Texas District Judge Kevin Fine sched­uled a hear­ing in a death penal­ty case to con­sid­er whether there is a sub­stan­tial risk that Texas’s death penal­ty laws could result in the exe­cu­tion of an inno­cent per­son. The hear­ing, expect­ed to last two weeks, will like­ly include tes­ti­mo­ny from experts around the coun­try. Casey Kiernan, one of the attor­neys for the defen­dant, John Green, filed a pre-tri­al motion regard­ing the issue of inno­cence, which led to the hear­ing. Kiernan said, ​“I think every­body in the United States would agree that the pos­si­bil­i­ty exists [an inno­cent per­son has been exe­cut­ed]. We think there is much more than a pos­si­bil­i­ty, based on all the exon­er­a­tions, all the prob­lems with the foren­sics.” Defense attor­neys are also plan­ning to raise oth­er issues at the hear­ing, includ­ing the reli­a­bil­i­ty of eye­wit­ness tes­ti­mo­ny. The hear­ing will begin on November 8. Judge Fine had ini­tial­ly grant­ed the motion in March, find­ing Texas’ death penal­ty law to be uncon­sti­tu­tion­al. However, he with­drew that deci­sion so that more evi­dence from both sides could be sub­mit­ted. UPDATE: On Jan. 12, 2011, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grant­ed a motion by the pros­e­cu­tors to order an end to the pre-tri­al hear­ing on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of Texas’s death penal­ty statute. The Court had ear­li­er stayed the pro­ceed­ing after 2 days of tes­ti­mo­ny in December.

(J. Lozano, ​“Texas judge to hold hear­ing on death penal­ty law,” Associated Press, June 25, 2010). See Innocence. A fed­er­al judge held a sim­i­lar hear­ing and ruled the fed­er­al death penal­ty uncon­sti­tu­tion­al (see U.S. v. Quinones). However, that rul­ing was reversed on appeal.

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