Killer claiming racism sues parole board
Minutes after he was denied clemency, condemned death row inmate Christopher Young sued the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Friday, lobbing accusations of racism.
The 47-year-old former gang member is scheduled for execution Tuesday after the board ignored pleas from the victim’s son and unanimously rejected his bid for commutation in a 6-0 vote.
The legal claim, filed in federal court, hinges on comparisons to another death row case, one that ended in a rare clemency grant earlier this year. In that case, both the victims and the condemned killer — Thomas “Bart” Whitaker — were white.
“The Board unanimously recommended clemency for Whitaker, but not for Young,” his attorneys wrote, “and this vote is most likely explained by a single variable — a variable the Constitution precludes decisions-makers from taking into account: race.”
Young was condemned to die for impulsively gunning down a store owner during a 2004 robbery, though in recent weeks the slain man’s son came out as a vigorous voice of support in the condemned killer’s clemency campaign, even meeting with the parole board to make the case.
Whitaker was sentenced to death for masterminding the slaying of his family in hopes of getting a piece of a hefty inheritance.
His mother and brother died, but his father survived and advocated for clemency - which the board unanimously recommended in February.
In both cases, supporters touted the death row prisoners’ rehabilitation and family ties. And in both cases, the victims’ families pushed for a commutation to life.
“All Young is asking for is that the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles review his petition for clemency with the same eyes it did Thomas Whitaker’s clemency petition, with no regard for his race,” wrote Young’s Houston-based attorneys, David Dow and Jeff Newberry.
To make sure that happens, the legal team argued for a stay that would give them the chance to question individual board members under oath to learn more about what motivated their votes.
“The members of the Board do not announce reasons for their decisions, but the facts here speak for themselves,” the lawyers wrote. A parole board spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This isn’t the first time clemency has sparked questions of racial bias. In the days after Whitaker’s surprise commutation — announced less than an hour before he was scheduled to die — some local attorneys raised the issue.
“What I’m really looking forward to finding out is whether the same consideration that is given to a white person raised in privilege and college educated who has killed or tried to kill his entire family is given to persons of color who have killed people under much less heinous circumstances,” Randy Schaffer, a Houston-based attorney handling capital cases, said earlier this year. “Is this going to be a policy that only applies to the white and privileged who make a religious plea or will this apply to everybody?”
Attorney Pat McCann echoed the concerns.
“Because the governor has granted it this one time, he now gets a pass on every mentally infirm black or poor Hispanic to kill them because he did this one magnanimous act,” he said at the time. “That’s the lie of clemency in Texas.”
Young was sent to death row after he carjacked a woman at gunpoint in San Antonio, then headed to a mini-mart and dry cleaners. He walked in, and reached over the counter as he demanded money at gunpoint, court records show.
Store owner Hasmukh “Hash” Patel pushed the panic button and ran, but Young followed and shot him to death before fleeing. One of the store’s regular customers tried chasing him, but Young got away.
Police caught him later that morning, holed up in a nearby house with a prostitute and some drugs, according to court records.
The former gang member was tried and sentenced to death in 2006.