radman says:
because there's always two sides to every story...
=====================================
Forwarded message:
>Media's Death Row Martyr a Monster
>
>NewsMax.com
>
>Saturday, June 24, 2000
>
>He was the media's darling, a poster boy for the anti-death penalty
>forces who liberal champions claimed was the victim of gross injustice
> a man innocent of the murder charge that sent him to the death
>chamber.
>In what Texas law enforcement officials have called the most extensive
>and expensive propaganda campaign ever conducted by anti-death penalty
>forces for any case, Gary Graham became the epicenter of a media
>firestorm ignited by the liberal media elite seeking more to scorch the
>candidacy of Texas Gov. George Bush than to aid in the anti-death
>penalty movement.
>
>In their zeal to damage Bush, the media blithely ignored the truth
>about Graham and distorted the facts surrounding his conviction, giving
>credence to the absurd claims by the likes of Jesse Jackson that the
>man, who had managed to keep the executioners at bay for 19 years and
>22 appeals since he was convicted of killing Bobby Lambert in a Houston
>robbery, had been denied due process.
>
>The truth the media and Graham's Hollywood celebrity fan club withheld
>from the public is that he was a murderous thug who bragged about the
>number of victims he'd killed, robbed, raped and brutalized in a crime
>spree his victims still recall with horror almost a score of years
>after their encounters with him.
>
>In yesterday's Dallas Morning News, Steve Blow touched on the media's
>treatment of the case: "In the slew of recent stories about the case,
>that savagery was usually reduced to a single, benign clause: 'Mr.
>Graham, who admitted to a string of robberies ...'
>
>"Suspicion did not fall on Mr. Graham because he missed church," Blow
>wrote. "He was arrested in connection with the rape of a 57-year-old
>woman. And then it was learned that he had pulled a series of brutal
>armed robberies. He confessed to 10 robberies in the week before Mr.
>Lambert was killed. Mr. Graham shot two of the people he robbed, and
>maybe two more."
>
>Graham's record of murderous violence the record covered up by the
>mainstream media is anything but pleasant reading. It is a saga of
>unrestrained savagery, the tale of a man who went to his death claiming
>he had never hurt anybody.
>
>Graham told one robbery victim, Rick Sanford, that he had killed six
>people already and if the victim wanted to be seven to do something
>stupid. To his 57-year-old rape victim, Lisa Blackburn, Graham
>stated: "I have already killed three people, and I'm going to kill you.
>You don't mean nothing to me, bitch." (Trial Testimony and CBS, Channel
>11 News, Houston, 10 p.m., July 29, 1993.)
>
>In addition, Graham told Blackburn: "I don't have nothing to lose. I
>don't plan to get caught. If I get caught, I burn, and I'm not getting
>caught." (Trial Testimony.)
>
>To one of the shooting victims, David Spiers, Graham said: "After I
>kill you, I am going back (to your broken-down car) to kill your
>fiance and her parents so they can go with you to 'honkie hell.'
>Before I kill your fiance I'm going to rape her. (David Spiers,
>appearing on "Good Morning America" Friday morning. Spiers told Charlie
>Gibson how Graham had shot his leg off with a sawed-off shotgun as
>Spiers lay helpless in the back of the car.)
>
>Michael LeRoy Breazeale was arrested for attempted murder in January
>1982 and was put in a cell next to Graham at the Harris County Jail.
>Graham told Breazeale that "not only did he shoot this guy from Arizona
>[Lambert], but that he enjoyed it and that he had shot other people and
>that we are all prey out there."
>
>Graham told Breazeale "I've already killed a tourist, and I'll kill you
>too. You're just a tourist in jail." (Public News, Houston, July 9,
>1993.)
>
>After making victim Richard Carter Jr. kneel down and after putting a
>shotgun in his mouth, Graham stated, "I'll kill you, too. Blowing away
>another white mother ... don't mean nothing to me." (Trial Testimony.)
>
>For four consecutive days after the trial, Carter received phone calls,
>calls he believes were from Graham, where the following was said: "I'm
>going to kill you when I get out. I'll hunt you down and kill you
>before I die." (Richard Carter Statement.)
>
>After the death sentence was imposed, court bailiff Larry Pollinger
>escorted Graham to a holding cell. Graham stated, "Next time, I'm not
>leaving any witnesses." Pollinger reported the threat the same day to
>Assistant Harris County District Attorney Carl Hobbs, who confirms the
>account. (Newsweek, August 9, 1993.)
>
>Steve Blow recalled a 1993 statement by one of Graham's victims, Greg
>Jones, who said that "he had engaged in friendly conversation with Mr.
>Graham outside a Houston convenience store and then Mr. Graham put a
>gun to his forehead. 'I want everything,' Mr. Graham told him.
>
>"After Mr. Jones had turned over his wallet, Mr. Graham struck him with
>the gun. 'I got a barrel across my face, right across my mouth, and
>then I got it again, and I got it again. And I looked at him and I saw
>him smiling at me. ... He smiled a little grin, and he pulled the
>trigger.'
>
>"Gary Graham liked to say he was the victim of a racist system. And a
>lot of people were eager to believe that," Blow continued.
>
>"But Mr. Graham was executed Thursday because one person had made his
>guilt so easy to believe.
>
>"That person was Gary Graham."
>
>With a gun in his hand, Graham was a merciless, swaggering tough guy.
>But he went to his death a craven coward, blabbering as jailers had to
>drag him to the death chamber to the gentle narcotic death he denied
>his victims.
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