Racial politics in death penalty?


Attorney of Stockton man scheduled to die says yes

STOCKTON -- Michael Angelo Morales, the Stockton man awaiting execution in February for the 1981 rape and murder of a Tokay High School student, could be the first Latino put to death in California since the state revived capital punishment.

A dozen men -- white, Black and of Asian ancestry -- have preceded Morales, 46, in California's death chamber since 1992, when the execution of Robert Alton Harris ended a 25-year suspension on capital punishment in California.

Clarence Ray Allen of Fresno, an American Indian and the state's oldest death-row inmate, could be the next put to death by injection. His execution is scheduled for Jan. 17, the day after he turns 76.

San Joaquin County prosecutors expect Morales to be executed Feb. 21. There are 646 inmates on California's death row.
Eight of the 12 executed since 1992 were white, and whites make up nearly 40 percent of the inmates on death row. The others were two Blacks, an Asian and an American Indian.

Latinos make up more than 33 percent of California's population and 14 percent of inmates on California's death row.

Death-penalty opponents argue that race plays a major role in death-penalty convictions such as Morales'.

"It has nothing to do with the details of the crimes," said Lance Lindsey, executive director of Death Penalty Focus. "It is about race, place and poverty."

Juries from San Joaquin Valley communities are more likely to convict a minority defendant and sentence him to death, said Lindsey, whose San Francisco-based organization lobbies for a moratorium on all executions.

Men from impoverished backgrounds who were convicted of crimes against white victims are especially subject to unfairness, Lindsey said. Morales' victim was a white girl.

"There's a continuing drum beat as you look at capital cases to see these inequities," Lindsey said.

Morales has been on San Quentin State Prison's death row for more than two decades since his conviction for slaying 17-year-old Terri Winchell. Winchell left home one evening to get food for her ill mother, court papers said. Days later, her stabbed, beaten and partially nude body was found in a vineyard outside of Lodi.

Morales' attorney, David Senior of Los Angeles, said his client has acknowledged his part in Winchell's murder and expressed remorse. Senior said Morales doesn't want to hurt his and Winchell's families anymore.

But Senior said race partly fueled his client's case.

"There is overwhelming statistical evidence that race and gender were factors relied upon in seeking the death penalty in this case," Senior said.

California still runs far behind Texas, which has executed both the largest number of people overall -- 355 -- and the most Latinos -- 51.

Todd Slosek, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said his office carries out the death warrants issued by the court on inmates under state law regardless of race.

"There's no rhyme or reason why people commit crimes against others," Slosek said.

Contact reporter Scott Smith at (209) 546-8296 or ssmith@recordnet.com