In an article about the approaching 1,000th execution in the U.S., Tarrant County prosecutor Alan Levy and Harris County District Attorney Charles Rosenthal addressed the current state of the death penalty and the impact of growing concerns about the issue of innocence:

Levy, who heads the criminal division of the Tarrant County D.A.’s office, said that he often wonders whether the executions that have taken place have been worth the expense, controversy, and time: “It’s a pretty clumsy mechanism.” When the penalty isn’t paid until “eight or 10 or 15 years later, it’s difficult to think of it being very useful.” Levy added that prosecutors in his office are encountering prospective jurors who are concerned about sentencing an innocent person to death. According to Levy, these prospective jurors are “absolutely convinced that innocent people are being executed,” and believe that they might “wake up in the middle of the night and find out they’ve sentenced an innocent man to death row.”

Rosenthal said that he would likely resign if an innocent person were to be executed under his watch. “I’d feel horrible, probably worse than that; it would probably bring me to the point of resignation if we convicted someone who was innocent.”

(Fort Worth Weekly, November 2, 2005). See New Voices and Innocence.