Entries tagged with “Toni Rose

Policy Issues

Mental Illness

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Recent Legislative Activity

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Apr 10, 2023

Editorial: Texas Should Bar the Death Penalty for Severely Mentally Ill Defendants

An edi­to­r­i­al in the Dallas Morning News urges the Texas leg­is­la­ture to pass a bill to ban the death penal­ty for peo­ple with severe men­tal ill­ness, stat­ing, it seems like an obvi­ous deci­sion in a decent soci­ety.” House Bill 727, spon­sored by Rep. Toni Rose (D‑Dallas), passed the Texas House on April 5, 2023, by a vote of 97 – 48 and is pend­ing before the Texas…

Facts & Research

Recent Legislative Activity

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Mar 13, 2023

LEGISLATION: High Profile Cases in Texas Spur Legislative Activity on the Death Penalty

Prompted by the high-pro­file cas­es of Melissa Lucio, Andre Thomas, and John Ramirez, bills have been intro­duced in the Texas leg­is­la­ture to help pre­vent mis­car­riages of jus­tice. Representative Joe Moody (pic­tured right) has authored two bills, one that would autho­rize Texas pros­e­cu­tors to can­cel sched­uled exe­cu­tions, and anoth­er to facil­i­tate the use of sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence to lessen a person’s sen­tence. Lucio and Thomas both had exe­cu­tion dates, but were grant­ed tem­po­rary reprieves. Lucio…