While states like Georgia have worked tirelessly to switch drugs so they can resume killing their prisoners, and while many celebrate the “justice” they see in the killing of Osama bin Laden, something radically different is happening in – of all places – Dallas, Texas.
Shortly after the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, a man named Mark Stroman roamed the Dallas area committing a series of hate crimes that in his mind constituted retaliation. He murdered two men he thought were Middle Eastern (one was a Hindu from India the other a Muslim from Pakistan) and attempted to kill a third, a Muslim from Bangladesh named Rais Bhuiyan.
For the two murders, the state of Texas sentenced him to death, and he is now scheduled to be executed on July 20. Yet more killing. But Rais Bhuiyan (who is blind in his right eye because of the shot that was meant to kill him) is opposed to the execution and is campaigning to stop it. He has the support of the Dallas Morning News which wrote in its Sunday editorial:
We wish to give that campaign voice. It delivers a potent message to a nation still torn by the loss of 9/11. It resists the cycle of revenge that doesn’t stop until someone has the courage to say enough.
As Bhuiyan himself said a few days earlier: “… hate doesn’t bring any good solution to people. At some point we have to break the cycle of violence. It brings more disaster.”
Exactly. Enough.
Well, almost a week ago, it was the night that Rodney King's lights were snuffed out in Mississippi, as he was lynched without a fair trial and without being charged, and in spite of his innocence and mental illness and of false witnesses, which the news media STILL believes! I hope that Mississippi will one day have to answer to a higher authority, God. May Rodney and Grace Blackwell rest in the justice and peace that was long denied for them on earth. 😥
@ Debbie – Rodney King? I am guessing you mean Rodney Gray?
Aahh … the name Rodney….
It's so associated in all our minds with King's.
It's a slip i too would have made.
Dear Debbie Kearns,
i side with your fundamental premise.
i especially side with you on your point that the news media continues to channel official versions of legal cases which are patently untrue.
The major news media mostly do the "he said", "she said" routine, & thus avoid their responsibility to the truth.
They don't want to rock the boat of the "powers – that – be" !
Investigative journalism is dead in american big media.
& why ?
Because the big media are big businesses.
They are big business houses.
In fact, many now refer to them as the "FCM".
The Fawning Corporate Media.
Fawning towards the powerful politicians & corporation bosses.
The big media houses are now the pharisees of the present system.
Yes, David. I mean Rodney Gray! My bad.
Well, almost a week ago, it was the night that Rodney King’s lights were snuffed out in Mississippi, as he was lynched without a fair trial and without being charged, and in spite of his innocence and mental illness and of false witnesses, which the news media STILL believes! I hope that Mississippi will one day have to answer to a higher authority, God. May Rodney and Grace Blackwell rest in the justice and peace that was long denied for them on earth. 😥
@ Debbie – Rodney King? I am guessing you mean Rodney Gray?
Aahh … the name Rodney….
It’s so associated in all our minds with King’s.
It’s a slip i too would have made.
Dear Debbie Kearns,
i side with your fundamental premise.
i especially side with you on your point that the news media continues to channel official versions of legal cases which are patently untrue.
The major news media mostly do the “he said”, “she said” routine, & thus avoid their responsibility to the truth.
They don’t want to rock the boat of the “powers – that – be” !
Investigative journalism is dead in american big media.
& why ?
Because the big media are big businesses.
They are big business houses.
In fact, many now refer to them as the “FCM”.
The Fawning Corporate Media.
Fawning towards the powerful politicians & corporation bosses.
The big media houses are now the pharisees of the present system.
This is totally irrelevent. But I just wanted to say that I think facebook should take a hint and have a like and a dislike button.
I would push the like botton for this one.
Yes, David. I mean Rodney Gray! My bad.
This is totally irrelevent. But I just wanted to say that I think facebook should take a hint and have a like and a dislike button.
I would push the like botton for this one.
Now Arizona is about to make the same tragedy early tomorrow morning by killing Donald Beaty in spite of his innocence that went TOTALLY ignored by the courts and by the news and media and in spite of the "tour guides" making fun of him and saying that he will "be on a one-way ticket to hell soon"; the lies that the news media makes will be more disgusting if Beaty is killed for the murder of Christy Forloff. The Forloff family will have their vengeance in the form of "justice" satisfied by killing him and unknowingly letting the real killer go free and causing Beaty's family more grief in the loss of their loved one to state-sponsored murder! Once again, the major news media is ignoring the truth and doing the same old "he said, she said" nonsense! My heart breaks for both families, and I pray for them and for the safety of Donald's soul. 😥
Donald Beaty innocent? Say what you will about the death penalty – but this "man" is the farthest from innocent you can get.
He was an apartment complex maintanence worker that abducted, raped and killed a 13 year old girl who was on her paper route. He kept her body in his apartment for days before wrapping it in sheets and tossing it in a dumpster.
Her vomit and other forensic evidence was found in his apartment. Since incarcerated he has confessed and claims he didn't mean to kill her – but used a cloth to gag her – so she couldn't scream out to her Mother when he was raping her. He shoved so much cloth in her mouth, held it there while she vomited, choking and suffocating – DYING.
Years prior to this he was convicted of trying to SELL his own son. He had a prior record that includes convictions for stolen property. He had been fired from his TWO previous apartment maintenance jobs for watching and peeping at women through windows.
He is not innocent Debbie. Say what you will about the death penalty – but don't try to argue this guy is innocent. Find a better poster child.
In mine and most people's opinion – this guy deserves what is coming to him.
Brian, perhaps you never read about the link shown here:
http://ccadp.org/donaldbeaty.htm
Say what you will, but if you still don't want to hear about Donald's maintenance of innocence, then I don't really care. You're just like those who care for victims' family members but shun the death row inmates whose families have never done anything wrong! You claim to be a Christian yet celebrate whenever one inmate is executed, even if or when he is innocent, and you always claim that those who kill are "godless monsters who deserve to be executed immediately and to go to hell so that they will never kill again!" You even ignore the fact that executions do not deter murders any more than life imprisonment! You never care about innocence and you never care about human rights at all! 😡
Brian, perhaps you never read about the link shown here:
http://ccadp.org/donaldbeaty.htm
Say what you will, but if you still don't want to hear about Donald's maintenance of innocence, then I don't really care. You're just like those who care for victims' family members but shun the death row inmates whose families have never done anything wrong! You claim to be a Christian yet celebrate whenever one inmate is executed, even if or when he is innocent, and you always claim that those who kill are "godless monsters who deserve to be executed immediately and to go to hell so that they will never kill again!" You even ignore the fact that executions do not deter murders any more than life imprisonment! You never care about innocence and you never care about human rights at all! 😡
Brian, perhaps you never read about the link shown here:
http://ccadp.org/donaldbeaty.htm
Say what you will, but if you still don't want to hear about Donald's maintenance of innocence, then I don't really care. You're just like those who care for victims' family members but shun the death row inmates whose families have never done anything wrong! You claim to be a Christian yet celebrate whenever one inmate is executed, even if or when he is innocent, and you always claim that those who kill are "godless monsters who deserve to be executed immediately and to go to hell so that they will never kill again!" You even ignore the fact that executions do not deter murders any more than life imprisonment! You never care about innocence and you never care about human rights at all! 😡
Now Arizona is about to make the same tragedy early tomorrow morning by killing Donald Beaty in spite of his innocence that went TOTALLY ignored by the courts and by the news and media and in spite of the “tour guides” making fun of him and saying that he will “be on a one-way ticket to hell soon”; the lies that the news media makes will be more disgusting if Beaty is killed for the murder of Christy Forloff. The Forloff family will have their vengeance in the form of “justice” satisfied by killing him and unknowingly letting the real killer go free and causing Beaty’s family more grief in the loss of their loved one to state-sponsored murder! Once again, the major news media is ignoring the truth and doing the same old “he said, she said” nonsense! My heart breaks for both families, and I pray for them and for the safety of Donald’s soul. 😥
Oh the murderer wrote a blog on the internet and says he didn't do it – the chief was under pressure so it was all a frame! That is enough for you?
Donald Beaty innocent? Say what you will about the death penalty – but this “man” is the farthest from innocent you can get.
He was an apartment complex maintanence worker that abducted, raped and killed a 13 year old girl who was on her paper route. He kept her body in his apartment for days before wrapping it in sheets and tossing it in a dumpster.
Her vomit and other forensic evidence was found in his apartment. Since incarcerated he has confessed and claims he didn’t mean to kill her – but used a cloth to gag her – so she couldn’t scream out to her Mother when he was raping her. He shoved so much cloth in her mouth, held it there while she vomited, choking and suffocating – DYING.
Years prior to this he was convicted of trying to SELL his own son. He had a prior record that includes convictions for stolen property. He had been fired from his TWO previous apartment maintenance jobs for watching and peeping at women through windows.
He is not innocent Debbie. Say what you will about the death penalty – but don’t try to argue this guy is innocent. Find a better poster child.
In mine and most people’s opinion – this guy deserves what is coming to him.
I've had enough of listening to your so-called claims of "death penalty = deterrance" and "all killers are guilty SOBs and none are innocent", Brian No-Last-Name! You insult AIUSA and you insult us to no end! You're truly talking trash with all the "he said, she said" stuff! Go spread your hate somewhere else, NOT here on these blogs! Good day! 👿
Brian, perhaps you never read about the link shown here:
http://ccadp.org/donaldbeaty.htm
Say what you will, but if you still don’t want to hear about Donald’s maintenance of innocence, then I don’t really care. You’re just like those who care for victims’ family members but shun the death row inmates whose families have never done anything wrong! You claim to be a Christian yet celebrate whenever one inmate is executed, even if or when he is innocent, and you always claim that those who kill are “godless monsters who deserve to be executed immediately and to go to hell so that they will never kill again!” You even ignore the fact that executions do not deter murders any more than life imprisonment! You never care about innocence and you never care about human rights at all! 😡
Oh the murderer wrote a blog on the internet and says he didn’t do it – the chief was under pressure so it was all a frame! That is enough for you?
I’ve had enough of listening to your so-called claims of “death penalty = deterrance” and “all killers are guilty SOBs and none are innocent”, Brian No-Last-Name! You insult AIUSA and you insult us to no end! You’re truly talking trash with all the “he said, she said” stuff! Go spread your hate somewhere else, NOT here on these blogs! Good day! 👿
You do not respond well when confronted with the truth. Donald Beaty kidnapped, raped and murdered that innocent 13 year old girl.
You do not respond well when confronted with the truth. Donald Beaty kidnapped, raped and murdered that innocent 13 year old girl.
The question presented by the story of Mark Stroman and his intended victim is not one of the media's biased portrayal of a person's case nor is it one of the objective truth behind a person's guilt or innocence (as debbie and brian are debating in regards to Mr. Beaty), rather it is the normative question of why we continue to use the death penalty. If it to punish those who have killed, Mr. Stroman's intended victim Mr. Bhuiyan is correct in recognizing that "an eye for an eye" mentality (literally in this case…) does not right the original wrong, it instead perpetuates an unneccessary cycle of violence that neither deters crime nor compensates for the loss felt by the victims' families and friends. By killing Mark Stroman, the world may be without one convicted murderer, but that is not to say that that simple fact can inversely be understood as making the world a safer place.
I understand, C.A.R. At least a stay of execution was granted for both Beaty and Robert Simon Jr. (who also may be innocent). But I also have to say, in quoting Bill Maher, that if you celebrated bin Laden's death, as well as celebrate the executions of death row inmates and of those believed to be innocent, you are not truly a Christian.
Lots of room for debate on the death penalty (both sides).
But my jaw dropped when I read "Arizona is about kill Donald Beaty in spite of his innocence".
The stay for Beaty has ZERO to do with guilt or innocence – rather the procedures used to obtain the juice. If and when that is resovled – no other straws to grasp for.
Just trying to keep people and the debate honest.
I am unsure as to the relevancy of the death of Bin Laden in this conversation, as my point was that regardless of whether a person – such as Osama, Stroman, or Beaty, who admitted to their crimes and inflicted irreparable harm – "deserves" to die, it is A. their murders do not exonerate our murder of capital punishment, and B. it is not an effective method in making our world a more crime-free or terrorist-free world as it continues to legitimize and perpetuate violence.
The question presented by the story of Mark Stroman and his intended victim is not one of the media’s biased portrayal of a person’s case nor is it one of the objective truth behind a person’s guilt or innocence (as debbie and brian are debating in regards to Mr. Beaty), rather it is the normative question of why we continue to use the death penalty. If it to punish those who have killed, Mr. Stroman’s intended victim Mr. Bhuiyan is correct in recognizing that “an eye for an eye” mentality (literally in this case…) does not right the original wrong, it instead perpetuates an unneccessary cycle of violence that neither deters crime nor compensates for the loss felt by the victims’ families and friends. By killing Mark Stroman, the world may be without one convicted murderer, but that is not to say that that simple fact can inversely be understood as making the world a safer place.
I understand, C.A.R. At least a stay of execution was granted for both Beaty and Robert Simon Jr. (who also may be innocent). But I also have to say, in quoting Bill Maher, that if you celebrated bin Laden’s death, as well as celebrate the executions of death row inmates and of those believed to be innocent, you are not truly a Christian.
Lots of room for debate on the death penalty (both sides).
But my jaw dropped when I read “Arizona is about kill Donald Beaty in spite of his innocence”.
The stay for Beaty has ZERO to do with guilt or innocence – rather the procedures used to obtain the juice. If and when that is resovled – no other straws to grasp for.
Just trying to keep people and the debate honest.
I am unsure as to the relevancy of the death of Bin Laden in this conversation, as my point was that regardless of whether a person – such as Osama, Stroman, or Beaty, who admitted to their crimes and inflicted irreparable harm – “deserves” to die, it is A. their murders do not exonerate our murder of capital punishment, and B. it is not an effective method in making our world a more crime-free or terrorist-free world as it continues to legitimize and perpetuate violence.
Dear Debbie Kearns,
C. A. R. & your approaches differ, but your minds meet as one.
i am of one mind with you both, against execution both "judicial" & extrajudicial.
Even when the person did what they say he did.
For a problem can never be resolved at its own level.
To resolve a problem, we have to transcend it.
We transcend it by working together with the "prodigal son".
Thru mutual understanding, conflict resolution, & healing, don't you feel ?
But america's ruling elites perpetuate capital punishment because it's a power that gives them control over all the people.
& power is sonething the powerful never want to give up.
Both you & C.A.R. want justice ….. & brian wants it , too !
brian wants justice on an individual, instant level… thru blood, one man's blood.
You want justice on a universal, lasting level …. thru healing, society's healing.
Our work is with brian, too.
The Struggle is Together.
America's ruling elites? Who are they? A jury of peers? All those that rule on the countless and nearly endless appeals? Those that are elected State Governor and work for and answer to the people? Are ALL 64% of those polled – answering "YES" to the question "Are you infavor of a death penalty for those convicted of murder" part of "America's ruling elite"? Are the majority U.S. Supreme Court justices "America's ruling elite"? Is President Barack ""I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in circumstances for the most egregious of crimes" Obama and elite? Abraham Lincoln an American Elite? Who are the elite your hallow and baseless rhetoric references?
Strike up the violin. The kidnapper that brutally raped and murdered a 13 year old girl has exhausted all his appeals and is now hours from taking his last breath on this earth.
"If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by my friends the murderers."
– Alphonse Karr
Dear Debbie Kearns,
C. A. R. & your approaches differ, but your minds meet as one.
i am of one mind with you both, against execution both “judicial” & extrajudicial.
Even when the person did what they say he did.
For a problem can never be resolved at its own level.
To resolve a problem, we have to transcend it.
We transcend it by working together with the “prodigal son”.
Thru mutual understanding, conflict resolution, & healing, don’t you feel ?
But america’s ruling elites perpetuate capital punishment because it’s a power that gives them control over all the people.
& power is sonething the powerful never want to give up.
Both you & C.A.R. want justice ….. & brian wants it , too !
brian wants justice on an individual, instant level… thru blood, one man’s blood.
You want justice on a universal, lasting level …. thru healing, society’s healing.
Our work is with brian, too.
The Struggle is Together.
Oh – Shut Up A. Savage. You sound annoying and meaningless.
America’s ruling elites? Who are they? A jury of peers? All those that rule on the countless and nearly endless appeals? Those that are elected State Governor and work for and answer to the people? Are ALL 64% of those polled – answering “YES” to the question “Are you infavor of a death penalty for those convicted of murder” part of “America’s ruling elite”? Are the majority U.S. Supreme Court justices “America’s ruling elite”? Is President Barack “”I have said repeatedly that I think that the death penalty should be applied in circumstances for the most egregious of crimes” Obama and elite? Abraham Lincoln an American Elite? Who are the elite your hallow and baseless rhetoric references?
Strike up the violin. The kidnapper that brutally raped and murdered a 13 year old girl has exhausted all his appeals and is now hours from taking his last breath on this earth.
“If we are to abolish the death penalty, I should like to see the first step taken by my friends the murderers.”
– Alphonse Karr
Oh – Shut Up A. Savage. You sound annoying and meaningless.
I am the woman nicknamed "America" of striped ties, wearing hats, American flags, not wearing ties, of poems and comments, unvoluntarily on YouTube. In 2005 I began by calling the Seattle PI and made comments about George Bush, Congress and Karl Rove. Since 2005, I have been monitored by the NSA or some such organization. It's 2011 and I wonder if ………..anyone…….is willing to admit this is happening?
We are a legitimate Non-profit assoc. for a historical museum.
I am the woman nicknamed “America” of striped ties, wearing hats, American flags, not wearing ties, of poems and comments, unvoluntarily on YouTube. In 2005 I began by calling the Seattle PI and made comments about George Bush, Congress and Karl Rove. Since 2005, I have been monitored by the NSA or some such organization. It’s 2011 and I wonder if ………..anyone…….is willing to admit this is happening?
We are a legitimate Non-profit assoc. for a historical museum.
To Diane,No,But I'm not an American.I just remember old photo of our country during WWII.(no offend,but it's true)
For those people tired of hearing "No death penalty",I guess these people needs to hear more,
What I want toi know is,the impact of death penalty,for about to commit crime.
I think it's not so much,as far as I read Criminal rate in US..
To Diane,No,But I’m not an American.I just remember old photo of our country during WWII.(no offend,but it’s true)
For those people tired of hearing “No death penalty”,I guess these people needs to hear more,
What I want toi know is,the impact of death penalty,for about to commit crime.
I think it’s not so much,as far as I read Criminal rate in US..
There is apparently a bunch to realize about this. I believe you made some nice points in features also.
There is apparently a bunch to realize about this. I believe you made some nice points in features also.
What! There are still mob lynchings? unbelievable
What! There are still mob lynchings? unbelievable
Tell me how by saving one man you save man's hate spree- are there not going to be anyone hanged after? What use then by saving one if there be no use by killing another?
Tell me how by saving one man you save man’s hate spree- are there not going to be anyone hanged after? What use then by saving one if there be no use by killing another?
The other side of the story:
: Killer of gas clerk gets death penalty
: Family of victim in Sept. 11 retaliation is happy with sentence
: 04/05/2002
: By TIM WYATT / The Dallas Morning News
: A Dallas County jury handed the death penalty Thursday to a Dallas man who claimed that a series of shootings last fall that killed two immigrants and maimed another were retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
: Mark Anthony Stroman, 33, received the death sentence after three days of trial testimony and less than four hours of jury deliberations for the Oct. 4 robbery and slaying of Vasudev Patel, a 49-year-old gas station attendant in Mesquite.
: As state District Judge Henry Wade Jr. read the verdict, Mr. Stroman nodded his head and then said: "Thank you, sir." He waved briefly at family members while being led out of the courtroom.
: Mr. Stroman also is charged with two Dallas shootings that killed convenience store owner Waqar Hasan, 46, on Sept. 15, and blinded Rais Bhuiyan in one eye at a Pleasant Grove gas station a week later. Mr. Stroman was not on trial in the September shootings but confessed to all three after his Oct. 5 arrest by Mesquite police.
: The widows of Mr. Patel and Mr. Hasan left the court without commenting. A family member, John Patel, said that his family was "very happy with the verdict" and that the brutality of the killings called for the death penalty.
: Teressa Talamantez said her brother-in-law "didn't do right" by attacking the three men, "but now [Mr. Stroman's] children are victims of this."
: "It's just more sadness," Ms. Talamantez said. "American justice failed again. It's just not right."
: Prosecutor Greg Davis said the attacks were committed out of "pure hatred" that claimed two lives and devastated victims' families.
: Mr. Stroman "attempted to say he was a patriot," Mr. Davis said. "He was anything but a patriot. What he is, is just a common vigilante."
: 'Chaotic mind'
:
: Defense attorney Jim Oatman had no comment after the verdict, but during closing arguments he told jurors that until the World Trade Center attack his client only talked of being a white separatist. After Sept. 11, he said, Mr. Stroman's actions turned violent for what his "chaotic mind" twisted into a patriotic act.
: "He thought he was being a hero," Mr. Oatman argued. "He thought that America would praise him and pin a medal on his chest."
: The prosecution vehemently disagreed.
: "If there are any true Americans here, it's these people," he said, pointing to the family members of Mr. Stroman's victims seated in the gallery. "Not this man."
: Mr. Hasan, a Pakistani immigrant and father of four, moved to Dallas last year from New Jersey to open a convenience store in Pleasant Grove. He was shot once in the head while working behind the grill of Mom's Grocery, but no money was taken from an open cash register.
: Mr. Bhuiyan emigrated from Bangladesh in 1999. He worked at a Texaco station in Far East Dallas, where he was blinded in one eye by a single blast by Mr. Stroman from a .410-gauge derringer. He testified Wednesday that Mr. Stroman shot him in the face and walked out without taking money from an open register.
: Mr. Patel was a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked 18-hour days at the Shell station on Big Town Boulevard to support his wife and two children. Mr. Stroman shot him in the chest with a .44-caliber revolver.
More from the other side:
Waqar Hasan was a Pakistani immigrant who left the chaos of Karachi in the early 1990s in search of what he called “a civilized society.” He’d found no such thing in Karachi, where his father and brother had been kidnapped for ransom, and he himself had been robbed at gunpoint, losing his car in the process. Frustrated by the anarchy around him, he left Karachi for the suburb of Milltown, N.J., about fifteen miles southwest of New York—first establishing himself there, and then bringing over his wife Durreshawar (now 37), and his four daughters, Nida (now 18), Asna (17), Anum (15), and Iqra (12).
Arriving in the US with a work permit, Hasan set up a string of gas stations in the area, while his wife and daughters settled comfortably into life in the Jersey suburbs. By the fall of 2001, he’d decided to move from Milltown to Pleasant Grove, TX, a suburb of Dallas, setting up a series of convenience stores there. The rest of the family, still in Milltown, had planned to follow him after he’d settled in their new home. But it wasn’t to happen that way.
On September 15, 2001—the Friday just after 9/11—a stoneworker named Mark Anthony Stroman, then 31, walked into Waqar Hasan’s store in Dallas (“Mom’s Grocery”), and ordered two hamburgers. Hasan, perhaps too eager to oblige his customer, stepped out from behind the bullet-proof partition separating him from the rest of the store, and walked to the hamburger grill to make the hamburgers. Seizing his opportunity, Stroman pulled out a .380 caliber handgun and shot Waqar Hasan in the face, killing him. Hasan was later found face-down next to his hamburger grill—a hamburger bun in one hand, rubber sandals still on his feet. He was 46.
In the weeks that followed, Stroman—a white supremacist with a long criminal record—went on a shooting spree, killing Vasudev Patel, an Indian gas station owner, and blinding Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi store owner. Stroman was eventually arrested for Patel’s murder, after which he confessed on television to the other two shootings, describing all three as vengeance for 9/11. The shootings, as he put it, were a matter of doing “what every American wanted to do,” but “didn’t have the nerve” to do. “I did it to retaliate on local Arab Americans or whatever you want to call them,” he explains. He was found guilty of Patel’s murder last spring, and sentenced to death. He currently awaits execution in Texas on death row.
It would be heartache enough to lose a loving husband and father like Waqar Hasan—worse to lose him violently, and worse still to lose him to the likes of Mark Stroman. But the heartache in this case may not end there, because Durreshawar and her daughters now face deportation. Though Waqar had applied for green cards for his family before he was murdered, his application died with his murder, as such things do. Since Durreshahwar’s and the girls’ immigration status was tied to Waqar’s, they now have no independent way of applying for a green card, and no legal means of staying in the country.
The Hasans’ current work-permit, gotten by special permission with the help of Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), will expire this April. If it’s not renewed (a decision entirely at the discretion of an increasingly hard-line INS), the Hasans will be forced to give up their home and return to Pakistan. That will mean, effectively, the loss of everything they’ve worked for over the last decade, and their return to a country that leaves little room for the career women they’ve now become. “I’m a single parent, a woman,” Durreshawar says. “I don’t know how to do that in Pakistan.” “Here, [my daughters] are used to working. They can go to any office. It would be hard for them to do that in Pakistan…In America, they just take their car keys and go where they want to go.”
Part of an artical written by, Irfan Khawaja
Isn't it interisting how those that disagree with Brian, they resort to telling him to shut up or calling him names.
Mark has a long arrest record which pre dated 9/11, he new the law when he took the lives of these innocent people. Mark is no better than the 9/11 terrorists. If you go to Mark's blog you will find it's all about poor Mark and the way he is treated. He has caused all this pain, for his family, the victims and their children, wifes, extended family.
The other side of the story:
: Killer of gas clerk gets death penalty
: Family of victim in Sept. 11 retaliation is happy with sentence
: 04/05/2002
: By TIM WYATT / The Dallas Morning News
: A Dallas County jury handed the death penalty Thursday to a Dallas man who claimed that a series of shootings last fall that killed two immigrants and maimed another were retaliation for the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
: Mark Anthony Stroman, 33, received the death sentence after three days of trial testimony and less than four hours of jury deliberations for the Oct. 4 robbery and slaying of Vasudev Patel, a 49-year-old gas station attendant in Mesquite.
: As state District Judge Henry Wade Jr. read the verdict, Mr. Stroman nodded his head and then said: “Thank you, sir.” He waved briefly at family members while being led out of the courtroom.
: Mr. Stroman also is charged with two Dallas shootings that killed convenience store owner Waqar Hasan, 46, on Sept. 15, and blinded Rais Bhuiyan in one eye at a Pleasant Grove gas station a week later. Mr. Stroman was not on trial in the September shootings but confessed to all three after his Oct. 5 arrest by Mesquite police.
: The widows of Mr. Patel and Mr. Hasan left the court without commenting. A family member, John Patel, said that his family was “very happy with the verdict” and that the brutality of the killings called for the death penalty.
: Teressa Talamantez said her brother-in-law “didn’t do right” by attacking the three men, “but now [Mr. Stroman’s] children are victims of this.”
: “It’s just more sadness,” Ms. Talamantez said. “American justice failed again. It’s just not right.”
: Prosecutor Greg Davis said the attacks were committed out of “pure hatred” that claimed two lives and devastated victims’ families.
: Mr. Stroman “attempted to say he was a patriot,” Mr. Davis said. “He was anything but a patriot. What he is, is just a common vigilante.”
: ‘Chaotic mind’
:
: Defense attorney Jim Oatman had no comment after the verdict, but during closing arguments he told jurors that until the World Trade Center attack his client only talked of being a white separatist. After Sept. 11, he said, Mr. Stroman’s actions turned violent for what his “chaotic mind” twisted into a patriotic act.
: “He thought he was being a hero,” Mr. Oatman argued. “He thought that America would praise him and pin a medal on his chest.”
: The prosecution vehemently disagreed.
: “If there are any true Americans here, it’s these people,” he said, pointing to the family members of Mr. Stroman’s victims seated in the gallery. “Not this man.”
: Mr. Hasan, a Pakistani immigrant and father of four, moved to Dallas last year from New Jersey to open a convenience store in Pleasant Grove. He was shot once in the head while working behind the grill of Mom’s Grocery, but no money was taken from an open cash register.
: Mr. Bhuiyan emigrated from Bangladesh in 1999. He worked at a Texaco station in Far East Dallas, where he was blinded in one eye by a single blast by Mr. Stroman from a .410-gauge derringer. He testified Wednesday that Mr. Stroman shot him in the face and walked out without taking money from an open register.
: Mr. Patel was a naturalized U.S. citizen who worked 18-hour days at the Shell station on Big Town Boulevard to support his wife and two children. Mr. Stroman shot him in the chest with a .44-caliber revolver.
More from the other side:
Waqar Hasan was a Pakistani immigrant who left the chaos of Karachi in the early 1990s in search of what he called “a civilized society.” He’d found no such thing in Karachi, where his father and brother had been kidnapped for ransom, and he himself had been robbed at gunpoint, losing his car in the process. Frustrated by the anarchy around him, he left Karachi for the suburb of Milltown, N.J., about fifteen miles southwest of New York—first establishing himself there, and then bringing over his wife Durreshawar (now 37), and his four daughters, Nida (now 18), Asna (17), Anum (15), and Iqra (12).
Arriving in the US with a work permit, Hasan set up a string of gas stations in the area, while his wife and daughters settled comfortably into life in the Jersey suburbs. By the fall of 2001, he’d decided to move from Milltown to Pleasant Grove, TX, a suburb of Dallas, setting up a series of convenience stores there. The rest of the family, still in Milltown, had planned to follow him after he’d settled in their new home. But it wasn’t to happen that way.
On September 15, 2001—the Friday just after 9/11—a stoneworker named Mark Anthony Stroman, then 31, walked into Waqar Hasan’s store in Dallas (“Mom’s Grocery”), and ordered two hamburgers. Hasan, perhaps too eager to oblige his customer, stepped out from behind the bullet-proof partition separating him from the rest of the store, and walked to the hamburger grill to make the hamburgers. Seizing his opportunity, Stroman pulled out a .380 caliber handgun and shot Waqar Hasan in the face, killing him. Hasan was later found face-down next to his hamburger grill—a hamburger bun in one hand, rubber sandals still on his feet. He was 46.
In the weeks that followed, Stroman—a white supremacist with a long criminal record—went on a shooting spree, killing Vasudev Patel, an Indian gas station owner, and blinding Raisuddin Bhuiyan, a Bangladeshi store owner. Stroman was eventually arrested for Patel’s murder, after which he confessed on television to the other two shootings, describing all three as vengeance for 9/11. The shootings, as he put it, were a matter of doing “what every American wanted to do,” but “didn’t have the nerve” to do. “I did it to retaliate on local Arab Americans or whatever you want to call them,” he explains. He was found guilty of Patel’s murder last spring, and sentenced to death. He currently awaits execution in Texas on death row.
It would be heartache enough to lose a loving husband and father like Waqar Hasan—worse to lose him violently, and worse still to lose him to the likes of Mark Stroman. But the heartache in this case may not end there, because Durreshawar and her daughters now face deportation. Though Waqar had applied for green cards for his family before he was murdered, his application died with his murder, as such things do. Since Durreshahwar’s and the girls’ immigration status was tied to Waqar’s, they now have no independent way of applying for a green card, and no legal means of staying in the country.
The Hasans’ current work-permit, gotten by special permission with the help of Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ), will expire this April. If it’s not renewed (a decision entirely at the discretion of an increasingly hard-line INS), the Hasans will be forced to give up their home and return to Pakistan. That will mean, effectively, the loss of everything they’ve worked for over the last decade, and their return to a country that leaves little room for the career women they’ve now become. “I’m a single parent, a woman,” Durreshawar says. “I don’t know how to do that in Pakistan.” “Here, [my daughters] are used to working. They can go to any office. It would be hard for them to do that in Pakistan…In America, they just take their car keys and go where they want to go.”
Part of an artical written by, Irfan Khawaja
Isn’t it interisting how those that disagree with Brian, they resort to telling him to shut up or calling him names.
Mark has a long arrest record which pre dated 9/11, he new the law when he took the lives of these innocent people. Mark is no better than the 9/11 terrorists. If you go to Mark’s blog you will find it’s all about poor Mark and the way he is treated. He has caused all this pain, for his family, the victims and their children, wifes, extended family.