USA (Texas) - Johnathan Bryant Moore (m), white, aged 32

URGENT ACTION APPEAL

To read the current Urgent Action newsletter, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/newslett.html

We need 500,000 signatures to change America's
course on human rights. Please sign AIUSA's ''America
I Believe In'' pledge now and if you already have, tell
your friends and family to do the same. Visit
http://www.amnestyusa.org/believe
----------------------------------

05 January 2007
UA 07/07 Death penalty / Legal concern

USA (Texas)
Johnathan Bryant Moore (m), white, aged 32


Johnathan Moore is scheduled to be executed on 17 January
2007 in Texas. He was sentenced to death in November 1996
for the murder of a police officer in San Antonio in January
1995.

San Antonio police officer Fabian Dominguez, aged 29, was
shot dead in the early hours of 15 January 1995 outside a
house where a burglary was in progress. Two days later,
after a high-speed car chase, 20-year-old Johnathan Moore
was arrested. He told police that he and two others had
burgled the house in question and were about to drive away
when their way was blocked by Officer Dominguez. Moore said
that he shot the officer after the latter pointed his gun
through the car window.

At the trial, Johnathan Moore pleaded not guilty by reason
of insanity, a very difficult plea on which to prevail. The
defence lawyers argued that, as a result of the defendant's
mental illness, the symptoms of which had for some time
included paranoid delusions that authority figures,
particularly the police, were trying to kill him, Johnathan
Moore had not realized his conduct was wrong at the time of
the crime and had feared that Officer Dominguez was going to
shoot him.

The court-appointed lawyers suspected that Moore might be
incompetent to stand trial – that is, unable to assist them
or have a rational understanding of the proceedings. The
judge appointed a mental health expert, Dr Michael Arambula,
to examine him. Dr Arambula and his colleague Dr Margot
Zuelzer concluded that Moore was suffering from
schizoaffective disorder, a serious mental illness combining
symptoms of schizophrenia such as delusions or
hallucinations with a mood disorder such as depression. They
were not asked to report to the court on the question of
Moore's competence to stand trial. They warned the defense
lawyers that, while Moore might currently be competent to
stand trial, his mental health could deteriorate into
incompetence under the stress of a trial, particularly if he
incorporated his lawyers into his delusional thinking. The
trial began five months later.

Under Texas law, if evidence is brought to the attention of
the trial judge raising a bona fide doubt about the
defendant's competence to stand trial, the judge must
suspend the proceedings and empanel a new jury to decide the
issue. Although there were indications of Moore's mental
health deteriorating during the trial – he became variously
withdrawn or disruptive, and sought to represent himself –
the lawyers did not ask for a competency hearing. According
to a 2005 appeal brief, by the time of the trial, Moore had
begun ''to suspect that his own lawyers were part of the
larger conspiracy to kill him, and eventually refused to
cooperate with them at all. By the time of jury selection,
he had effectively withdrawn his attention from the
proceedings altogether, and spent most of his time in the
courtroom leafing idly through books and magazines''. At a
post-conviction hearing, the lawyers would recall that they
had suspected that Moore was mentally ill from the time they
first met him and that it had become increasingly difficult
during the trial to communicate with him. Outbursts by Moore
during the trial included his interrupting of witnesses. For
example, when one witness was asked whether they had seen
the post-arrest photographs of Moore, Moore intervened:
''Does Jesus Christ have a long hair and a beard? You've
seen pictures of Him. What makes the difference between
Jesus Christ and Charles Manson?'' The Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals would later dismiss claims that such
outbursts were evidence of the need for a competency
hearing, stating that they were ''timely, topical, and
logically related to the questions and answers offered
during the examination of other witnesses''.

The defense presented Drs Arambula and Zuelzer, who
testified that in their opinion Moore had been suffering
from serious mental illness at the time of the crime and
that he had been legally insane as a result. The defense
also presented lay witnesses, detailing Moore's difficult
family life, his commitment to a mental hospital and
treatment with psychotropic medication during his
adolescence, and his increasing paranoia as a young adult.
In rebuttal, the prosecution presented two doctors who
testified that in their opinion Johnathan Moore did not
suffer from a serious mental illness and was legally sane at
the time of the shooting. The jury rejected the insanity
defense and convicted Moore of capital murder.

At the sentencing phase, Johnathan Moore again sought to
discharge his lawyers, and represented himself for the first
two days of proceedings. The defense lawyers sought a
competency hearing, but without recalling the mental health
experts, who therefore never testified at any stage on the
question of Moore's competence to stand trial. The judge
rejected the motion, the sentencing continued, and Johnathan
Moore was sentenced to death after the jury found that he
would pose a future risk to society if allowed to live (a
prerequisite for a death sentence in Texas). Among the
prosecutor's arguments for execution was that the jury could
consider Moore's youth as a reason to hand down a death
sentence.

Drs Arambula and Zuelzer later testified at an evidentiary
hearing during the appeals process. Although they had had
only limited opportunity to observe Johnathan Moore during
the trial, after hearing the trial lawyers' testimony about
his conduct, Dr Zuelzer concluded that Moore had become
incompetent during the proceedings. According to a 2005
appeal brief, Dr Arambula testified that under a situation
in which ''Moore's paranoia and delusions caused him to
become so suspicious of his attorneys that he refused to
communicate with them, kept his head down, flipped through
magazines and books during the trial, and eventually chose
to represent himself, he [Arambula] could have testified
that Moore was incompetent.'' The appeal courts have upheld
the conviction and death sentence, rejecting the claim,
among others, that the defense lawyers were ineffective for
having not presented their experts in seeking a competency
hearing.

Johnathan Moore's execution is scheduled to take place on
the 30th anniversary of the resumption of executions in the
USA. The ''modern'' era of judicial killing in the USA
began on 17 January 1977 with the execution of Gary Gilmore
in Utah. There have now been 1,057 executions, of which 379
(36 per cent) have been carried out in Texas. Texas has
executed nearly four times as many people as the next
leading death penalty state, Virginia. Although there is
evidence of opinion turning against the death penalty in the
USA (see USA: New Year's resolution: End a cruel and
outdated punishment, 21 December 2006,
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR512052006), the
rate of judicial killing in Texas remains high. In 2006,
Texas carried out 24 executions, five times as many as the
next highest state total. Texas has frequently flouted
international standards in its pursuit of the death penalty,
including its use against the mentally impaired, and against
those denied their right to adequate legal representation.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty
unconditionally in all cases. The organization has raised
concerns about the use of the death penalty against people
with mental illness, including in Texas, and including
people whose competence to stand trial was in doubt (see
USA: The execution of mentally ill offenders, January 2006,
http://web.amnesty.org/library/pdf/AMR510032006ENGLISH/$File/AMR5100306.pdf).


RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send appeals to arrive as quickly
as possible (please include Johnathan Moore's prisoner
number, #999216, in your appeals):
- expressing sympathy for the family and friends of San
Antonio police officer Fabian Dominguez, and explaining that
you are not seeking to condone his murder or to downplay the
suffering caused;
- expressing concern that the trial of Johnathan Moore went
ahead without a competency hearing, despite evidence that he
was not competent to stand trial as a result of mental
illness;
- calling on the Governor to stop this execution and seek a
clemency recommendation from the Board of Pardons and
Paroles;
- urging the Governor to support a moratorium on executions
in Texas, with a view to abolition.


APPEALS TO:
Governor Rick Perry
Office of the Governor
PO Box 12428
Austin TX 78711-2428
Fax: 1 512 463 1849
Salutation: Dear Governor


Please send appeals immediately. Check with the AIUSA Urgent
Action office if sending appeals after 17 January 2007.


----------------------------------
Tip of the Month:
You may refer to Amnesty International in your letter,
unless otherwise stated in the case sheet. However,
appeals written in a personal or professional capacity
show the diversity of concern regarding the particular
individual(s) and human rights abuses.

** POSTAGE RATES **
Within the United States:
$0.24 - Postcards
$0.39 - Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
To Mexico and Canada:
$0.55 - Postcards
$0.63 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
$0.75 - Aerogrammes
To all other destination countries:
$0.75 - Postcards
$0.84 - Airmail Letters and Cards (up to 1 oz.)
$0.75 - Aerogrammes

Amnesty International is a worldwide grassroots movement
that promotes and defends human rights.

This Urgent Action may be reposted if kept intact, including
contact information and stop action date (if applicable).
Thank you for your help with this appeal.

Urgent Action Network
Amnesty International USA
600 Pennsylvania Ave SE 5th fl
Washington DC 20003
Email: uan@aiusa.org
http://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent/
Phone: 202.544.0200
Fax: 202.675.8566

----------------------------------
END OF URGENT ACTION APPEAL
----------------------------------

You are receiving this email because you registered
to participate in the Urgent Action Network. If you
wish to unsubscribe from this list, reply to this email
(please keep the full text) and write 'unsubscribe' in
the subject heading.