Hide Article Text (OCR)
Willllrvan-Gtllege Station. Texa»naltyWediiesdii'. March R.I'iik)1 12 Vemmtiof SocietyEDITORS NOTE: Elmer Branch, number 492, spends his days in a room no larger an apartment si?ed bathroom waiting to see if he will live Or die. The supreme Court should be making that decision some time this spring.By Jim BARLOW Associated Press WriterELLIS UNIT, (AP) - Down along corridor with innumerable barred doors, through a solid steel door and behind yet another set of bars lives Elmer Branch in his 4x8-foot room.Branch is one of 38 men on death row here at the Ellis Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections about 10 miles outside Huntsville.Like most residents of death rows across the country, he is young, black and uneducated. He has not been on death row as long as many of its citizens. In fact, he does not stand out in many ways.BUT IT IS IN the case of Elmer Branch that the Supreme Court may rule any day. The question is whether the death penalty may remain a feature of American society.How does Branch feel about his prominence in the American judicial system?“I ain’t got no feelings at all,” he said in a recent interview. I just live for today and hope for the best for tomorrow.”BRANCH IS 25 YEARS OLDand has been living in his cell now for a bit over two years. He was arrested May 9, 1967, in Vernon, Tex., and charged with the rape of a white woman. A little under three months laterconvicted by an all-white jurywhich assessed the death penalty.It was this sentence for this conviction which formed the basis of the argument last Jan. 17 by Branch’s court-appointed attorney, Melvy Bruder of I )allas.Retribution is recognized by the state of Texas as a part of punishment for a crime, Bruder argued. But he asked the court, “If you haven't had a life taken, how do you justify taking a life.”BRUDER ARGUED that inrape cases which don’t involve the taking of a life or result in serious, permanent or physical or mental injury, imposition of a death sentence results in punishment. greater than the crime, which in turn violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.The Dallas attorney also said that in Texas, of 93 persons executed for rape, 80 wereblack.“When a black man inTexas is convicted of rape, he has an 88 per cent chance of getting the death penalty. Thiswith a 22 oer centcompares witn a n perchance for any white man orI *On the same day Bruder asked that the death penalty be struck down for those reasons in Branch’s case, other attorneys argued before the Supreme Court for the same results in cases involving a multiple murder, a murderer whose act may not have been intended and another rape case.FOR BRANCH, THE 38 ondeath row and an estimated 30 he went to trial and was speedily niore prisoners under deathPRISONER AT ELLIS UNIT AWAITS DECISION Elmer Branch Sentenced to Death on Rape Conviction Awaits High Court Decisionsentences now confined in city and county jails around the state, the Supreme Court deliberations are a hope and a fear.R.M. Cousins is the warden at the Ellis Unit and must watch over death row. There have been no executions in Texas since 1964 and when the eight cells on death row at the main unit at Hunt-up the men were transferred here, although the electric chair remains at “the W'alls as the prisoners call the main unit.Cousins said the greatest problem among death row inmates is uncertainty.“I THINK THE MAJORITY ofthe prisoners just want them to make a decision, one way or the other,” he said, adding in unconscious under statement, “Of course, none of them want to be electrocuted. But they think there will be less pain on them if the court would decide.”F or Branch, the time drags on. “I been right here since Ja. 14, 1970,” he said looking around his cell which has just enough space for a cot, sink, small table and wall-hung toilet without a seat.“Out of 24 hours a day, I stay here 24 hours,” he said of his cell. “Now tomorrow or the day after tomorrow I might take a two to four hour recreation.”Food is brought to each cell, Branch said, and he gets a haircut when needed in a barber chair mounted in the corridor outside the three-high tier of“Monday, Wednesday and Friday I go out to shower. It takes about five minutes. Other than that, I stay in my cell,” he said.What does a man do, 24 hours ada\ in such a small area '“THEY CAN WATCHtelevision from their cells, andtin have a radio in »ch cell,” Warden Cousins said. “Some o! them read books, some of them study the law. Some of themwatch the decisions of highercourts all their time.“We have a few up thererepresenting themselves. Theythrow writs and write the courts. They can write to any judge or lawyer in the nation and they do. There’s a few of them write to every clerk and every court and judge, Anybody they think might give them a decision or afavorable court action.”Branch occasionally weaves plastic strips into mats to pass the time, he said. Reading?“NO, I AIN’T NEVER hadmuch education to read,” he adding he had completed the eighth grade.Cousins says he thinks that by and large the death penalty isneeded and justified. Emphasizing that he wasspeaking for himself and not the Texas Department of Corrections, he said, “I think in a caselike robbery, well if the penalty was the same for both offenses, a robber might go ahead and shootLAWN BOY MOWERS SALES SERVICEALL TYPES SMALL ENGINE REPAIRTHE RECREATION comes in a small day room attached to the cell block and Branch said he gets to go there once a week, where he would play dominoes or talk with another inmate of death row.WE RENT MOST ANYTHING1904 TEXAS823-0085down his victim so there wouldofIk' no witnessesDr. George Beto, who will be retiring in August as director ofthe Texas DepartmentCorrections, also believesphilosophically m the death penalty, but admits, “Practically, 1 have some misgivings because of the inequities.”DIFFERENT SENTENCESfor different crimes bother him, he said.* We have an inmate lt;lt;casionally get depressed ormentally disturbed.*'“WHY SOME AND why not others?” Beto, director of the department since 1961, recalls watching the execution of a 19-year-old youth for armed robbery.“The memory of that stillhaunts my mind,” he sj For men penned for almost all of the time in small cages and facing a death sentence, the mood of death row is calm.“WE HAVE VERY little problems with prisoners on death row,” Warden Cousinssa idHe doesn’t hear from home.He might see boogers at night orholiet or cuss a little bit,”Cousins said.As for suicide attempts, I ve only been here three years and I haven’t had one,” he answered.BUT RIGHT NOW, he adds, the prisoners tell him they’rethinking a lot about whatdecision the Supreme Court will make.thereOf course, most of them thinkwill never be anyone executed again,” Cousins said.“Of course, that’s wishful thinking,” he added.MembersPledgeReliability / ResponsibilitySinceKING olihe ROADO fSlj1956
Newspaper Details
Bryan Eagle
Bryan, Texas, US
Wed, Mar 08, 1972
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Diana F.
WA, USA 22 Jan 2020
Other Publications Near Bryan, Texas
Bryan Weekly Brazos Pilot
Bryan Morning Eagle
Bryan Sunday Eagle
Bryan Weekly Eagle
Bryan Daily Eagle
