Convicted Murderer Napoleon Beazley Is Scheduled to be Executed Tomorrow
KATE SNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Time is running out for Napoleon Beazley. He's on death row in Texas, scheduled to die by injection tomorrow night. He was convicted of a murder committed when he was 17. Now, his lawyers are looking for a way to stop the execution. CNN's Kelli Arena on their maneuvers.</s>KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Is Napoleon Beazley a ruthless killer and danger to society, or a confused young man who after one horrible incident no longer poses a threat?</s>NAPOLEON BEAZLEY, CONVICTED MURDERER: DA and his assistant DA, they paint this picture of me being as being a bad monster, you know, this predator, this animal, but then they couldn't bring anybody that knew me before this crime to come in and testify to say I was that person.</s>ARENA: Seven years ago, Beazley and two friends follow a prominent Tyler, Texas couple home, looking to carjack their Mercedes. Beazley shoots at 63-year-old John Luttig. The bullet grazes his head.</s>JACK SKEEN, SMITH CO. DISTRICT ATTORNEY: When he came back around, as Mr. Luttig was on the ground and just walked up to him at point-blank range and shot him in the head, and that was the fatal shot. And then, he rifled through his pockets to get the car keys.</s>ARENA: Beazley also aims his .45 at Luttig's wife Bobbie, but misses. She crawls under the car and plays dead.</s>BOBBIE LUTTIG, VICTIM'S WIFE: I was wondering what the bullet would feel like if it went through my back.</s>ARENA: Beazley admits he was the shooter. At the time, he was 17, considered an adult under Texas law. The man Beazley murdered was the father of a prominent federal judge, J. Michael Luttig. Critics charge if not for Judge Luttig's influence, Beazley would not be facing execution. Prosecution says the decision was justified.</s>SKEEN: It was a very horrific, premeditated, calculated, cold- blooded execution.</s>ARENA: The murder was Beazley's first brush with crime, even though he admits he had started dealing crack cocaine. He was popular at school, even class president. Beazley's two co-defendants recanted their testimony that Beazley had said he wanted to kill someone that night. Death penalty opponents say no other Western nation executes someone the rest of the world considers a juvenile at the time of the crime.</s>AJAMU BARAKA, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: A child offender who committed a crime, no matter how heinous, should not be subjected to a death sentence.</s>ARENA (on camera): Napoleon Beazley would be the 19th U.S. inmate to be executed for committing murder while under the age of 18. Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.