 gets pumped up over high gas prices, again, even though it sidetracks him from his main message.
SHAW: Plus, fireworks in that New York Senate race and poll numbers that may explain Hillary Clinton's burst of negativity.
ANNOUNCER: From Washington, this is INSIDE POLITICS, with Bernard Shaw and Judy Woodruff.
WOODRUFF: Thank you for joining us.
We begin with the political trials for George W. Bush as convicted killer Gary Graham faces death by lethal injection in Texas tomorrow. If there is no reprieve, it would be the 135th execution in Bush's state during his tenure as governor, and 14 more are scheduled before election day, suggesting the controversy for Bush is likely to linger on.
Our Candy Crowley reports from California on Bush, still on the defensive over the death penalty.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The crux of the matter is the life of Texas inmate Gary Graham. The politics of the matter is the measure of George Bush.
BUSH: The death penalty is not an easy subject for a lot of folks. I'm going to uphold the laws of the land, and if it costs me politically, it costs me politically.
CROWLEY: In fact, Bush maintains his ability to affect the fate of Gary Graham is limited to agreeing or disagreeing with whatever the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles decides. Former Governor Ann Richards granted Graham a 30-day stay in 1993, and the way the Bush office reads the law, an inmate may receive only one stay.
But the Graham decision remains politically significant, both for its visibility and the window it opens into the depth of Bush's thinking on the issue. Politically, it's not about what Bush can or can't do, or what he does or doesn't decide, but how he is seen handling the issue.
BUSH: I'm going to take my time and look at the case like I do every other case. I'm going to treat this no differently than any other case that has come across may desk. In making the decision -- it's a tough decision. They're not easy. I also keep in mind the victims.
CROWLEY: The Wednesday morning news conference was unusually somber, deliberate and dominated by questions about the Graham case.
BUSH: The death penalty is a subject that needs to be debated in America, and cases come along that cause -- that spark the debate. And this is one. And however, that doesn't change my job.
CROWLEY: Though the numbers are slipping, almost two-thirds of Americans still favor the death penalty. In 1992, then-Governor Bill Clinton returned to Arkansas to highlight his decision to allow an execution.
GOV. WILLIAM J. CLINTON (D-AR), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I support capital punishment.
CROWLEY: Beyond the legalities of the case, politically, it was viewed as a plus for Clinton, who was trying to shake the soft-on- crime liberal image of his party. Bush is on a somewhat parallel, perhaps more personal course. Not given to public self-analysis or reflection, Bush battles a perception that he's not serious enough, and few issues call for more seriousness than the death penalty.
Candy Crowley, CNN, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE)
SHAW: Meanwhile in Texas, prison officials are preparing for Gary Graham's execution even as the case goes through the last phases of the appeals process.
CNN's Charles Zewe is at the Huntsville prison -- Charles.
CHARLES ZEWE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bernie, Gary Graham spent this day with family and friends inside of the death row chamber, the units (UNINTELLIGIBLE) unit, which is in Livingtson, very close to Huntsville. Some time later today or early in the morning, he's expected to be moved to a holding cell right off the death chamber itself.
Graham, now 36, claims he's innocent and was wrongly convicted 19 years ago of murdering an Arizona man outside a Houston supermarket. He's asking the state Board of Pardons and Paroles for either a 120- day reprieve to try to further prove his innocence or a commutation of his death sentence.
The state's pardons board chairman, Gerald Garrett, said today it looks to him like the facts of the case support the conviction and death sentence.
GERALD GARRETT, CHAIRMAN, TEXAS BOARD OF PARDONS AND PAROLES: The facts do lend to support the conviction and the findings of the jury, but there is still information that I want to review and be sure that I have, in fact, taken all of that into consideration.
ZEWE: The pardon board expected to announce its decision at midday Central Time tomorrow. That is less than six hours before Graham is scheduled to die by lethal injection here at the Walls (ph) unit in Huntsville.
Meanwhile, the Reverend Jesse Jackson and Amnesty International's Bianca Jagger in Houston today again called for a reprieve in the case to allow further appeals or further examination of the evidence. No indication yet that the pardon board members, who will vote by fax in this case -- who will not meet, but vote by fax -- will consider doing that.
Charles Zewe, CNN live, Huntsville, Texas.
Judy.
WOODRUFF: Thank you, Charles.
While most capital punishments are carried out at the state level, there is a federal death penalty as well.
Our Bruce Morton looks at that and whether it is an issue for Vice President Gore.
(PROTESTERS SCREAMING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:... innocent man! Don't kill an innocent man.
BUSH: the great thing about America is people are able to express themselves.
BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dealing with death penalty protests is all in a day's work for governors. But what about Vice President Gore?
GORE: I do support the death penalty. I have not changed my position on that and will not.
MORTON: He's for it, too. Does that matter?
The federal government hasn't executed anyone since 1963, but there is a federal death penalty.
(on camera): In 1988, Congress authorized the death penalty for murder in the course of what it called "drug-kingpin conspiracies." Then, in 1994, as part of an omnibus crime bill, Congress expanded the federal death penalty to include some 60 other offenses.
(voice-over): Federal inmates await their execution at this facility in Terre Haute, Indiana. One of the residents here is Timothy McVeigh, who was sentenced to death for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people. Along with McVeigh, the Bureau of Prisons has 19 other inmates that now live on federal death row.
The Death Row Information Center says the racial breakdown is 14 blacks, four whites, one Hispanic, and one Asian.
One inmate, sentenced to death in 1993, is due to be executed August 5th.
Gore supports the moratorium on executions in Illinois, but...
GORE: I fully support the use of DNA testing in circumstances where it can improve the administration of justice. And if there were the kind of record they found in Illinois in some other criminal justice system, then it would, in my view, justify a moratorium, just as in Illinois.
I do not think in the federal -- in the federal courts that the evidence justifies a moratorium, and I have not been supportive of it.
MORTON: As governor, George W. Bush cannot commute a death sentence unless a majority of the 18-member Board of Pardons and Paroles votes to commute. As vice president, Gore can't commute a federal death sentence either. Only the president can pardon a federal death row inmate.
Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SHAW: And still ahead on INSIDE POLITICS, high gas prices and the campaign trail: a look at how the cost of fuel is shaping debate for the presidential hopefuls.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOODRUFF: The ministers of the oil-producing countries today agreed to increase crude oil production by 3 percent. But it remains to be seen whether that will ease the high prices at U.S. gas pumps.
On Capitol Hill this afternoon, lawmakers from the Midwest met with Environmental Protection Agency officials to discuss the situation, but participants are divided over whom is to blame for the high cost, the administration or the oil companies.
REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), HOUSE SPEAKER: If we don't have an energy policy in this country, and we rely too much on foreign energy and we let OPEC start to dictate what the prices of oil in this country, our consumers suffer. So I would think that we need to have a better and stronger energy policy in this country.
CAROL BROWNER, EPA ADMINISTRATOR: You know what I think? I there is some very poor management going on, and I think that there is some unfair treatments of consumers, and what we need to see now is the prices for the consumers at the pumps to drop.
WOODRUFF: Out on the campaign trail, George W. Bush once again criticized the administration and Vice President Gore for failing to persuade overseas producers to increase production. With prices holding at more than $2 a gallon in some parts of the country, Gore may be forced to deal with