LEGISLATION: High Profile Cases in Texas Spur Legislative Activity on the Death Penalty

Prompted by the high-pro­file cas­es of Melissa Lucio, Andre Thomas, and John Ramirez, bills have been intro­duced in the Texas leg­is­la­ture to help pre­vent mis­car­riages of jus­tice. Representative Joe Moody (pic­tured right) has authored two bills, one that would autho­rize Texas pros­e­cu­tors to can­cel sched­uled exe­cu­tions, and anoth­er to facil­i­tate the use of sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence to lessen a person’s sen­tence. Lucio and Thomas both had exe­cu­tion dates, but were grant­ed tem­po­rary reprieves. Lucio raised claims of inno­cence and Thomas’ attor­neys were chal­leng­ing his men­tal com­pe­ten­cy to be exe­cut­ed. Ramirez was exe­cut­ed in October 2022, despite efforts by the pros­e­cu­tor to grant a stay. 

Representative Toni Rose (pic­tured left) has authored a bill that would pre­vent peo­ple diag­nosed with severe men­tal ill­ness­es from being sen­tenced to death. The bill has passed the House each of the last two ses­sions but has not passed in the Senate. 

During a hear­ing on his bill on March 7, 2023, Moody com­ment­ed, ​“Whatever you think about those two cas­es (Lucio and Ramirez), this is the kind of con­flict that cre­ates awful cir­cum­stances in our state. The pre­vail­ing trend in both cas­es is how I believe we should resolve that: we should make it clear that the author­i­ty rests with the prosecutor.”