TEXAS
November 9, 2004
DeMarco McCullum was executed on Nov. 9 by the state of Texas. Our deepest sympathies are extended to the loved ones of Mr. McCullum and Mr. Michael Burzinski.
The state of Texas plans to execute DeMarco McCullum, Nov. 9 for the abduction and murder of Michael Burzinski in Harris County. The crime took place in 1996 when McCullum, a black man, was 19 years old. He was accompanied by three co-defendants who were his high school football teammates. Burzinski, a white man, was accosted by the four individuals outside a nightclub where he was robbed and made to withdraw $400 cash from an ATM machine.
The prosecution maintains Burzinski was targeted because McCullum and his co-defendants thought he was gay and would consequently be carrying a lot of money. According to the testimony presented at trial, McCullum shot and killed Burzinski after he said the four co-defendants names out loud and proclaimed he needed to kill the victim because he knew their names.
McCullum was sentenced to death based on the notion that he would continue to be a future threat to society in or out of prison. He has been in prison for 10 years and has been a model prisoner. McCullum accepts full responsibility for his actions and is truly remorseful for the crimes he has committed. There is every reason to believe McCullum could continue to live peacefully in a structured environment. McCullum's attorney was quick to express his concern that the state was executing a reformed law abiding man who is very different today than he was at 19 when the crime was committed.
Jurors for capital murder trials in Texas are required to state whether there is a probability that the defendant would pose a future threat to society. Oregon is the only other state to allow this issue to weigh in to whether a death sentence should be given. Of 38 states with the death penalty, 29 do not allow any evidence surrounding posing a future threat to society to be considered.
A recent study conducted by the Texas Defender Service found that Texas' method of determining whether an inmate poses a future threat to society has been incorrect 95 percent of the time.
The study pointed to the fact that the American Psychiatric Association has affirmed the notion that the unreliability of psychiatric predictions of long-term future dangerousness (are) by now an established fact within the profession. The psychiatric community continues to maintain expert testimony regarding this issue should be deemed inadmissible at capital sentencing hearings.
McCullum's case serves as an illustration of the fact that the process Texas courts use to determine a future long-term threat to society is faulty. However the issue continues to send many defendants to the death chamber.
The state of Texas has already executed four people in October and is scheduled to execute a fifth. Six additional executions are scheduled in November, one in December and four in January.
Please write Gov. Perry and the Board of Pardons and Paroles asking them to halt the senseless execution of DeMarco McCullum and grant a stay.
