Washington, D.C. - The Federal Bureau of Prisons has received an order from the U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas, to carry out the death sentence of inmate Juan Raul Garza at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 5, 2000, at 6 a.m. The inmate has been made aware of the court order.

Garza was sentenced to death under Federal law on August 10, 1993, in the Southern District of Texas, after being convicted for the murders of three individuals in furtherance of a continuing criminal enterprise ("CCE") in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 8489(a), 848(c), and 848(e)(1)(A), and five violations of drug and money laundering laws. At sentencing, the Government introduced aggravating factors evidence of four unadjudicated murders in Mexico, in which Garza was involved.

Specifically, Garza was convicted of ordering the murders of Thomas Albert Rumbo, Gilberto Matos, and Erasmo De La Fuente in order to further his control over a major drug trafficking organization. In addition to his death sentence, Garza received a life term for conspiracy to import into the United States a quantity exceeding 1,000 Kilos of marijuana.

Juan Raul Garza, 43 years old, is one of six inmates who have been convicted under the CCE statute and who have received a death sentence.

Garza has exhausted all direct and collateral appeals for his conviction.

In accordance with Federal regulations, the method of execution will be by lethal injection. The last civilian executed by the Federal government was Victor Feguer, hanged in 1963 in Iowa for murder and kidnaping.

A notice will be sent in the upcoming weeks from Warden Harley Lappin, United States Penitentiary (USP), Terre Haute, to media representatives regarding the establishment of an information center, and procedures for applying to be a media pool witness to this scheduled execution.