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INTERVIEW WITH THE DIRECTOR
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- Why have you decided to take up the cause of a man found guilty
26 years ago and
executed 16 years ago?
"Although the State of Texas has reduced Johnny Frank Garrett to
ashes, I will not allow
the tragic facts surrounding his wrongful execution to
be swept beneath the carpet of injustice."
- What do you hope to prove by exposing the facts of the Garrett case?
"I'm convinced that if Americans take just a moment to truly examine the
reality of this
wrongful execution, they would be convinced of the relative ease
with which prosecutorial
corruption leads to death in so many capital punishment cases.
The Last Word is a
textbook for corrupt prosecutors who thrive on death sentences."
- After speaking with Garrett's family about the execution they
witnessed, how do you feel
about those who argue that lethal injection in Texas is too easy
on the Defendant?
"The recent beheadings in Iraq are no more barbaric and in
fact significantly more humane than
the gauntlet of horror through which Johnny Frank Garrett was forced to
travel, as an innocent
man, on his way to the Texas death chamber."
- Short of abolishing the death penalty, what would be
your immediate solution, at least in
Texas, to prevent another innocent man from being executed?
"George W. Bush refers to the capital punishment system in the Lone Star
State as a 'model'
which other states should emulate.
However, the court appointed attorneys infesting the 'model'
and left in charge of protecting the rights of the accused, invariably end
up being from the armpit
of the legal profession. Sleezeball lawyers, many drunk or addicted to
drugs, sucking off the
system using capital offense cases as their primary means of
support. Welfare lawyers. Texas
needs a system similar to the Federal Public Defender's Office.
Real lawyers with real assets
prepared to fight in the trenches from the moment of
arrest through all appeals."
- What about those who argue that throwing
more money and resources towards criminals
is another form of simply protecting the guilty?
"It's not about protecting the 'guilty,' it's about saving the life of the
hypothetical 'innocent
man.' A man who until now has never had a name, a face or a family. Johnny
Frank Garrett was
the 'innocent man' we all feared we would have to face
someday."
- Numerous law firms in Texas devote thousands of pro bono hours each
year defending
capital Defendants? Why isn't that enough?
"Although appreciated, those resources usually arrive only after
it's too late. The time for pro
bono assistance is not at the end of the trial when appeals are so
limited, but at the onset of battle,
in the trench, looking the corrupted overzealous
prosecutors, the 'bought-and-paid-for' medical
examiners and the rewarded jailhouse snitches dead
in their eyes."
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