The New York Times

Friday, June 18, 1999

Canadian Executed in United States

By The Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- This time, there was no last-minute reprieve to keep Joseph Faulder from becoming the first Canadian to be executed in the United States in almost a half-century.

Faulder, 61, avoided the Texas death chamber last December when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a reprieve 30 minutes before he was to be executed.

On Thursday evening, after losing a flurry of legal challenges that included support from the Canadian government and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the former auto mechanic was executed by injection for killing a 75-year-old Texas woman.

``No statements,'' he replied when asked if he had anything to say. Six minutes later, he was pronounced dead.

Faulder didn't deny killing Inez Phillips, but his attorneys argued his conviction for the beating and stabbing death was tainted because he never was told after his arrest that he could seek legal help from Canadian authorities.

The right is specified under terms of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, a treaty signed by both the United States and Canada.

``These issues remain important ones for all Canadians who live, work and visit outside of Canada,'' said John Morrow, the Dallas-based Canadian consul. ``We deeply regret our request for executive clemency was not acted on, but the government of Texas has its laws and we respect that.''

At the State Department, a spokesman aid officials tried a variety of appeals, including personal pleas from the Secretary of State.

Texas authorities said Faulder did nothing to inform them he was Canadian. He was carrying a Colorado driver's license and had applied for one in Texas. It wasn't until 15 years after his arrest that his family, who believed he was dead, and the Canadian government discovered he was alive.

Faulder's case attracted wide attention in Canada, a country that outlawed capital punishment in 1976. The last execution of a Canadian in the United States was in the early 1950s.

He was being held in Colorado in 1977 on unrelated charges when he was accused of murdering Mrs. Phillips during a burglary at her home in Gladewater, about 115 miles east of Dallas.

A maid found Mrs. Phillips' body with a 6 1/2-inch butcher knife embedded in her chest. Faulder's girlfriend, who had accompanied him to the house, testified against him.