‘Every Option Will Be on the Table’: Republican Leader of Texas House Justice Reform Caucus Says He Would Support Moratorium on Executions

Saying that recent events in Texas’ attempt to exe­cute death-row pris­on­er Melissa Lucio had shak­en his faith in the crim­i­nal legal sys­tem, an influ­en­tial Republican state leg­is­la­tor has said that he would now sup­port a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in the state. 

In an April 29, 2022 inter­view on WFAA-TV’s Inside Texas Politics with Jason Whitely, Representative Jeff Leach (pic­tured), co-chair of the Texas House of Representatives’ bi-par­ti­san Criminal Justice Reform Caucus, said ​“every option [for death-penal­ty reform] will be on the table, every tool in the tool­box,” includ­ing poten­tial­ly a mora­to­ri­um on executions. 

Leach, who was one of the found­ing mem­bers of the reform cau­cus, was the dri­ving force behind a bipar­ti­san leg­isla­tive effort that result­ed in majori­ties of both the Texas House and Senate sign­ing let­ters call­ing for the com­mu­ta­tion of Lucio’s sen­tence. On April 25, 2022, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halt­ed Lucio’s sched­uled April 27 exe­cu­tion and direct­ed a Cameron County tri­al court to hear evi­dence on claims that she may be inno­cent of charges that she mur­dered her two-year-old daugh­ter and that her con­vic­tion was the prod­uct of pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and false testimony. 

In the Inside Texas Politics inter­view, Rep. Leach said: ​“We’ve got to look at every part of our sys­tem, and Melissa’s case, where the sys­tem failed her at every turn, is a great exam­ple of that.”

A self-described ​“pro-life con­ser­v­a­tive,” Leach said that the near exe­cu­tion of Lucio with­out con­sid­er­a­tion of her strong claims of inno­cence ​“rocked” him and showed him that ​“it’s impor­tant going for­ward that we get this right for all other cases.”

One of the tools Leach said he intend­ed to use would be leg­isla­tive hear­ings at which ​“law enforce­ment and pros­e­cu­tors and defense coun­sel and oth­er leg­is­la­tors and experts” would be brought in to help the Texas leg­is­la­ture in ​“pur­su­ing the right reforms.” He told WFAA reporter Jason Whitely that, after ​“going through what I just went through and see­ing what I just saw” in Melissa Lucio’s case, he would sup­port a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in Texas. 

“I am, again, a sup­port­er of the death penal­ty in the most heinous cas­es. But that is con­tin­gent upon the sys­tem work­ing, the sys­tem being trust­wor­thy, fair and reli­able, us ensur­ing beyond a shad­ow of a doubt the guilt of the inmate,” Leach said. ​“And right now, I am unsure of that. My trust in the sys­tem is shaky.” Leach told Whitely that he believes sev­er­al oth­er con­ser­v­a­tive, pro-death penal­ty leg­is­la­tors also would sup­port a mora­to­ri­um on executions.

Leach has been vocal­ly advo­cat­ing reforms in the Texas cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem since the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Jeffrey Wood in 2016. Wood was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death under Texas’ ​“law of par­ties,” which makes a defen­dant liable for the acts and intent of all oth­er peo­ple involved in a felony. The undis­put­ed evi­dence showed that Wood nei­ther killed any­one nor intend­ed for any­one to be killed and, his sup­port­ers say, was not even aware the rob­bery in which a code­fen­dant killed a store clerk was going to occur. At the time of Wood’s death war­rant, Leach said, ​“I sim­ply do not believe that Mr. Wood is deserv­ing of the death sen­tence. I can’t sit qui­et­ly by and not say anything.” 

Wood’s case led Leach to spon­sor a bill, which passed the House in 2021, that attempts to end death-penal­ty eli­gi­bil­i­ty for felony accom­plices who nei­ther killed nor intend­ed that a killing take place and were minor par­tic­i­pants in the con­duct that led to the death of the vic­tim. That bill stalled in a Senate committee.

Leach also advo­cat­ed to halt the sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Rodney Reed in 2019. Pointing to Reed’s strong claims of inno­cence, Leach, along with the Criminal Justice Reform Caucus’ Democratic co-chair, Rep. Joe Moody and 24 oth­er house mem­bers from both par­ties, draft­ed a leg­isla­tive let­ter ask­ing Texas Governor Greg Abbott to com­mute Reed’s sen­tence. In November 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals halt­ed Reed’s exe­cu­tion and ordered an inno­cence hear­ing. After the Texas state courts denied Reed access to DNA test­ing of crime-scene evi­dence and the low­er fed­er­al courts refused to review the issue on pro­ce­dur­al grounds, the U.S. States Supreme Court on April 25, 2022 grant­ed Reed’s peti­tion for writ of cer­tio­rari to address the ques­tion of when the time clock begins to run on a state prisoner’s fed­er­al civ­il rights law­suit seek­ing access to DNA testing.