he
thinks it is important to send a message that fleeing from justice can't
work. The DA's office has not pursued any charges against Mr. Garrett
related to his time as a fugitive, but prosecutors have worked to keep the
conviction and the sentence in place.

No escape

"You can't just give a person an opportunity to benefit himself by
escaping," Mr. Carnes said. "We're damn sure not going to roll over and play
dead so he gets a new trial. That wouldn't be justice."

Mr. Carnes noted that Mr. Garrett will probably not have to serve anywhere
near his entire life, or even the 30-year minimum many of those sentenced to
life terms must serve. Because Mr. Garrett was sentenced under sentencing
guidelines used in 1970, he could be eligible for parole in seven years, Mr.
Carnes said.

Mr. Garrett's lawyers say they are trying every strategy to win a quicker
release. They're hoping an appeals court will order a new trial because the
first trial's transcript can't be found, said Tom Pappas, one of his attorneys.

If that fails, the lawyers will continue appealing until they can petition
the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, Mr. Pappas said.

If the board recommends early release, Mr. Bush would make the final call as
governor.

Ms. Kelleher said Mr. Garrett's plight has particular resonance because of
recent events in the presidential campaign. Mr. Bush, 53, has made headlines
by refusing to rule out any past drug use.

Even though Mr. Garrett is an admitted former junkie, he could repeat Mr.
Bush's own answer regarding illegal drugs - clean for at least 25 years -
with a clear conscience, Ms. Kelleher said.

"It's as if there's one set of rules that apply to people like Mr. Garrett,
and another applies to people with money," Ms. Kelleher said.

Mr. Garrett's friends and family in the Dallas area are doing what they can.
Rose Johnson of Dallas, the mother of his 3-year-old daughter, said she has
sent the governor's office newspaper clippings, letters of support and
buttons she has printed.

"I'm just trying everything," said Ms. Johnson, who still calls Mr. Garrett
"Kowl." "I feel like he's going to get out."

National exposure

Ms. Kelleher is doing what none of Mr. Garrett's local friends know how to:
taking the campaign to free him to national - even international - levels
through the Web site.

"I appreciate what she's doing," Mr. Garrett said from the Lew Sterrett
Justice Center in Dallas, where he is being held pending a ruling from an
appeals court on the new trial request. "That's the most anybody's done for
me since I've been in here."

His letters to state officials have gone unanswered, he said. He hopes the
Web site will force them to take notice.

Ms. Kelleher has registered the site with the major search engines, and she
has purchased ad space on the Yahoo! News site. People using search engines
will find the site indexed off of keywords including Mr. Garrett's name as
well as "injustice" and "George Bush."

Included in the site are addresses for the parole board, Mr. Bush and
letters to the editor. Ms. Kelleher started an electronic petition two weeks
ago, and a few dozen supporters have signed, she said.

Ms. Kelleher said she never considered herself a political activist and said
she has no agenda beyond freeing Mr. Garrett. She started the site before
having any contact with him but has since struck up a correspondence.

"He's not a really wealthy person with a lot of resources," Ms. Kelleher
said. "He seems educated, and he seems really nice."

Mr. Garrett said that while spending 11 months behind bars has been
frustrating, he remains upbeat about his chance for release. The Web site
was good news, he said - the first he'd heard in months.

"Even the officers down here [in jail] think I got screwed. But they're not
the ones that have the say-so," Mr. Garrett said. "I ain't used to being
cooped up. I'm glad I missed it all those years."