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A2 u.s. news
Monday 17 april 2023

Inmate stuck on U.S. death row despite vacated death sentence

By MICHAEL TARM in the range of severe in- 16-year-old Texas girl, says
AP Legal Affairs Writer tellectual disability and so she's baffled.
CHICAGO (AP) — When cannot be put to death. "How can I not get this guy
the U.S. prisons director But four years on, the Jus- off death row?," an exas-
visited the penitentiary in tice Department and the perated Monica Foster said
Terre Haute, Indiana, this Federal Bureau of Prisons in a recent interview. "Well,
past week, she stopped haven't moved him to a I did get him off death row.
by the federal death row less restrictive unit or differ- But why can't I physically
where Bruce Webster is in a ent prison. get him off death row?"
solitary, 12-by-7 foot cell, 23 Why? His own lawyer, who Asked about Webster's
hours a day. secured a rare legal win in continued placement on
Webster's not supposed to persuading a court to va- death row, a Justice De-
be there. A federal judge cate Webster's 1996 death partment official said only
in Indiana ruled in 2019 that sentence in the kidnap- that "the Bureau of Prisons A sign is displayed at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute,
the 49-year-old has an IQ ping, rape and killing of a is considering Mr. Web- Ind., on Aug. 28, 2020.
Associated Press

ster's designation deter- ster as an uncontroversial
mination." Webster's case if modest step toward ful-
illustrates chronic bureau- filling President Joe Biden's
cracy in the prisons system campaign pledge to stop
and the difficulties in get- federal executions for
ting anyone off death row. good, Foster argued.
There's sometimes addi- "This case is a no brainer,"
tional reluctance to act in the Indianapolis-based
death row cases given the federal defender said.
nature of inmates' crimes. "There is zero political liabil-
In Webster's case, he and ity for doing the right thing
three accomplices kid- here and moving him off
napped a sister of a rival death row."
drug trafficker in 1994, kick- Webster, who wants to be
ing their way into an Arling- transferred to a prison near
ton, Texas, apartment as his hometown of Pine Bluff,
Lisa Rene frantically dialed Arkansas, must be resen-
911. They raped her over tenced. It's supposed to be
two days, then stripped a formality because life in
her, bludgeoned her with a prison is the only available
shovel and buried her alive. sentence. When his lawyers
Bureau of Prisons Direc- and the Justice Depart-
tor Colette Peters has said ment asked in joint 2021
she's committed to reforms. motion for U.S. judge in Tex-
Her visit to Terre Haute was as where Webster was tried
part of regular inspections in 1996 to resentence him,
of U.S. prisons. It came the judge refused, saying
months after a lawsuit filed he lacked jurisdiction.
by the American Civil Liber- Judge Terry Means also
ties Union of Indiana seek- chided his Indiana coun-
ing to end the solitary con- terpart, Judge William Law-
finement of federal death rence, for tossing Webster's
row inmates, saying that death sentence, saying
practice results in severe Lawrence had "brushed
psychological damage. aside" jurors' finding, in-
Several death row inmates cluding that most rejected
told The Associated Press Webster's intellectual dis-
by email that Peters came ability claims.
through their unit on Tues- "That judgment is final," the
day and spoke to some government said about
prisoners. It's not known Means' ruling, adding that
whether she saw Webster it is the department's posi-
or discussed his case. tion "that Mr. Webster is not
The Biden administration currently subject to a valid
should see moving Web- death sentence."q