Blinded Muslim pleads to save his attacker's life

[falah]

Blinded Muslim pleads to save his attacker's life

A MUSLIM who was shot and blinded by a white supremacist days after the 9/11 attacks is suing the governor of Texas to prevent his assailant from being executed.

Rais Bhuiyan says his rights as a victim were ignored when his attacker, Mark Stroman, was sentenced to death after a shooting spree at a Dallas convenience store that left two of his colleagues dead. Stroman, who claims he went on the rampage "against Arabs" in revenge for the death of his half-sister on September 11, 2001, is due to be executed on Wednesday after his final appeal was denied.

Mr Bhuiyan contends state prosecutors "pushed forward with the death penalty" without consulting him or the families of the other victims as required under the Texas Crime Victims' Bill of Rights.

In a lawsuit filed yesterday, Mr Bhuiyan's lawyers said their client was seeking reconciliation with Stroman "because his parents raised him with the religious principle that he is best who can forgive easily. As a Muslim, plaintiff is of the belief that when he forgives or promotes mercy for his attacker, the government should no longer have a duty or a right to exact the ultimate punishment upon Mr Stroman".

Mr Bhuiyan says that neither he nor the families of the other victims, Waqar Hasan and Vasudev Patel, were informed of their rights under the legislation that Governor Rick Perry championed as a guarantee of justice for the victims of crime.

"Along with families of the other victims in the case, I have been ignored and sidelined, year after year," Mr Bhuiyan said yesterday. "If Governor Perry really means it when he says victims' rights are a priority, we need action rather than hollow words."

Mr Perry, who is expected to announce his presidential bid within weeks, has signed off 232 executions -- more than any other governor in American history. His victims' rights legislation was seen by opponents of the death penalty as an attempt to justify such sentences as providing solace to families of the murdered.

But the Governor reckoned without the mercy of Mr Bhuiyan.

Stroman, a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, said he wanted to kill "foreigners" because they threatened "the American way of life". He admitted shooting the three men of South Asian origin, two of whom were Muslims and one a Hindu.

"I am a human being and made a terrible mistake out of love, grief and anger . . . believe me, I am paying for it every single minute of the day," Stroman said on a website supporting his plea for clemency.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1226095556392

[falah]

Victim of 2001 attempted murder begs clemency for his shooter


Danalynn Recer, an attorney for the Gulf Region Advocacy Center, speaks in front of the Heman Marion Sweatt Travis County Courthouse on behalf of Rais Bhuiyan. Bhuiyan survived being shot in the face by a man seeking revenge for a relative’s death during the September 11 attacks, and hopes to stop the execution of the man who shot him, which is scheduled for July 20.


In the wake of 9/11, practicing Muslim Rais Bhuiyan was attacked because of his religion. Remaining true to his faith, he believes he survived to save the man who shot him from execution scheduled for later this month.

Bhuiyan is in the process of filing a lawsuit against Gov. Rick Perry and other Texas officials claiming the state hasn’t recognized his right as a victim to have mediation with the perpetrator.

Bhuiyan, who moved to the U.S. from Bangladesh as an adult, was working at a Dallas gas station on Sept. 21, 2001 when an armed Mark Stroman entered and questioned Bhuiyan about his cultural background before shooting him in the face. Stroman claimed in court he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder after learning his half-sister died in the 9/11 attacks. In Stroman’s attempts at revenge, he murdered Pakistani immigrant Waqar Hasan and Indian immigrant Vasudez Patel and attempted to kill Bhuiyan.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has not responded to Bhuiyan’s request to meet with Stroman before his execution, which is scheduled for July 20. Bhuiyan is requesting the criminal’s life be spared.

Catherine Frazier, spokeswoman for Perry, said the governor’s office is aware of the case but has not received a formal lawsuit. Perry must receive a favorable recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles in order to grant Stroman clemency, she said.

“This is a very unique case because [Bhuiyan] had the courage and strength to stand up for his beliefs,” said Danalynn Recer, executive director and attorney for the Gulf Region Advocacy Center. “Most don’t have this initiative and ability to never give up.”

Khurrum Wahid, Bhuiyan’s lawyer, said he hopes Bhuiyan’s case will be heard by Monday and Stroman will not face execution. Wahid said the uniqueness of the request was one reason he chose to represent Bhuiyan.

“He is portraying the true meaning of Islam, and it really cuts against the grain of all the negative stereotypes surrounding the religion,” Wahid said. “Islam does in fact say that if you are forgiving, you cannot want vengeance.”

Bhuiyan said at a press conference Thursday the families of the Stroman’s other victims also believe he should be allowed another chance at life. Bhuiyan said Stroman acted out of hatred when he committed his crimes and his execution would only perpetuate hostility in society.

“This country has suffered a lot,” Bhuiyan said. “We are living in fear, but if we work together we can break the cycle of hate. It’s not only Islam, but all religions that teach peace and to show mercy.”

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news...cy-his-shooter

[granada]

May Allah reward the brother for his intention but he killed two other people, it's not really his decision to make alone to forgive the killer.

[falah]

He didnt say it was his decision alone, only that his opinion has not been taken into account as is required by Texas law.

Mr Bhuiyan says that neither he nor the families of the other victims, Waqar Hasan and Vasudev Patel, were informed of their rights under the legislation that Governor Rick Perry championed as a guarantee of justice for the victims of crime.

"Along with families of the other victims in the case, I have been ignored and sidelined, year after year," Mr Bhuiyan said yesterday. "If Governor Perry really means it when he says victims' rights are a priority, we need action rather than hollow words."

[SammerTX]

He's set to die in a couple of hours.

Juror, surviving victim fight looming execution of 9/11 revenge killer




(CNN) -- As Mark Anthony Stroman faces execution Wednesday for the killing of an Indian man in revenge for the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, one of the jurors who sentenced him to death and one of his surviving victims are among those calling on Texas officials to spare his life.

Stroman, 41, made national headlines after he fatally shot Vasudev Patel during a shooting rampage after the 9/11 attacks. An admitted white supremacist, Stroman targeted those he believed were Middle Eastern in revenge for the attacks.

A Pakistani man, Waqar Hasan, was also murdered, and a Bangladeshi man, Rais Bhuiyan, was seriously wounded.

"I cannot tell you that I am an innocent man. I am not asking you to feel sorry for me, and I won't hide the truth," Stroman told CNN in a recent interview.

"I am a human being and made a terrible mistake out of love, grief and anger, and believe me, I am paying for it every single minute of the day."

The Supreme Court denied a stay of execution for Stroman last month. His supporters are urging the governor and the state Board of Pardons and Parole to grant clemency. He also has another request pending before the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution. Barring a last-minute reprieve, he is set to die at 6 p.m. (7 p.m. ET).

Prosecutors say that just days after the attacks on New York, Washington and Pennsylvania a decade ago, Stroman began carefully plotting revenge. At the time, he was free on bail for previous crimes.

On September 15, 2001, Stroman shot Hasan in the head while the man was grilling hamburgers in his convenience store. The 46-year-old Pakistani native had moved to the Dallas area that year to start a new life with his family.

Six days later, Stroman shot Bhuiyan in the face while he manned the counter at a gas station. Bhuiyan survived, but was left blind in one eye.

Then, on October 4, Stroman attempted to rob the Mesquite, Texas, gas station operated by Patel. Surveillance tapes showed the suspect waving a .44-caliber chrome-plated pistol at the clerk and demanding, "Open the register or I'll kill you."

The 49-year-old Patel, a Hindu, tried to reach for his gun hidden under the counter, but Stroman shot the man in the chest. He left without taking any cash and was arrested the next day.

It was for that crime that Stroman was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death. During the sentencing phase, he made an obscene hand gesture to Hasan's relatives.

Stroman claimed his sister was on a top floor of the World Trade Center's North Tower when it and the adjacent South Tower collapsed after airliners were deliberately crashed into the buildings. But that claim was never substantiated during his murder trial and was not raised by his appellate attorney.

In a recent posting on his prison blog, Stroman says the 9/11 attacks sparked something inside him.

"Let's just say that I could not think clearly anymore and I am sorry to say I made innocent people pay for my rage, anger, grief and loss," he wrote.

Citing his own statements to fellow inmates, a federal appeals court, in denying his claims, concluded that Stroman believed that the U.S. government "hadn't done their job, so he was going to do it for them" by retaliating.

The man told his lawyers he once belonged to the Aryan Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang, and has a long criminal history of burglary, armed robbery and theft.

Of the 19 9/11 hijackers, 15 were from Saudi Arabia, two were from the United Arab Emirates, one was Lebanese and one was Egyptian, according to federal authorities.

Although he testified against his attacker, Bhuiyan has campaigned against Stroman's execution. A devout Muslim who came to the United States to pursue his education, Bhuiyan was working an extra job a decade ago and was about to be married.

He said a large "angry" man wearing a bandanna, sunglasses and a baseball cap approached him in the store and asked, "Where are you from?" Confused, Bhuiyan asked, "Excuse me?" Immediately afterward, he remembered being shot, "the sensation of a million bees stinging my face, and then heard an explosion."

But Bhuiyan has created a website, worldwithouthate.org, to urge Texas to spare Stroman's life. He also filed a "friend of the court" brief last week in the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, supporting Stroman's requested stay of execution.

"I -- and here I act as a spokesperson for the other victims' families as well -- have been denied our proper voice in the proceedings," Bhuiyan said in the court documents. "We do not wish to see Mark Stroman executed for his crimes. For myself, it is clear that nothing would cause more devastation and pain to the life I struggled to rebuild after the attack than for Mark Stroman to be killed."

"In order to live in a better and peaceful world, we need to break the cycle of hate and violence. I believe forgiveness is the best policy, which helps to break this cycle," Bhuiyan said last week, calling himself a victim of a hate crime. "I forgave Mark Stroman many years ago. I believe he was ignorant and not capable of distinguishing between right and wrong. Otherwise he wouldn't have done what he did."

He said he would like to meet with Stroman before it's too late.

"His attorney gave him the message that one of your victims is running this campaign to save your life," he said. "He was reduced to tears. He couldn't believe one of his victims would come forward and try to save his life."

In addition, juror Jenifer Sheehan is asking Texas Gov. Rick Perry to spare Stroman's life, according to the British anti-death penalty group Reprieve.

"When I walked into that courtroom to serve as a juror, I believed in the death penalty, but as time has passed I have come to deeply regret my decision to sentence Mark to death," Sheehan said in a statement released by Reprieve.

She said she was "misled" by prosecutors into believing that Patel's death was a capital crime, but she knows "now that Mark did not go into the gas station to rob Mr. Patel. ... His crime did not warrant the death penalty."

She said if she had known that Bhuiyan and other victims did not want Stroman executed, she would not have voted for him to receive the death penalty. "I made the wrong decision," she said.

Although he now claims remorse for his actions, Stroman was in a different mood a year after the killings.

Writing on his blog, he said, "This was not a crime of hate but an act of Passion and Patriotism, an act of country and commitment, an act of retribution and recompense. The was not done during Peace time but at War time. I, Mark Anthony Stroman, felt a need to exact some measure of equality and fairness for the thousands of victims of September 11th, 2001."

Stroman says his biggest regret is leaving his four children behind and says that being a capital inmate is a "nightmare come to life." Prisoner No. 999-409 also claims to be a changed man.

"I have destroyed my victims' families as well as my own," Stroman wrote.

"Out of pure anger and stupidity I did some things to some men from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia. And now I sit on death row awaiting execution. And by no means am I proud of what I have done."

After his arrest, Stroman bragged that he had committed other, similar attacks on men he thought were Muslim, for which he was suspected but never charged.

His writings appear to reference one such attack, on a Saudi Arabian victim.

[Ansari]

Texas man executed despite Muslim victim’s efforts to save him

http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-n...ts-to-save-him

NEW YORK - A white supremacist was executed Thursday for a double murder spree launched in retaliation for the 9/11 terrorist attacks after a judge rejected a appeal by one of his Muslim victims to stay the execution, according to media reports.
A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in Austin that Mark Anthony Stroman was put to death with a lethal injection, CNN reported.
U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel in Austin Wednesday rejected a request by Rais Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi immigrant, who was shot during a hate crime in Dallas, to halt
Stroman's execution so he could speak with him. Bhuiyan survived, but was blinded in one eye.
Stroman shot Bhuiyan and killed two immigrants -- a Pakistani and an Indian -- during a Sept. 21, 2001, shooting spree in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.
Judge Yeakel turned down the request, saying he did not have legal authority to intervene, the Austin American-Statesman reported. Yeakel's order said any injury to Bhuiyan due to possible violation of the Crime Victims' Rights statute would be outweighed "by the damage to the operation of the criminal justice system as a whole that would result from this court's granted the requested stay."
"A lot of things I have to know from [(Stroman's] mouth, to look into his eyes and to know his side of things," Bhuiyan had said. "The trauma he caused, the mental anguish from the last nine years, it needs to come to an end."
Stroman killed Waqar Hasan, a Pakistani immigrant, in his Dallas convenience store, and then killed Vsudev Patel, an Indian immigrant whom he mistook as a Muslim, at a gas station in Mesquite.
Bhuiyan, a 37-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Bangladesh, said his Muslim faith compels him to forgive his attacker, and he wants to
break the cycle of violence. He sued Governor Rick Perry and the Texas prison system, claiming they violated his rights as a crime victim by ordering the execution without offering him a mediation session with Stroman.