Death penalty opponents say Texas man who committed murder as a teen-ager should be spared

Published: Monday, October 22, 2001

HUNTSVILLE, Texas {AP}— Gerald Mitchell grew up on death row, spending almost half of his life condemned for a murder he committed at the age of 17.

It's that young age that has mental health groups and death penalty opponents insisting he should be spared from the death chamber Monday.

"Execution should not be the consequence of juvenile crime, no matter how horrendous," said Michael Faenza, president and chief executive officer of the Virginia-based National Mental Health Association.

By the time he was arrested for shooting three people in 1985, killing two of them, Mitchell had a history of robbery and theft, had been expelled from an alternative school and claimed to have fathered seven children with six women.

"Impulsiveness, poor judgment and a poor understanding of consequences are common during childhood and are the reasons we limit the rights of minors," Faenza said.

Mitchell, now 33, said he's matured since arriving on death row for one of the fatal shootings and does not deny his involvement in the crimes.

"I was stupid, young, didn't care about living," he said. "Life — I never really understood it — never desired to truly and righteously embrace it, never accepted the true meanings of it."

Mitchell would be the 19th U.S. prisoner to be executed since 1976 for a murder committed when the killer was younger than 18. He would be the 10th in Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, where he is among 31 death row inmates who were 17 at the time of their crime.

Mitchell's lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt the punishment, contending it would violate international law.

Congress never has ratified a provision in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which bars giving the death sentence to anyone under 18 at the time of the offense.

But in asking for a review of the case by the high court, Mitchell's lawyers contended customary international law is law in the United States and that a "clear international consensus" has developed against execution of people under the age of 18 at the time of their offense.

The Supreme Court has ruled that a defendant's rights were not violated when the death sentence was imposed on a murder convict who was at least 16 at the time of the offense. And Texas law allows the death sentence to be imposed on those convicted of capital murder at age 17.

This is the second capital punishment case involving a teen-ager in recent months in Texas.

But Mitchell's case has failed to attract the global attention given in August to fellow inmate Napoleon Beazley, who was spared hours before he was to have been put to death for killing the father of a federal appeals court judge when he was 17.

"I think everyone's attention has been drawn to the terrorist attack," said David Atwood of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. "It's sometimes difficult to focus your attention on these local issues."

Mitchell was convicted of killing Charles Anthony Marino, 20. Marino was fatally shot June 4, 1985, after he and his brother-in-law, Kenneth Fleming, tried to buy $1 worth of marijuana from Mitchell, court records show.

Marino was robbed of $25 and his car. Later the same day, Mitchell shot and killed Hector Munguia, 18, while trying to rob him of his necklace.

More than a week later, Mitchell was arrested driving Marino's car in Corpus Christi, 185 miles to the southwest.

"He stole a precious treasure from us," said Diane Marino, Charles' mother. "He's found God, he's born again. God bless him. But he didn't give his victims a chance to make peace with God."

"He's about as bad as they come," said Doug Davis, a former assistant district attorney who prosecuted Mitchell for the Marino slaying.