NEWS STORY: Canadian religious leaders urge clemency for Texas death row inmate

c. 1998 Religion News Service VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ Canadian church leaders are urging Texas Governor George W. Bush to grant clemency to a Canadian scheduled to be executed on Thursday (Dec. 10). Archbishop Adam Exner, chair of the Canadian Roman Catholic bishops’ agency dedicated to fighting abortion, earlier this week condemned state-sponsored executions as […]

c. 1998 Religion News Service

VANCOUVER, British Columbia _ Canadian church leaders are urging Texas Governor George W. Bush to grant clemency to a Canadian scheduled to be executed on Thursday (Dec. 10).

Archbishop Adam Exner, chair of the Canadian Roman Catholic bishops’ agency dedicated to fighting abortion, earlier this week condemned state-sponsored executions as well as the handling of the Canadian’s murder trial in Texas, saying”human life and dignity must be respected and protected without exception.” In a letter to Bush, the Vancouver archbishop called it”ironic”that Stanley Faulder, a 61-year-old former mechanic from Alberta, Canada, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on the same day as the 50th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.


Canadian groups are arguing that Faulder’s human rights may have been breached when he went through two trials in the 1970s and 1980s.

On behalf of the Catholic Organization for Life and Family, an arm of Canada’s 13-million member Catholic church, Exner urged Bush to heed the call of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy to grant clemency to Faulder, convicted for the 1975 murder of Inez Phillips, the matriarch of a wealthy Texas oil family.

The Canadian government has said it wants Faulder’s death sentence commuted and last week Secretary of State Madeleine Albright asked Bush to grant a 30-day reprieve for Faulder.

If Bush continues to refuse to grant clemency, Faulder would be the first Canadian put to death in the U.S. since 1952.

An ecumenical Canadian religious group is also pleading for Faulder’s execution to be permanently stayed.

Michael Maher, president of the Church Council on Justice and Corrections, said his group opposes the death penalty”for its further contribution to the culture of death all too pervasive in our society.” In addition, the Montreal-based International Centre for Human Rights, led by Warren Allman, a Catholic, called for Faulder’s sentence to be commuted. Allman, a former solicitor general of Canada, sponsored the bill that led to the abolition of the death penalty in Canada in 1976.

Major U.S. newspapers such as The New York Times, U.S.A. Today and The Dallas Morning News have recently supported Faulder or raised questions about his case. And there is a spate of unresolved last-minute legal appeals, which could possibly stall the execution.


But Bush, a staunch supporter of the death penalty, has said he has not yet decided whether to use his authority to grant a 30-day stay. He will not do so until the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles makes its decision on whether to take the rare step of granting clemency.

On Wednesday, the Texas board rejected the clemency appeal, voting 17-0, with one abstention.

Exner, in his letter to Bush, argued Faulder’s rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations were violated when trial judges did not allow the suspect to notify his family or the Canadian consulate of his case.

Texas District Court Judge David Walker, who sat on Faulder’s second trial in 1981, acknowledged this week that Faulder’s life might have been spared had his family been present during the sentencing phase. The judge said he didn’t know at the time that Faulder was Canadian.”While we are not in a position to judge the guilt or innocence of Mr. Faulder,”Exner said in his letter,”it would seem from the public record that there have been enough irregularities to seriously question whether justice was done in this case.”When a person’s life is at stake, every care should be taken to ensure that no mistakes are made. This is a very compelling case and one that must be very difficult for the friends and family of everyone involved or affected by this crime. We pray that you will be able to make a decision that is life-giving after so much sorrow.”

DEA END TODD

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