By a vote of 104 – 37, mem­bers of the Texas House of Representatives ten­ta­tive­ly approved the sen­tenc­ing option of life-with­out-parole in death penal­ty cas­es, an his­toric action that puts the state clos­er to includ­ing a sen­tenc­ing alter­na­tive offered in near­ly every death penal­ty state. The House is expect­ed to give final pas­sage to the mea­sure on May 25 and the Texas Senate, which passed sim­i­lar leg­is­la­tion ear­li­er this year, is expect­ed to approve an amend­ed mea­sure before send­ing the bill to Governor Rick Perry for pos­si­ble sig­na­ture into law.

The new life-with­out-parole law would elim­i­nate the cur­rent sen­tenc­ing option of life with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of parole in 40 years in death cas­es and replace it with the no-parole alter­na­tive. Senator Eddie Lucio, one of the chief spon­sors of the leg­is­la­tion, com­ment­ed: ​“I com­mend the House for its over­whelm­ing acknowl­edge­ment that Texas juries deserve this option for the safe­ty of soci­ety.” Lucio’s orig­i­nal bill gave jurors three choic­es– death, life with parole, and life with­out parole – but the parole option was dropped. (Houston Chronicle, May 25, 2005). See Life Without Parole. 

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