In a poten­tial death penal­ty case in Houston, Texas, a jury sen­tenced Juan Quintero to life with­out parole on May 20 for the mur­der of a police offi­cer. One juror, Tiffany Moore, described her expe­ri­ence as very emo­tion­al, ​“I was torn up. I was crying.…I still feel we came to the right deci­sion,” she said. ​“We could nev­er bring Rodney back. I feel very sad for the fam­i­ly, los­ing a loved one.” Moore added that the sen­tenc­ing phase was more dif­fi­cult for the jury than the guilt-inno­cence deci­sion, adding, ​“It was very tense…there was a lot of dis­cus­sion.” Texas added the sen­tence of life with­out pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole as an option for juries in September 2005. Over the past three years, the aver­age annu­al num­ber of death sen­tences was 13 (though life with­out parole may have only been an option in the more recent cas­es in which the crime was com­mit­ted after the new law). The aver­age num­ber of death sen­tences in the pri­or decade was 34 per year. 

(M. Tolson, ​“Quintero Sentence Baffling to Many,” Houston Chronicle, www​.chron​.com, May 21, 2008). 

See Sentencing. Death sen­tences have also been declin­ing around the coun­try, hav­ing dropped about 60% since 1999. The sen­tence of life with­out parole is avail­able in 35 of the 36 states with the death penalty.

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