• Victims’ Advocates, Prosecutors Caution Against Expansion of Texas Death Penalty Victims’ advo­cates and pros­e­cu­tors are urg­ing Texas leg­is­la­tors to exclude the death penal­ty from new leg­is­la­tion designed to tough­en penal­ties for repeat child moles­ters. Those opposed to the mea­sure fear that threat­en­ing death sen­tences for sex offend­ers could lead to few­er report­ed cas­es of sex crimes and might even give incen­tive to offend­ers to kill their vic­tims to pre­vent the child from tes­ti­fy­ing in court. Annette Burrhus-Clay, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, not­ed that nine­ty per­cent of child-sex vic­tims know their offend­ers. We’re def­i­nite­ly not con­cerned with the intent. We’re con­cerned with the unin­tend­ed con­se­quences.… Imagine the pres­sure the fam­i­ly would expe­ri­ence if grand­pa could be giv­en the death penal­ty,” Burrhus-Clay said. Shannon Edmonds, a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor and direc­tor of gov­ern­men­tal rela­tions for the Texas District and State Attorneys Association, added, “[J]ust being tough on crime does­n’t nec­es­sar­i­ly advance the ball for pub­lic safe­ty.” Prosecutors also fear allow­ing the death penal­ty for repeat sex offend­ers will make offend­ers less like­ly to plead guilty, which could clog courts and force child vic­tims to take the stand in extend­ed jury tri­als. Sen. Bob Deuell, one of sev­er­al leg­is­la­tors to file a bill that includes the death penal­ty for repeat child-sex offend­ers, said, My goal, of course, is that there be no more vic­tims. But I’m open-mind­ed, and I don’t have any delu­sions that mine is the per­fect bill. These are the peo­ple we real­ly want to do this for, so we need to hear from them.” Victims’ rights groups and pros­e­cu­tors have vowed to work with leg­is­la­tors to craft a bill that pro­tect child-sex vic­tims with­out includ­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as a sen­tenc­ing option. (Dallas Morning News, January 52007).
  • Texas Lawmakers Receive Failing Grade from Criminal Justice Reform Leaders As the Texas leg­isla­tive ses­sion came to a close, crim­i­nal jus­tice reform advo­cates gave law­mak­ers a fail­ing grade for their work in address­ing prob­lems in the state’s legal sys­tem. Senator Rodney Ellis of Houston joined an array of legal experts to crit­i­cize the state leg­is­la­tors’ inabil­i­ty to pass mea­sures to end the exe­cu­tion of juve­nile offend­ers, to strength­en the con­sular noti­fi­ca­tion process for for­eign nation­als, and to require the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to hold a hear­ing when address­ing clemen­cy mat­ters in a cap­i­tal case. The advo­cates also chas­tised failed attempts to pass bills to allow the gov­er­nor to issue mul­ti­ple 30-day exe­cu­tion reprieves, to cre­ate an inno­cence com­mis­sion to review and inves­ti­gate the Texas death penal­ty and wrong­ful con­vic­tions, to offer the sen­tenc­ing alter­na­tive of life with­out the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole, and to require a tri­al judge to deter­mine if a defen­dant is men­tal­ly retard­ed before the tri­al of a cap­i­tal case. Ellis not­ed that the only suc­cess­ful mea­sure passed by the leg­is­la­ture was a bill man­dat­ing the tem­po­rary release of 12 Tulia res­i­dents who had been con­vict­ed dur­ing a con­tro­ver­sial drug sting in 1999. The only evi­dence used to con­vict them was the lat­er-dis­cred­it­ed tes­ti­mo­ny of an under­cov­er nar­cotics offi­cer. While vow­ing to con­tin­ue his fight for mean­ing­ful crim­i­nal jus­tice reform, Ellis said, There are prob­lems in Texas. How many oth­er Tulias are out there that we don’t know about?” (Associated Press, June 18, 2003, and Houston Chronicle, June 182003).
  • Texas Senate Passes Bill to Create Innocence Commission The Texas Senate passed leg­is­la­tion (S.B. 1045) to cre­ate a joint inter­im com­mit­tee on post-con­vic­tion exon­er­a­tions. The com­mit­tee will study wrong­ful con­vic­tions in the state and iden­ti­fy appro­pri­ate improve­ments in the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem to pre­vent such errors in the future. The nine mem­bers of the com­mit­tee will include a state’s attoney, two mem­bers cho­sen from the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, two mem­bers of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, a judge, and two law pro­fes­sors. (May 20, 2003). William Sessions, a for­mer direc­tor of the FBI, recent­ly endorsed the cre­ation of the pan­el, which still must be approved by the Texas House. See Innocence.
  • Texas County is First to Call for Death Penalty Moratorium Travis County recent­ly became the first Texas coun­ty to pass a res­o­lu­tion call­ing for a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty and an in-depth study of the state’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. The Travis County Commissioners Court passed the res­o­lu­tion as seri­ous con­cerns about the state’s death penal­ty, includ­ing the accu­ra­cy of crime lab find­ings in Houston and Fort Worth, con­tin­ue to sur­face. County Judge Sam Biscoe said before the vote that it was the right thing to do.” He lat­er stat­ed that he sup­ports the death penal­ty if there is no doubt that it is being admin­is­tered fair­ly, but he does­n’t believe that is hap­pen­ing. Commissioner Margaret Gomez not­ed, We seem to take life very lightly…that it’s OK to exe­cute great num­bers of peo­ple, and that both­ers me.” (Austin American-Statesman, April 302003).
  • Governor Rick Perry signed the Texas Fair Defense Act. The leg­is­la­tion sets up reg­u­la­tions to ensure time­ly appoint­ments, min­i­mum stan­dards, and fair meth­ods of appoint­ing defense lawyers. It also requires indi­gent defen­dants to be pro­vid­ed with coun­sel no lat­er than 5 days after their arrest and pro­vides research assis­tance to appoint­ed attor­neys han­dling seri­ous felony and cap­i­tal cas­es. The bill puts up near­ly $20 mil­lion (com­pared to zero now) in state mon­ey to help local judges pay more for defense attor­neys and crim­i­nal-defense inves­ti­ga­tions for poor clients. Finally, the bill sets up a statewide task force to mon­i­tor indi­gent defense sys­tems around the state and suggest improvements.
  • A bill to pro­hib­it the exe­cu­tion of the men­tal­ly retard­ed in Texas was vetoed by Governor Rick Perry on June 17. The bill would have pro­hib­it­ed the death penal­ty if jurors deter­mine that the defen­dant is men­tal­ly retard­ed. Under the pro­posed law, if the jury decid­ed that a defen­dant was not men­tal­ly retard­ed, the defense could peti­tion the tri­al judge to order an eval­u­a­tion by inde­pen­dent men­tal health experts. In veto­ing the leg­is­la­tion, Perry stat­ed that although their is no statu­to­ry pro­hi­bi­tion, we do not exe­cute men­tal­ly retard­ed mur­der­ers [in Texas] today.” Without a leg­isla­tive ban, those with men­tal retar­da­tion can be sen­tenced to death because jurors are only required to con­sid­er a defen­dan­t’s men­tal capac­i­ty as a mit­i­gat­ing fac­tor during sentencing
  • On April 5, 2001 Gov. Perry signed a law giv­ing inmates access to DNA test­ing. The bill will require the state to pre­serve DNA evi­dence and allow pris­on­ers access to DNA test­ing if it was not avail­able at tri­al. It would also require courts to pro­vide attor­neys for indi­gent inmates mak­ing such claims. I hope it pro­vides the great­est oppor­tu­ni­ty for peo­ple who have been con­vict­ed erro­neous­ly the chance to prove them­selves inno­cent,” said Rep. Harold Dutton (D‑Houston). (NY Daily News, 4/​6/​01 and Associated Press, 4/​4/​01)