Midland County, Texas, District Attorney Teresa Clingman (pictured) recently accepted a sentence of life without parole rather than seeking the death penalty for Dan Higgins, a man who pled guilty to killing a Midland County Sheriff’s Deputy. Clingman’s decision was part of a larger trend of prosecutors choosing life without parole even for the most serious crimes. West Texas A&M criminology professor and former prison warden Keith Price said, “Capital death has so many requirements — it’s so expensive. Capital death: the convicted dies in prison by lethal injection. Capital life: the convicted dies in prison whenever his natural life is over. From an incapacitation standpoint, the DA has accomplished the same thing. That particular person will never see the Texas public again.” As a result of similar decisions by other prosecutors, and juries preferring life without parole more often, death sentences in the U.S. have declined by about 75% since their peak in the mid-1990s. Clingman cited a request from the deputy’s widow not to seek the death penalty, saying, “The reasoning is because we can’t punish him any more than we’re already punishing him. It saves the victim in that case from having to go through a trial. [The victim’s widow] also took into consideration that Mr. Higgins will now spend his time in general population rather than on death row in a single cell by himself for the rest of his life.” Midland County Sheriff Gary Painter supported the prosecutor’s decision, saying, “I think saving the county money, saving the heartache for the families involved is the best solution for this particular case. The Midland County’s Sheriff’s Office not only lost a brother and a friend, this county lost a great employee. Only time right now can help settle the feelings right now.”
(B. Mulder and R. Druzin, “Higgins case follows recent trend,” Midland Reporter-Telegram, March 1, 2015). See Costs and Sentencing.
