NEW VOICES: Texas Appellate Judge Denounces Death Penalty and Upcoming Execution

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 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, No. WR-37,145 – 04 (Tex. Ct. of Crim. App., Nov. 26, 2014) (Price, J., dissenting)).