Former Harris County, Texas, prosecutor Linda Geffin had no idea what was at stake the day the defense team she was up against called psychologist Walter Quijano to the stand to testify in the murder trial of Duane Buck.
“I’m not sure anyone realized it at the time,” Geffin tells TakePart. “I’m not even sure I was in the room. I didn’t snap to it.”
Asked in open court if “the race factor, black” increased Buck’s risk of reoffending, Quijano answered “yes.” The so-called expert went on to testify that being either African American or Latino “increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons.”
In Texas, “future dangerousness” is one of the key factors in determining whether a person is eligible for capital punishment. By allowing Quijano’s testimony to stand, Harris County, in effect, established that race can be used as a significant justification for meting out the death penalty.
In other words, being black is one more box to fill in on the death penalty checklist.
Geffin’s prosecution team benefited from the defense’s lack of judgment. Buck was, in fact, sentenced to die.
Years later, Buck’s sentence has resurfaced, and Geffin has had to face what she was a part of. With Buck still in prison, and the executioner at the door, Geffin is trying to make amends.
“This is not a cat and mouse game,” says Former Texas Governor Mark White. “This is about seeking justice.”
Yes, Buck is guilty; but Geffin, along with key other figures in the state of Texas, is now demanding he receive a new sentencing hearing.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘He’s guilty, forget about it.’ That’s so far away from how we’re looking at it,” she says. “If we don’t seek to correct this mistake, it could be any one of us.”
Former Texas Governor Mark White agrees.
White, along with Geffin and 100 more state justice leaders have sent a statement of support to Harris County D.A. Mike Anderson, urging a new sentencing hearing for Duane Buck that isn’t predicated upon his race.
White and Geffin are also seeking passage of the Texas Racial Justice Act, which would allow those sentenced to the death penalty to present evidence that racial discrimination played a role in their legal treatment.
“This is not a cat and mouse game,” says White. “This is about seeking justice.”
White oversaw 19 executions while in office from 1983 to 1987. Yet, he says, his experience as a lawyer made him as thorough as possible in meting out the ultimate punishment. A single legal loose end was enough to prevent an execution from going through under his watch.
These days, he argues, politicians are not so thorough, by choice or by incompetence, or by both.
“Let’s not let a man be executed based on frailties of his own counsel,” says White. “There is nothing wrong, or weak, or liberal, about saying, ‘Let’s be fair to the defendant.’ Fairness is at the foundation of our criminal justice system. Right now that system is an absolute disaster. The obstinacy shown by those denying Buck a resentencing is a reflection both on them as individuals, and of our criminal justice system.”
Geffin is more diplomatic: She remains employed in Harris County as a senior assistant county attorney.
Yet, she admits, “I am frustrated. It seems the right result is crystal clear. We have a golden moment to right a wrong. Harris County is known across the country as the death penalty capital. This is a chance to show we stand for justice. I hate to see that opportunity lost.”
Though she’s cautious with her words, Geffin is fully bold in her stance on Buck’s case.
“I’ve always been inspired by Elie Wiesel, who said: ‘There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.’ ”
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• Will Texas Execute a Man for Being Black?
• Troy Davis Death Penalty Puts USA in Bad Company
• Death Row’s Damon Thibodeaux Is 300th Person Set Free by DNA
Matthew Fleischer is a former LA Weekly staff writer and an award-winning social justice reporter in Los Angeles. Email Matt
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