Alberto Gonzales

January 12, 2005

In the News

2/4/2005
Behind Bush's Bid to Save the Innocent
It came as a bit of a surprise to some Wednesday night when in his State of the Union address President Bush expressed concern about wrongful convictions, advocated the expanded use of DNA evidence to protect the innocent and offered new training for defense lawyers in capital cases to avert fatal mistakes.

1/06/2005
Gonzales Clemency Memos Criticized---Crucial Facts Missing
The task of recommending whether then-Gov. George W. Bush should grant a reprieve or commute Lucas's death sentence fell to Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush's counsel. In a memo to Bush dated March 13, 1995, Gonzales marshaled a case for Lucas's guilt. He noted that Lucas had given a sheriff a drawing of the victim, and attached a record of Lucas's eight other Texas murder convictions, each of which led to lengthy or life prison sentences.

1/10/2005
Gonzales and Clemency Memos
More relevant to me about Gonzales' candidacy is the clemency evaluation work he did on behalf of George W. Bush when the latter was governor of Texas and the former was his counsel. As chronicled brilliantly by Alan Berlow in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in the summer of 2003, Gonzales "repeatedly failed to apprise Bush of some of the most salient issues" in the dozens and dozens of cases he was asked to evaluate on behalf of the Governor.

1/16/2005
The Facilitator
When Alberto Gonzales briefed George W. Bush on the cases of Texas death row inmates up for clemency, his memos were so shabby they seemed intended solely to make it easy for Bush to send prisoners to their deaths.

CBS News

Alan Berlow - "The Facilitator"

NCADP Statements and Resources

1/26/2005
NCADP Opposes Gonzales Nomination
"Mr. Gonzales's track record .. suggests a disturbing casualness toward the solemn task of ensuring that people facing imminent execution have received a fair trial." (.pdf)

1/05/2005
NCADP's Gonzales Briefing
Alberto Gonzales served as General Counsel to Governor George W. Bush from 1995 to 1997. In his rold as General Counsel, Mr. Gonzales prepared memos summarizing the claims of at least 60 death row prisoners facing imminent execution. The memos ranged in length frome one-and-a-half to seven pages.

12/15/2004
See Ablerto Gonzales Clemency Memos Here

11/29/2004
NCADP, 29 Partners call for scrutiny of Gonzales