Bad Boy From Rosebud by Gary M. Lavergne Page A

Brennan, the most eloquent and outspoken opponent of capital punishment, wrote: "When a country of over 200 million people inflicts an unusually severe punishment no more than fifty times a year, the inference is strong that the punishment is not being regularly and fairly applied."
Finally, William O. Douglas argued that imbalances in executions amounted to an incompatibility with the Equal Protection Clause. 35 Each of the arguments suggested that the death penalty could be made more equitable by increasing its use.
So, the Court ruled that the death penalty, as it was administeredi.e., giving juries near-unlimited discretion over sentenceswas unconstitutional. The victory for anti-death penalty advocates was shallow and short lived and their celebrations premature. Through Furman, the Supreme Court "taught" states how to make death penalty laws constitutional, and almost every state would rush to pass laws assuring a more "equal" applicationmaking executions far more, not less, common in the United States.
At the time, however, the nearly 600 men and women on death rows throughout the country, including 127 in Texas, magically had their sentences commuted to life in prison. Many of them would be eligible for parole in a surprisingly short time; one of them was Kenneth Allen McDuff. 36
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1 TDCJ Files: Kenneth Allen McDuff, Synopsis, compiled by John Moriarty, pg. 1.
2 Rosebud News, August 11, 1966.
3 Confidential Source; Ellen Roberts; Martha Royal.
4 The account of the hearing and the quote are from the Rosebud News, August 18, 1966.
5 Ibid.
6 Roy Dale Green quoted in Temple Daily Telegram, August 9, 1966; Rosebud News, August 11, 1966; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 10, 1966.

 

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7 Lon Evans quoted in Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 10, 1966.
8 Charles Butts; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 12, 1966.
9 Fort Worth Star-Telegram , November 8, 1966; Journal of Texas Criminal Defense Lanyers Association, June, 1987, pgs. 46; Charles Butts; Temple Daily Telegram, August 9, 1966; The quote describing Charles Butts is from Fort Worth Press, October 18, 1966.
10 Charles Butts.
11 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 18 and November 8, 1966.
12 Rosebud News, August 11, 1966.
13 Texas Monthly, August, 1992; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 8 and 9, 1966.
14 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 18, 1966.
15 Ibid., November 9 and 19, 1966; Charles Butts.
16 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 11, 1966.
17 Ibid.; Charles Butts.
18 Ibid., November 10, 1966; Charles Butts.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid., November 13, 1966.
21 Ibid.
22 Charles Butts.
23 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, October 18 and November 15, 1966; Ibid.
24 Temple Daily Telegram, November 16, 1966; Rosebud News, November 17, 1966; Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 16, 1966; Charles Butts quote from interview.
25 Charles Butts.
26 Fort Worth Star-Telegram, November 16, 1966; State of Texas v Kenneth Allen McDuff, SOF in Cause #93-2139, Volume 29, pgs. 12124.
27 Ibid.; Waco Herald-Tribune, April 29, 1992; Texas Monthly, August, 1992.
28 McLennan County District Attorney's Office [MCDA] Files: Various documents related to execution dates for Kenneth Allen McDuff, passim; TDCJ Files: Kenneth Allen McDuff, Synopsis, compiled by John Moriarty, pg. 1.
29 Interview of Charles Meyers and Wayne Appelt, August 27, 1998.
30 I did not bother to count the number of times Kenneth McDuff made that statement in my interview with him.
31 MCDA Files: Board of Pardons and Paroles, unidentified documents, May 3, 1989.
32 State of Texas v Kenneth Allen McDuff, SOF in Cause #93-2139, Volume 29, Exhibit #150; The drug smuggling charge is from a confidential source in a Confidential Document.
33 State of Texas v Kenneth Allen McDuff, Order Dismissing Cases in Causes #20256 and 20259, in the 18th Judicial District of Johnson County, March 8, 1978.
34 Furman v Georgia, 408 U.S. 238, June 29, 1972, from the Villanova Center for Information and Policy, www.law.vill.edu , pgs.