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| Dr. Quijano |
Dr. Death. It was a fitting nickname for the tall gentleman with a spectral complexion who haunted the corridors of the Dallas County Courthouse in the 1980s.
Summoned by prosecutors to testify in more than 100 capital murder cases, Dr. James Grigson delivered his diagnosis with creepy Marcus Welby-ish solemnity. Sometimes without having met a defendant, he'd confirm what prosecutors needed jurors to hear - that the miscreant posed a continuing threat to society.
He checked an important box for prosecutors who, under Texas' death penalty law, had to prove to juries that the "future dangerousness" of a defendant warranted execution. Without his testimony, the cases would have been run-of-the-mill murders with ordinary prison sentences.
The race factor
Quijano was called to the witness stand by defense attorneys for [Duane Edward] Buck. Though he was found guilty of a deadly shooting rampage, his attorneys hoped to prove the tragedy, in which Buck's estranged girlfriend and another man were killed, was an act of rage not likely to be repeated.
But under cross-examination, Quijano acknowledged to prosecutors that certain factors are associated with violent crime. For instance, the prosecutor asked, "The race factor, black, increases the future dangerousness for various complicated reasons; is that correct?"
"Yes," Quijano replied.
The jury concluded that Buck, a black man, would continue to be violent, and sentenced him to death.
Quijano gave similar testimony in six other cases.
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The inmate, Duane Edward Buck, is set to be executed by lethal injection on September 15 for murdering two people at the home of his ex-girlfriend in 1995. The issue at hand isn't Buck's innocence, but the means by which...
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