DP in Texas

TEXAS:

A victim of 9/11 hate crime now fights for his attacker's life ---- Immigrant
badly wounded by 'Arab Slayer' mounts long-shot bid to halt execution

Rais Bhuiyan, shot in the face by Mark Stroman in a shooting rampage motivated
by the 9/11 attacks, is now leading the effort to prevent his attacker from
being executed next month in Texas. He cites his Muslim faith as a key reason
for his campaign for a commutation of Storman's death sentence.

Days after the 9/11 terror attacks, 31-year old laborer Mark Stroman went on a
shooting spree in the Dallas area. In a drug-fueled mission of revenge, he
killed 2 South Asian immigrants and shot another — Rais Bhuiyan — in the face
at close range, blinding him in one eye.

Shortly after his arrest, Stroman boasted of his role as "Arab Slayer."

Now, as Stroman faces imminent execution in Texas, an unlikely champion is
fighting to save his life: Bhuiyan, who spent years recovering from the wounds
he suffered in the attack.

"I've had many years to grow spiritually," said Bhuiyan, a Muslim who
immigrated to the U.S. from Bangladesh and now works as technology professional
in Dallas. "I'm trying to do my best not to allow the loss of another human
life. I'll knock on every door possible."

Bhuiyan began collecting signatures late last year on a petition asking the
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to commute Stroman's death penalty sentence
to life in prison without parole through his website "World without Hate." Now
he is working systematically through legal and political channels save
Stroman's life.

"I'm getting a lot of support from all over the world … even my home country,
where the Internet is a luxury," Bhuiyan said.

Among those supporting his cause are some relatives of the 2 victims who were
killed.

'Unprecedented'

The odds are stacked against Stroman, 41, who is held in the Texas State
Penitentiary at Huntsville, where he is scheduled to be executed on July 20.

The 7-member Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles holds the power to recommend a
commutation to the governor, but it has only done so in one death penalty case
since December 2000, when the current Gov. Rick Perry took office. That
recommendation was denied by Perry.

During his administration, 229 death row inmates have been executed — far more
than the 152 put to death during predecessor George W. Bush's term or the 92
executed while Ann Richards occupied the governor's mansion — a record at the
time. Nor has Perry exercised his power to grant a 1-time 30-day stay of
execution.

Even when immense public pressure has been brought to bear — as was the case
before convicted murderer Karla Faye Tucker was put to death — the board has
not bent. Tucker became an international cause celebre because of her gender
and her widely publicized conversion to Christianity while in prison. She was
put to death by lethal injection at Huntsville on Feb. 3, 1998, the first woman
to be executed in the United States in 14 years.

"If (clemency) happens in this case (Stroman's), it would be unprecedented,"
said Rick Halperin, who teaches history and runs the Center for Human Rights at
Southern Methodist University in Dallas. "If, in fact, the ears, hearts and
minds of the parole board and possibly the governor can be persuaded to spare a
life, it would be quite a gesture. I would like to say there is a precedent for
it in this state, but there isn't."

Victim's plea as mitigating evidence?

But for a victim to come forward in a capital case to seek leniency for the
condemned is so unusual that Stromon's defense attorney Lydia Brandt is hopeful
that the outcome could be different this time.

"What makes this unique is that we have a victim coming forward and asking the
board for clemency," said Brandt. "This isn't just lawyers seeking clemency."

In addition to Bhuiyan's public appeal, Brandt says at least one of the other
victims' relatives has agreed to give a statement to the court, but will ask
that his or her name be kept out of the public record.

Even if the board of pardons is not persuaded by Bhuiyan's plea, Brandt plans
to bring his call for mercy to state courts as mitigating evidence that was not
heard during Stroman's 2002 trial.

Bhuiyan now recalls that as a new immigrant to the country, only 26 at the
time, he was in a state of paralysis, thinking only about how he would survive.
He had little understanding of the legal system, and had no idea how the trial
would play out.

"In death penalty practice, the jury is allowed to consider mitigating
evidence, which can be virtually anything like good character, abuse as a
child, drug and alcohol addiction," said Brandt. "We could go back to the
court… and say this is evidence that the jury was not allowed to hear."

Mental state in question

In addition, she will argue that Stroman was mentally impaired and delusional
at the time of the shootings — evidence that was not presented in the
guilt-innocence phase of his trial.

The basic facts of Stroman's crime are not in question. He shot all three of
his victims while they were working at convenience stores. The crime for which
Stroman was convicted of capital murder was the shooting death of Indian
immigrant Vasudev Patel in Mesquite, Texas on Oct. 4, 2001.

Stroman was charged but not tried for the killing of Waqar Hasan, a Pakistani
immigrant on Sept. 15, 2001in Dallas.

5 days later, he walked into the Dallas gas station and store where Bhuiyan was
working. Instead of robbing the store, as Bhuiyan expected, Stroman asked where
he was from, and then shot him in the face with a shotgun from 4 to 5 feet
away.

At trial, the prosecution used a video surveillance tape to prove the murder of
Patel was robbery-gone-wrong, making it a capital crime punishable by death.

Stroman had previous convictions for burglary, robbery, theft and credit card
abuse for which he was sentenced to prison twice, and paroled in both cases,
most recently in 1991.

Drug addiction, history of abuse

Brandt has testimony from experts who say that Stroman's childhood history of
trauma from neglect and abuse and a long-running methamphetamine addiction
rendered him mentally impaired and delusional when he committed these crimes,
and thus not in a "condition of mind" to be convicted for capital crime.

They point to Stroman's initial descriptions of what he was doing as evidence
of his delusion — that he was personally avenging the 9/11 attacks on the
United States. Stroman was on a long meth "run" when he went on the shooting
spree and had been consumed by watching TV coverage in the aftermath of the
9/11 attacks, according to testimony at his trial.

In a letter to a friend from prison in 2002, Stroman bragged of the shootings
in rhyme, saying he carried them out as revenge for the attacks by Muslim
extremists: "Here sits the Arab Slayer. For what he did, we should make him our
mayor," he wrote. "...Patritoic, yes indeed, a true American, a special breed."

According to Brandt: "The conduct is consistent with the continuing delusion of
Mark over what the terrorists had done, his perception that Patel was a
terrorist, and no one in our government would act, so he felt compelled to."

Stroman has since expressed remorse and admitted wrongdoing. "I cannot tell you
that i am an innocent man. I am not asking you to feel sorry for me and I won't
hide the truth," he wrote on an undated webpage. "I am a human being and made a
terrible mistake out of love, grief and anger, and believe me I am paying for
it every single minute of the day and it haunts me in my sleep as well."

"Forgiving...is not enough"

Bhuiyan, who is now a U.S. citizen, says he actually forgave Stroman long ago,
but only recently realized that his faith called him to do more.

His transformation started within days of the shooting, he said, when he was
still bleeding heavliy and didn't know if he would live.

"I was in the hospital praying," he says. "I promised that if I survived I
would give my life to mankind."

Bhuiyan's physical and emotional recovery took years. He had a series of
surgeries to save his eye-- though he lost his vision on that side -- and to
reconstruct his face, now nearly restored except for the shotgun pellets that
remains lodged under his skin.

Remarkably, he suffered no brain damage.

By the time Bhuiyan had fully recovered from his injuries in 2007, he had lost
his fiance because his planned return to Bangladesh to get married had been
delayed for years.

In the meantime, he said he delved more deeply into the teachings of the Quran,
which led him to forgive Stroman. "In Islam, forgiveness is the best policy,"
he said. "This is the real Islam, the true message."

But it took time for him to conclude that forgiveness was not enough.

"For several years, I was simply struggling to survive in this country where I
did not have any of my family members," said Bhuiyan.

"But) I had plenty of time to grow spiritually, and by seeing lot of killings
and hate crimes all over the world ... it helped me to realize that hate does
not bring lasting solution to any situation.

"When I felt I was able to help others, I started thinking about doing
something for Mark Stroman. I realized forgiving him is not enough. I must do
the best I can to save hs life."

Seeking meeting with attacker

Last year, Bhuiyan started the website dedicated to the commutation of
Stroman's sentence to life without parole.

He went to consult the imam of a large mosque in Richardson, Texas, where he
says he was reassured and encouraged to go forward with his mission.

Then he sought out SMU Professor Halperin, who helped him circulate the appeal
for Stroman more broadly and develop a more systematic approach to his campaign
to spare Stroman, setting up meetings with the defense attorney, local
journalists and key players on the prosecution.

"He was firmly convinced that he wanted (to work on Stroman's behalf), but he
didn't know how to go about doing it," Halperin said.

Bhuiyan, who has a degree in aeronatuical engineering, now plans to start over,
studying journalism and human rights at SMU.

"He wants to become more aware and active on a broader range of human rights
issues, " Halperin said. "But this is his major cause and issue at the moment."

It may be a nearly futile cause, but Bhuiyan said he remains hopeful.

"It may not have happened in the past, but maybe it could be a first case," he
said.

Bhuiyan is seeking to meet with Stroman at Huntsville "to build a bridge
between victim and victimizer...It will send a message to him - that I don't
hate him. He is not my enemy. And it will send a messgage to others that hate
only causes more tragedy."

The visit, if approved, could turn out to be one of Stroman's last.

"I can only do my part," Bhuiyan said. "I can't control the outcome."

(source: MSNBC)