Juan Garza
Juan Raul Garza | |
---|---|
Status | Executed |
Conviction(s) | Murder |
Criminal penalty | Death penalty |
Juan Raul Garza (c. 1957 – June 19, 2001) was an American murderer and drug trafficker who was executed for a federal crime.
In 1993, Garza was convicted of murdering three people while running a marijuana smuggling and distribution ring based in Brownsville, Texas. He was sentenced to death and appealed on the basis that the jury were apparently not told that they had the power to recommend life imprisonment instead of the death sentence. Garza's lawyers also claimed that it was unfair that the jury were told that Garza was suspected of four murders in Mexico given that, although a prime suspect in these crimes, he had never been charged or convicted of them.
His appeals failed and on June 19, 2001, aged forty-four, Garza was executed at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute by lethal injection. He was pronounced dead at 7:09 a.m. His execution came just eight days after Timothy McVeigh's. Garza's and McVeigh's deaths were the first federal executions since 1963.
See also
References
- Juan Raul Garza. The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- 2001 deaths
- People executed by the United States federal government
- People executed for murder
- People executed by lethal injection
- People from Brownsville, Texas
- 21st-century executions by the United States
- Executed American people
- Americans convicted of murder
- People convicted of murder by the United States federal government
- 1957 births