This undated handout photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Mark Stroman. Stroman is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for one of two robbery-slayings. He also shot Rais Bhuiyan in the face in the incident claiming outrage by the events Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice)
This undated handout photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows Mark Stroman. Stroman is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for one of two robbery-slayings. He also shot Rais Bhuiyan in the face in the incident claiming outrage by the events Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice)
“Arab slayer” turned peace seeker, Mark Stroman, was executed by the state of Texas on July 20th for shootings that killed two men and seriously injured a third in 2001.
His death sentence has garnered intense media coverage due to the aggressive campaign for life in prison without the possibility of parole instead of the death sentence.
Stroman’s main defender is none other than his only living victim, Rais Bhuiyan.
Stroman’s last words reflect Bhuiyan’s campaign message: “Hate is going on in this world and it has to stop. Hate causes a lifetime of pain.”
Following the 9/11 attacks, Mark Stroman went on a Dallas-area shooting spree with the intention of gunning down people of Middle Eastern descent “as a patriotic response to members.”
“The governor of the state is an enemy of human rights, apparently no friend of crime victims, and [presents] a fraudulent picture of himself as a champion [of crime victims’ rights],” said Halperin.
Perry has been a strong advocate of crime victims’ rights in the past. In response to Bhuiyan’s claims of his violated rights, Perry’s legal team stated, “the ‘right’ [guaranteed to crime victims] is essentially symbolic . . .”
This is the eighth execution in the state of Texas this year. During his tenure as Governor of Texas, Perry has overseen 233 executions.
Bhuiyan, a native of Bangladesh, became a naturalized US citizen last year. This fall, he will attend SMU to study journalism and human rights.