Execution Watch: Gayland Bradford

Gayland Bradford

By Elizabeth Ann Stein
Producer, Execution Watch


(HUNTSVILLE, Tex.) -- Texas is preparing to put to death Gayland Bradford Wednesday in what is slated to be the first of four executions in Texas during June. Execution Watch will provide live radio coverage and analysis.

Unless  Bradford receives a last-minute stay, the program will air during the execution June 1, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Central Time. It may be heard in the Houston area on KPFT 90.1 FM and over the internet at executionwatch.org > Listen.

'TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE:
GAYLAND BRADFORD, 42, came within six days of being executed in October, when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay to give his attorneys time to prepare a full appeal of his sentence on grounds that he is mentally impaired. Bradford was sentenced to death in the slaying of a Dallas security guard. His attorneys say his execution would be unconstitutional because he is mentally retarded. Texas prison officials tested his IQ at 68 when he was a 17-year-old first offender. More background at http://executionwatch.org > Backpage on Gayland Bradford.

SHOW LINEUP
Host: RAY HILL, an ex-convict whose activism has included shepherding several cases to the U.S. Supreme Court., he founded, and hosted for 30 years, the Prison Show on KPFT. His new internet talk show may be heard every weekday on hmsnetradio.org at 2 p.m. CT.

Legal Analyst: JIM SKELTON, a legal educator and retired attorney, he’s a native Texan and  iconoclast who has seen capital trials from both the prosecution table and the defense table.

Featured Interview: HOOMAN HEDAYATI. He is Texas Field Organizer for Witness to Innocence, which seeks to empower death row survivors and their loved ones to be effective leaders in the movement to abolish the death penalty. As a student at UT-Austin, he founded the national organization, Students Against the Death Penalty. A board member of the Texas Moratorium Network, he testified before legislators recently on death-penalty-related legislation. The website for Witness to Innocence: www.witnesstoinnocence.org/.

Reporter, Death House, Huntsville: GLORIA RUBAC. Founder of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, abolitionmovement.org/

Reporter, Texas Vigil: DAVE ATWOOD. Founder and board member, Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death penalty; author of memoir, Detour to Death Row. www.tcadp.org.

NEXT SCHEDULED EXECUTION
On June 15, Texas plans to execute JOHN BALENTINE. If that happens, Execution Watch will broadcast. Details: executionwatch.org

PRODUCER: Elizabeth Ann Stein, eliza.tx.usa @gmail.com.
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Otis Maclay, omaclay @gmail.com.
THEME:  By Victoria Panetti, SheMonster International, myspace.com/shemonster.