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Anti-Gay Bias in State Court |
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Compiled By GayToday American Civil Liberties Union
 Washington, D.C.--Yesterday morning the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal
from Texas authorities who claimed that a man received adequate
representation from a lawyer who slept through portions of his trial, which
was tainted with anti-gay bias.
Calvin Burdine's 1984 conviction was overturned three years ago because his public defender slept through substantial portions of the trial and the sentencing phase. The American Civil Liberties Union's brief in the appeal also argued that the trial was tainted with homophobia from the prosecutor, from Burdine's court-appointed lawyer and from the jury. During Burdine's trial, the prosecution argued that life imprisonment is a less severe punishment for homosexuals than for heterosexuals. "Sending a homosexual to the penitentiary certainly isn't a very bad punishment for a homosexual, and that's what he's asking you to do," the prosecutor said in the final moments of his closing argument. Following is a statement issued this morning from Diann Rust-Tierney, Director of the ACLU Capital Punishment Project: "All along, this case has been a stark illustration of what's wrong with the capital punishment system. "While a judge and jury weighed whether Calvin Burdine should live or die, his court-appointed lawyer slept. Rather than seeking a fair trial and ensuring that Burdine have the basic representation our Constitution guarantees, the State of Texas went all the way to the Supreme Court to say that a sleeping lawyer was good enough. "We are pleased that the court declined to intervene in this case. The court's refusal to hear this case is both an acknowledgment and a reminder that the death penalty system is rife with problems. "Life or death decisions should not hinge on whether someone is rich or poor, black or white, or gay or straight. That's what happened in this case -- and it happens in countless others. "The fact that Texas prosecutors can assert that a sleeping lawyer is adequate representation in a capital case is more evidence of a systematic problem that should be examined. Texas should impose a moratorium on executions until this and other fundamental questions of fairness can be addressed." Backgrounder on Sexual Orientation Bias and the Death Penalty: ^'Sending a homosexual to the penitentiary certainly isn't a very bad punishment for a homosexual.'*~ America's unjust capital punishment system and LGBT people Within weeks of each other in early 2001, two people were executed at least in part because they were gay. Their sexual orientation was used to stir jurors' prejudices and, consequently, secure their convictions and capital sentences.
In a society where prejudice plays a major role in criminal justice in general and the death penalty in particular, lesbians and gay men - like every despised minority - have good reason to fear the death penalty, and to work toward its abolition.
The United States is the only country in all of the western industrialized nations that continues to use this cruel and unusual punishment. Because the death penalty is irrevocable, it also denies due process of law by preventing individuals from being able to benefit from new evidence or new legislation that might prove her or his innocence or commute her or his sentence to life imprisonment. The death penalty's track record regarding the unequal punishment of minorities proves that it violates the equal protection clause. Lesbians and gay men are on death row today because of homophobia.
The prosecution used homophobic stereotypes of lesbian relationships in her trial, arguing that Allen was "dominant" and served as the "man" in the relationship. Implicit in this argument was the suggestion that Allen's "role" made her more capable of committing the crime she was charged with - and more capable of killing again. It worked. In part because of anti-gay bias -- and because her defense attorney, who received a total of $800 for her case, had never worked on a capital murder trial and was completely unequipped to defend her - she was executed. In February 2001, Stanley Lingar, a gay man in Missouri, was executed for his part in the kidnapping and murder of a 16-year-old male. During the sentencing phase of his trial, the prosecutor stated, "[t]he only evidence we'll have to offer you at this stage... [is] that there was a homosexual relationship that existed between [Lingar and David Smith, another man who was involved in the crime]." When Lingar's defense attorney objected, the prosecution argued that Lingar's sexual orientation was evidence of "character," bearing on his death worthiness. The Supreme Court of Missouri agreed, even though the ACLU Lesbian & Gay Rights Project submitted evidence that homophobic jurors were never asked about their biases toward gay people before being selected to serve. Today, Calvin Burdine, a gay man in Texas accused of the burglary and murder of an ex-lover, continues to wait on death row for appellate courts to rule whether he should receive a new trial. Among the issues surrounding his appeal are the facts that Burdine's defense attorney slept through portions of Burdine's trial and that the attorney referred to people who patronize gay bars as "faggots" and "fairies" in court. Also, during closing arguments, the prosecutor asked the jury to sentence Burdine to death because, he argued, "sending a homosexual to the penitentiary certainly isn't a very bad punishment for a homosexual." A previous conviction of consensual sodomy (a felony in Texas) was permitted to be introduced to the court in the sentencing phase as an example that Burdine could continue to be a threat to society if ever released from prison. Douglas McCreight, also involved in the burglary and murder, plea-bargained and served only 8 years in prison before he was paroled, even though there is evidence that he was the "principal actor" in the crime. Our system of justice has shown, time and again, that it is completely incapable of administering the death penalty equally. Our system makes mistakes and always will. It has been proven beyond any doubt that race and class factor heavily into who receives the death penalty. Sexual orientation has played a role in several cases. Whatever goal the death penalty is supposed to achieve, this is not an acceptable price. * Headline is quote from Texas prosecutors, urging a jury to sentence a gay man to die. This "kid-in-a-candy-store" argument - to which the defendant's court-appointed defense attorney did not object - helped land Calvin Burdine on death row, where he has remained. Today's ruling forces the state to give him a new trial or set him free. |
