Mark Stroman executed despite lawsuit by surviving victim Rais Bhuiyan seeking to stop execution

The video news report below aired on KVUE in Austin at 6 PM on July 20, 2011. Later that night shortly before 9 PM Mark Stroman was executed. Report contains an interview with Rais Bhuiyan, the surviving shooting victim of Stroman, as well as footage of protesters gathered at the Texas Capitol.

Stroman was the 472nd person executed in Texas since 1982, eighth in 2011 and 233rd under Governor Rick Perry.



From the Austin American-Statesman:

The execution was delayed for almost three hours before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals barred a state judge in Austin from considering Bhuiyan's lawsuit to block the lethal injection. The U.S. Supreme Court had rejected appeals earlier in the day.

Bhuiyan, in an unusual step, had asked the courts to halt Stroman's execution and said he wanted to spend time with the inmate to learn more about why the shootings occurred. The native of Bangladesh and a former convenience store worker lost sight in one of his eyes when Stroman shot him in the face.

"Killing him is not the solution," Bhuiyan said. "He's learning from his mistake. If he's given a chance, he's able to reach out to others and spread that message to others."

A federal district judge in Austin rejected the lawsuit and Bhuiyan's request for an injunction on Wednesday afternoon. His lawyers appealed to the Supreme Court, where Justice Antonin Scalia turned it down.

From CNN:

 "I -- and here I act as a spokesperson for the other victims' families as well -- have been denied our proper voice in the proceedings," Bhuiyan said in the court documents. "We do not wish to see Mark Stroman executed for his crimes. For myself, it is clear that nothing would cause more devastation and pain to the life I struggled to rebuild after the attack than for Mark Stroman to be killed."

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