Texas Executes Another Defendant of Color Over Objection of Victim’s Family

Against the wishes of the victim’s family and amidst charges that the rejection of his clemency application was rooted in racial bias, Texas executed Christopher Young (pictured) on July 17, 2018. Young—who had been drunk and high on drugs when he killed Hashmukh Patel during a failed robbery in 2004—had repeatedly expressed remorse for the murder and had been mentoring troubled youth in an effort to prevent them from repeating his mistakes. The victim’s son, Mitesh Patel, had urged clemency for Young, saying that he didn’t want Young’s children to grow up without a father, and that Young could be a positive influence by continuing his mentorship activities.

Mitesh Patel, who had an emotional visit with Young the day before the execution, said the meeting left him with “a sense of sadness.” “I really do believe Chris Young today is not the person he was 14 years ago,” Patel said. “It’s really unfortunate that the [pardons] board didn’t hear our request for clemency. I feel sadness for his family. They’re going to be walking down the same path my family has been on the last 14 years.”

On July 13, the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole voted 6-0, with one abstention, to deny Young’s clemency application. Young’s attorneys then filed a civil-rights suit in federal court, seeking a stay of execution on the grounds that the board’s decision had been racially biased. Young’s lawyer, David Dow, said family members of the murder victim have asked the pardons board six times this century to commute the death sentence imposed on the person convicted of murdering their loved one. “[O]f those six,” Dow said, “three are black, two are Hispanic and one is white. Only in the case of the white guy [Thomas Whitaker] did they vote to recommend commutation.”

U.S. District Judge Keith Ellison denied Young’s request for a stay, but expressed extreme displeasure about the constricted timeframe for judicial review and the state’s lack of concern about the possibility of racial bias. The case, he said, “dramatizes much of what is most troubling about the procedures by which we execute criminal defendants.” He continued, “In a rational world, the Court would be able to authorize discovery and sift through the evidence obtained thereby. … Here, … the time frame is designed to render impossible intelligent and dispassionate judicial review. Applicable principles of law seem nonexistent.” “Those engaging in race discrimination seldom announce their motivations,” Judge Ellison said, and the timeframe made it “well-nigh impossible” for Young to prove his claims. “Ideally,” Ellison wrote, Texas “would be determined to show that racial considerations had not infected the clemency proceeding. … [H]owever, the State is eager to proceed with [Young’s] execution without either side having any opportunity to explore the [issue].”

In his final statement, Young said “l want to make sure the Patel family knows I love them like they love me. Make sure the kids in the world know I’m being executed and those kids I’ve been mentoring keep this fight going.” The execution was the eighth in Texas and the thirteenth in the U.S. in 2018.