Why the National District Attorneys Association chooses the most unethical prosecutors as their Presidents - Part II, #DAHenryGarza The Salesman of The Death Penalty for personal political gain, jeopardizing lives of police officers

I just posted a blog about the interesting pick for President by the National District Attorneys' Association - the corrupt and unethical Onondaga County DA from New York William Fitzpatrick.

This is the current President of NDAA.

One of the previous presidents was not better, if not worse than Fitzpatrick.

His name is Henry Garza, see page 2 of this Board Roster of NDAA.

Henry Garza is a DA from Bell County, Texas.  On top of being the past President of the National District Attorneys' Association, he is NDAA's current Chairman.

DA Garza is proud of his position in the NDAA, as is evident from
DA Garza's official webpage.

DA Garza even states that NDAA is the "Voice of America's Prosecutors".

Making DA Garza, the Chairman of the NDAA, THE voice of the America's prosecutors.

Here is the picture of that "voice".

And here is what that "voice" is currently doing.

DA Henry Garza was elected in 2001 and "is currently serving his fourth term" in Bell County, Texas.

Texas is a death penalty state.

It is the discretion of the DA to seek that death penalty.

This is the man who was deciding whether to seek death on behalf of the government in the State of Texas for 15 years so far.

But, that's the law in the State of Texas, so he is not doing anything wrong for following the law, right?

Let's see.

In November of 2015 DA Garza announced his bid for yet another re-election (by the way, Henry Garza looks older in his 2014 picture than on his current official website picture indicating some vanity issues in DA Garza, an obvious problem for a death penalty prosecutor), compare:

In his re-election bid announced on November 11, 2015, DA Henry Garza claimed that

"he's dedicated to the idea of fairness in criminal justice and plans to continue his dedication to the residents of Bell County."

Once again:

DA Garza is "dedicated to the idea of fairness in criminal justice".

Is he?

In February of 2014, a Texas grand jury returned a "no-bill" and refused to indict a man who shot and killed a police officer during a "no-knock" raid.

Imagine ninja-clad armed people climbing into your window in the wee hours of the morning - are you supposed to presume they are police officers and not defend yourself and your family, with deadly force?

So, a Texas grand jury reasonably concluded that there is nothing to charge the man for when he believed he is being attacked and is risking death from home invaders.

The "no-bill" was returned, once again, in February of 2014, in Burleston County, Texas.

Burleston County DA Julie Renken presented to that grand jury a capital murder case.

The grand jury refused to charge any crime.

Look at the face of a DA who sought death penalty for a person's legal action, an obvious self-defense against a home invasion:

Homey, kind, compassionate, right?

This is the face of an attempted murderer.

Of course, a police media outlet in 2013 reported what happened in a completely different way.

There was no mentioning that it was a no-knock raid.

There was no mentioning that police officers did not identify themselves before storming the Magee residence.

The article only stated that Mr. Magee shot a police officer when "a team of eight deputies served a search warrant at a mobile home".

The search warrant was because of a tip that Mr. Magee was growing marijuana - a non-violent "crime".

Here is a table of similar no-knock raids in several states from 2001 to 2014, as reported by the media, and of results of such raids:

No.	Date	State		Death penalty state? Y/N		Name of fallen police officer	Name of defendant	Race of defendant	Circum- Stances Of the case	Outcome
1	December, 2001	Mississippi	Yes		Ron Jones		Cory Jermaine Maye	Black	Girlfriend and child at home; A no-knock drug raid, a tip from a racist informant; defendant had no prior criminal record, DOB September 9, 1980 – 21 years old at the time of the raid	Charged, convicted of capital murder, sentenced to death;sentence overturned in 2006 on ineffective assistance of counsel grounds; conviction overturned in 2010;  in 2009, the conviction was overturned for denial of the right of vicinage; in 2010 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the conviction for denial of self-defense instruction regarding Maye’s infant daughter;  Maye was coerced to plead guilty to a lesser charge in 2011 in exchange for immediate release and time served
2	January 2008	Virginia	Yes		Jarrod Shivers		Ryan Frederick	White	No-knock drug raid for growing marijuana; Drug raid was based on information from a criminal/informant who DID break into the home of Ryan Frederick 3 days prior	Capital murder, death penalty sought, jury convicted for lesser charge of manslaughter, defendant was sentenced to a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison
3	January 4, 2011	Utah	Yes		Jared Francom		Matthew David Stewart	White	Pot-growing raid with a battering ram;  defendant was an Army veteran; defendant was sleeping and naked when the home was breached, one police officer was killed and several injured	Charged with capital murder, prosecutors announced they will seek death penalty; hung himself in his pre-trial detention cell after a judge denied dismissal of charges based on self-defense
4	December, 2013	Texas	Yes		Adam Sowder		Henry Magee	White	Pot-growing no-knock raid	Capital murder case presented to the grand jury, grand jury refused to indict;  but, indicted for felony possession of marijuana while possessing a deadly weapon
5	May 16, 2014	Texas	Yes		Charles Dinwiddie		Marvin Louis Guy, age 50	Black	No-knock drug raid	Indicted for capital murder, prosecution is seeking death penalty, the trial is set for September 26, 2016

The raids were for growing marijuana.

Washington and Colorado, the states where marijuana was legalized, received, respectively, 70 million dollars in taxes (Washington) and 76 million dollars in taxes (Colorado) in the year 2014. 


Instead, the states of Utah, Mississippi, Virginia and Texas wasted thousands of tax dollars on law enforcement and prosecution of pot-growers, sent police officers into no-knock raids knowing that they may be killed as presumed home invaders, buried at least 5 officers killed as home invaders, paid for injuries of many more and spent and will spend millions of dollars on prosecution, incarceration, feeding, housing and medical treatment of people who killed officers as home invaders, in self-defense.

Officers:

1. Ron Jones, of Mississippi, age 29, on the force for 5 years when killed; survived by parents and two brothers;
2. Jarrod Shivers, of Virginia, age 34, on the force for 8 years when killed, who left behind a wife, a son and two daughters, parents, siblings and grandparents;
3. Jared Francom, of Utah, age 31, survived by a wife and two young children;
4. Adam Sowder, of Texas, age 31, 7 years on the force;
5. Charles Dinwiddie, of Texas, age 47, 18 tears on the force, left behind a wife, two children, parents, multiple siblings, nephews and nieces.

All of what happened is grossly unfair.

To the officers whose lives were cut short.

To their families.

To the people who were put into the position of self-defense, exercised it and were charged with capital murder.

To their families.

The deaths of these five police officers are on their superiors, the prosecutors and the judges who authorized the no-knock raids.

Yet, the officers paid with their lives.

Other officers paid with their injuries.

The officers' families paid with life-long loss and grief.

People who were defending their homes paid with:

1. the life (Matthew Stewart),
2. 10 years in prison and coerced violent criminal record for manslaughter because it was beneath the prosecution to admit they did something wrong and withdraw the charges completely (Cory Maye),
3. the stress and publicity of criminal prosecution (Henry Magee);
4. incarceration for 10 years (Ryan Frederick);
5. possibly, death penalty (Marvin Guy).

There is no indication that ANY of those people who:

1) directed a criminal to break into an apartment to provide a probable cause for the raid (Ryan Frederick's case);

2) sent armed no-knock raids into homes with children (Cory Maey);

3) sent police officers to near-sure deaths because of a POT-GROWING OPERATION, -

that any of these people suffered any repercussions, demotion, discipline, prosecution - anything.

One of these people is the former president and present chairman of the National District Attorneys' Association, the Bell County (Texas) Da Henry Garza.

DA Garza is now, at the same time, running a re-election campaign for his 5th term in office, and is prosecuting Marvin Louis Guy for capital murder of police officer Charles Dinwiddie - instead of prosecuting those who have sent officer Charles Dinwiddie on a no-knock raid that could be perceived by ANY reasonable person as a home invasion, warranting self-defense by deadly force, which is what, in fact, occurred.

Let's compare the dates.

The no-knock raid against Henry Magee, in Texas, occurred in December of 2013 and the grand jury refused to indict in February of 2014.

Instead of rethinking the policy of no-knock raids and protecting police officers from death under similar circumstances, in May of 2014, 3 months after a Texas grand jury refused to indict Henry Magee for the shooting death of officer Adam Sowder, Bell County officials sought an identical no-knock raid, and sent officer Charles Dinwiddie into a sure death.

There are allegations that decisions to prosecute or not prosecute in such cases were racially based.

My table above does not allow for such a conclusion, without more evidence.

3 out of 5 defendants were white.

Prosecution for capital murder was sought against all five defendants.

One of the white defendants hung himself during the trial.

Another white defendant was "no-billed" by the grand jury, after the prosecution presented "hours of testimony".

The only racial aspect in the case of Marvin Guy that I would explore is whether the racial composition of his grand jury was predominantly white - but, in view of grand jury secrecy, I am not sure whether such information will be provided to the defense, and especially to the media.

The case of Marvin Guy is asking for a dismissal or jury nullification.

DA Garza knows this is a clear self-defense case.

But, DA Garza wants to be re-elected, and he won't be re-elected if he is not running a pro-death penalty Republican re-election campaign in the state of Texas, and if he does not cater for law enforcement who wants blood for the death of their brother.

Of course, the death of their brother, even if caused by Marvin Guy's bullet, was actually caused by those brainless public officials who have authorized and sent the no-knock raid team to raid Marvin Guy's home, even after the "no-bill" for Henry Magee.

The other possible racial motivation of the raid is because Marvin Guy, a black man, was chosen for the "no-knock" raid.

After all, growing marijuana is a very common crime, and it is common across all races.

So, why choose a black man for the raid right after a white man was "no-billed" for the same?

And, why DA Garza, who claimed he is running for re-election because he wants "fairness in the criminal justice" system not withdraw charges and end this farce?

DA Garza should know, after all, that to charge a person who is defending against a home invasion, is inherently unfair.

Or, is the sweetness of re-election to the position that pays $140,000 a year outweighing the unfairness of seeking government-authorized murder of a man for exercising his legal right of self-defense?

Apparently, the "voice" of American prosecutors has answered a resounding "yes" to that question.

Henry Garza is no more than a salesman.

Of the death penalty.

At the cost of lives of police officers and the life of the criminal defendant.

At the cost of devastation of families on both sides.

And, until and unless people realize who is the real culprit in the death of officer Charles Dinwiddie, and demand real accountability of the real culprits, more officers will be put in the exact same position, and in the exact same danger of death or serious injury - so that more salesmen like Henry Garza would claim political capital in their election campaigns.