Texas man set to die for slaying he blamed on 9/11
Rais Bhuiyan still remembers the smallest details, almost 10
years after the day he thought he would die.
"He pointed a gun directly at my face," Bhuiyan said. "He
asked me: `Where are you from?' A strange question. I replied back:
`Excuse me?"'
Bhuiyan heard an explosion. "It felt like a million bees
striking my face. ... It happened so quickly."
The Bangladesh native survived the shooting but lost sight in an
eye. He identified the shooter as Mark Stroman, a two-time ex-con
whose record includes an armed robbery at age 12. Stroman, 41, was
tied to two other shootings, both of them fatal, in what he
contended was a patriotic duty to kill people of Middle East
descent in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
He is set to die Wednesday for one of them, the gunning down of
Vasudev Patel, 49, in October 2001 at a gas station and convenience
store in Mesquite, just east of Dallas. Patel had moved from India
to Texas in 1983 and was a naturalized U.S. citizen.
In an unusual development, Bhuiyan has filed a civil lawsuit
that was to be the subject of a federal court hearing Wednesday to
halt the execution. The lawsuit says the state has ignored
Bhuiyan's rights as a victim and his Islamic faith requires him to
seek mercy and forgiveness for his attacker. Bhuiyan wants to meet
Stroman to try to better understand why the shootings happened and
begin what would be a lengthy formal remediation process.
The lawsuit has support from Stroman's appeals attorney who has
cited it as reason to delay his execution. She also argued in an
appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court that Stroman's legal help at his
trial and in earlier appeals was deficient and the high court
should stop what would be the eighth lethal injection in Texas this
year so the claims can be further reviewed.
Bhuiyan contends Stroman is a different person now, who has
learned from his mistakes.
"By sparing his life, if he can touch one life, that is
success," he said. "If he's gone, we are not getting anything out
of this."
Stroman has avoided trouble in prison in recent years, said
Michelle Lyons, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokeswoman.
But in 2008, prison officials found a cell phone, charger, piece of
metal sharpened to a point and what appeared to be marijuana in his
cell. About the same time, he was written up by prison authorities
for scratching an obscenity into some fresh paint in a visiting
booth.
Stroman was free on bond for a gun possession arrest when his
shooting spree started in 2001. He had previous convictions for
burglary, robbery, theft and credit card abuse, served at least two
prison terms and was paroled twice. His juvenile record showed an
armed robbery at age 12.
When police arrested him the day Patel was killed, they found
the 44-caliber handgun used in the shooting. Stroman confessed, and
court documents said he told authorities he belonged to the Aryan
Brotherhood, a white supremacist prison gang. Prosecutors also say
he told another jail inmate about the shootings and how automatic
weapons police found in his car were intended for a planned attack
at a Dallas-area shopping mall.
Stroman has blamed the shootings on the loss of a sister in the
collapse of one of the World Trade Center towers, although
prosecutors say in court documents there's no firm evidence she
ever existed.
"I remember sitting at home watching the nightmare on TV, and
knowing she was on the top floors of the North Tower," Stroman
said on a website devoted to his case. "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."
More recently, he denied being a white supremacist, pointing out
his wife was Hispanic.
"I'm not the monster the media portrays me," he said in an
interview last week from death row.
Bhuiyan said the slain clerks' relatives agree Stroman should be
spared, but prosecutors dispute that, saying Patel's widow
"specifically informed the state she wishes to express no opinion
regarding Stroman's impending execution." The Dallas County
District Attorney's office also said Tuesday she does not want to
speak to the media.
Along with Patel's slaying, Stroman was charged but not tried in
the shooting death of Waqar Hasan, 46, a Pakistani immigrant who
moved to Dallas in 2001 to open a convenience store. Hasan was
killed four days after the terrorists struck. The attack on Bhuiyan
came a week later.
"To be honest, I never hated him, even if he tried to kill
me," Bhuiyan said. "I do look for good and move on. ... This is
what my parents taught me when I was very young. Always try to
forgive. ... Don't hurt them back."