---
title: 'NEW VOICES: Texas Appellate Judge Denounces Death Penalty and Upcoming Execution'
description: 'On Nov. 26, Judge Tom Price dissented from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ denial of relief for Scott Panetti: “Having spent the last forty years as…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-voices-texas-appellate-judge-denounces-death-penalty-and-upcoming-execution'
section: news
date: '2014-11-26T22:14:17-05:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:39:27-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

On Nov. 26, Judge Tom Price dissented from the **Texas** Court of Criminal Appeals' denial of relief for [**Scott Panetti**](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-voices-mental-health-and-law-enforcement-leaders-urge-clemency-for-texas-inmate):  
 "Having spent the last forty years as a judge for the State of Texas, of which the last eighteen years have been as a judge on this Court, I have given a substantial amount of consideration to the propriety of the death penalty as a form of punishment for those who commit capital murder, and I now believe that it should be abolished. I, therefore, respectfully dissent from the Court's order denying the motion for stay of execution and dismissing the subsequent application for a writ of habeas corpus filed by Scott Louis Panetti, applicant. I would grant applicant's motion for a stay of execution and would hold that his severe mental illness renders him categorically ineligible for the death penalty under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution."

(*[Ex Parte Panetti](https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxR5nee8pBYQa1czZHZmNHk0SXlVU3pKZkpnd0pId1owRnVB/view),* No. WR-37,145-04 (Tex. Ct. of Crim. App., Nov. 26, 2014) (Price, J., dissenting)).

International Conference Against the Death Penalty: Life and Death in Taiwan - See more at: http://www.taedp.org.tw/story/2754#sthash.ejXGKEq0.dpuf