Executed June 27, 2001

Indiana Pardon and Parole Board
302 Washington Street
Room E-321
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Re: Jim Lowery 

Dear Parole Board: 

On behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union, we urge you to stay the execution of Jim Lowery, currently scheduled for June 27, 2001, and commute his sentence of capital punishment to life in prison. A clemency hearing for Mr. Lowery is scheduled for this Monday, June 18, 2001. This case merits this extraordinary relief. 

Since being convicted for a 1979 double-homicide, Mr. Lowery has spent more than 20 years on death row. He has been nothing less than an exemplary inmate, earning no disciplinary citations in all that time. He has turned in contraband to prison officials, acted as a mediator in death row disputes, and suggested ways to improve security on death row. In light of this record, prison officials have selected Mr. Lowery as a death row porter, allowing him to be out of his cell for extended periods of time, because he had manifested that he could be trusted more than other death row inmates. A prison official testified at a post-conviction hearing that the prison could not exist without inmates like Mr. Lowery. 

Mr. Lowery¹s personal history before his conviction is nothing less than tragic. He was raised in poverty by an alcoholic father, who was prone to violence against members of the family. Because of disciplinary problems, Mr. Lowery was placed in a mental institution at the age of 14. However, at no time was Mr. Lowery diagnosed with any mental illness warranting this action. Mr. Lowery then repeatedly ran away from this facility in order to return home to protect his younger siblings from their abusive father. 

As a result, at age 16, Mr. Lowery was admitted to the Norman Beatty mental institution, which has since been closed. He was placed in a maximum security ward that housed adult criminal sexual deviants and may have been subject to shock treatments. This facility was notorious for its horrific conditions and treatment of patients: assaults, including sexual, on patients by staff and other patients; lack of heat in winter and air conditioning in summer; and human waste blighting the rooms and hallways. Again, Mr. Lowery had not been diagnosed with any mental illness necessitating his placement in this type of facility. 

The ACLU opposes capital punishment in all cases as a barbarous anachronism and in violation of the U.S. Constitution. Mr. Lowery has admitted to his crimes and proved to be an exemplary inmate on death row. These factors, coupled with his tragic upbringing, warrant the granting of mercy to Mr. Lowery. Once a sentence of death is carried out, there can be no taking it back. At a minimum, Mr. Lowery¹s execution should be stayed until the Criminal Law Study Commission finishes its study on the application of the death penalty in Indiana, a study you requested. 

We respectfully urge you to stay the execution of Mr. Lowery and commute his sentence to life in prison. 

Sincerely, 

Diann Rust-Tierney
ACLU Capital Punishment Project

Mark D. Johnson
Pro Bono Counsel
Squire, Sanders & Dempsey L.L.P.

Cc: The Honorable Frank O'Bannon
Governor of Indiana
Office of the Governor
206 State House
Indianapolis, IN 46204-2797