Former Texas Governor Mark White and for­mer FBI direc­tor William Sessions have peti­tioned Texas to grant clemen­cy to death row inmate Max Soffar because of the strong chance that a rever­sal of his con­vic­tion will come too late due to his rapid­ly declin­ing med­ical con­di­tion. Soffar’s case has been reversed before, and his lat­est appeal is pend­ing before a fed­er­al court. Soffar’s sup­port­ers are ask­ing that he be allowed to spend his last days at home before he dies of liv­er can­cer. He has been on death row for over 33 years, con­sis­tent­ly main­tain­ing his inno­cence. ​“Nothing can save me,” said Soffar. ​“I’m going to die. I’ve talked to my doc­tor — maybe five months, maybe four months, maybe three weeks.” His lawyers said, ​“The real­i­ty is that the fed­er­al court process will like­ly not be com­plet­ed before Mr. Soffar dies. The exi­gency of this sit­u­a­tion is the dri­ving force behind what Mr. Soffar admits is an unusu­al request for clemen­cy at this stage of a capital case.”

White and Sessions peti­tioned Texas as part of their efforts with the Constitution Project.

(M. Graczyk, ​“Lawyers: Dying death row inmate deserves clemen­cy,” Associated Press, August 13, 2014; Editorial, ​“Is this the type of exe­cu­tion Texans are com­fort­able with?,” Dallas Morning News, August 13, 2014). See Clemency and New Voices.

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