Victim forgives death row inmate

By Kimberly King
NBC 5 News

A shooting victim says he wants the governor to spare the life of a man sentenced to die this week for a separate shooting in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mark Stroman faces lethal injection Wednesday for a slaying during a shooting spree. At the time, he said he was seeking revenge on people of Middle Eastern descent. . .

He was convicted of killing Vasudev Patel at a convenience store in Mesquite in October 2001.

Patel, a naturalized U.S. citizen from India, was identified as one of three people shot by Stroman -- two of them fatally.

Rais Bhuiyan identified Stroman in court as the man who shot him in the eye one week after Waqar Hasan was shot and killed at another convenience store. . .

Hasan, a Pakistani immigrant, was killed four days after Sept. 11 at a Dallas convenience store. Stroman was charged but not tried in Hasan's slaying. . .

Bhuiyan and Hasan's family, with the help of Southern Methodist University professor Rick Halperin, are leading the charge to convince Gov. Rick Perry to spare Stroman's life.

Halperin, a human rights expert, said Stroman is remorseful. Stroman has developed personal relationships of trust with Bhuiyan as well as Hassan's family, he said.

"He believes he is not going to survive past this Wednesday," Halperin said. "He knows he is not that bigot, that hatemonger, the terrible person that did these terrible crimes. Like anybody else, he doesn't want to die. He thinks he will, but he's at peace with himself."

Read the full story or watch the video report.

Related Links:

KRLD radio: (Interview with Rick Halperin)

The London Daily Mail: Victim blinded in a post-9/11 hate crime now fights for his attacker's life

Der Spiegel: Texas Case Puts Capital Punishment Center Stage

MSNBC: A victim of 9/11 hate crime now fights for his attacker's life

The 33 News: Juror who sent "Arab Slayer" to Texas death row, joins effort to spare his life

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