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 18, 2003). See Recent Legislative Activity.

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