softheart
05-31-2003, 03:16 PM
What is wrong with these people, I just don't get it.
softie
May 30, 2003
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Legislature failed to make needed death penalty reforms
The majority of Texans support the death penalty. But no reasonable person
would support executing the innocent. That is why there cause for concern
over a number of aspects of this state's death penalty laws.
Yet the waning legislative session appears sadly to be on the verge of a
number of missed opportunities for reform. Even death penalty proponents
should regret the squandered opportunities, for, in some cases, they could
mean the execution of innocents, which taints the whole system. And in
some cases, if the innocent are executed, that likely means the guilty go
free.
One of the pieces of legislation still in play, but also still in doubt,
is Senate Bill 1224, sponsored by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston.
It would help to improve the accuracy of convictions and sentencing by
improving the competence of attorneys appointed in capital cases.
A recent report, entitled "Fatal Indifference" and released by the Texas
Defender Service, concluded that Texas' post-conviction (habeas corpus)
death-penalty appeals process is a "fatal combination of incompetent
attorneys and unaccountable courts."
TDS studied 251 Texas habeas cases filed since 1995. Among the
conclusions: death row inmates face a one in three chance of being
executed without having the case properly investigated by a competent
attorney and without having any claims of innocence or unfairness
presented or heard; numerous cases were cited in which appointed lawyers
either filed the wrong kind of claims, failed to support claims or copied
verbatim claims that were previously raised.
The Court of Criminal Appeals, the report also contends, is often
confronted with persuasive evidence of inadequately investigated and
poorly prepared state habeas petitions, but fails to act, despite the
Legislature's statutory "guarantee" of competent counsel.
SB 1224 would help to address many of these problems, but a House version
of the bill would "perpetuate the embarrassment," according to an analysis
by the Equal Justice Center in Austin.
The two versions are bottled up in a conference committee, and it appears
increasingly unlikely that the better Senate version legislation will pass
before the legislative session ends June 2.
Other already missed reform opportunities this session include:
· The Senate earlier killed a bill that would have given jurors in capital
murder cases the option of sentencing a convicted murderer to life without
the possibility of parole. In doing so, the Legislature lost a chance to
provide Texas juries with a needed alternative to the finality of the
death penalty and the relatively short punishment of a life sentence under
current Texas law, which offers the possibility of parole after 40 years.
· Nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court banned execution of the
mentally retarded, Texas officials have no idea how many of the almost 450
convicts on death row have the disability and no system in place to ensure
that retarded inmates will not be put to death. In fact, Gov. Rick Perry
remains in denial, insisting that Texas does not execute the retarded,
even while, right under his nose, at least a dozen inmates have been
granted stays while the courts pursue their retardation claims.
Legislation to address these problems also apparently has fallen by the
political wayside.
Republican leaders in the House -- and in the governor's mansion -- who
have helped to thwart these needed reforms will no doubt proudly tout how
they've upheld Texas law and order. In fact, what they've done is thwart
Texas justice and undermined constitutional law and order.
------
Source : Houston Chronicle, editorial
softie
May 30, 2003
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Legislature failed to make needed death penalty reforms
The majority of Texans support the death penalty. But no reasonable person
would support executing the innocent. That is why there cause for concern
over a number of aspects of this state's death penalty laws.
Yet the waning legislative session appears sadly to be on the verge of a
number of missed opportunities for reform. Even death penalty proponents
should regret the squandered opportunities, for, in some cases, they could
mean the execution of innocents, which taints the whole system. And in
some cases, if the innocent are executed, that likely means the guilty go
free.
One of the pieces of legislation still in play, but also still in doubt,
is Senate Bill 1224, sponsored by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston.
It would help to improve the accuracy of convictions and sentencing by
improving the competence of attorneys appointed in capital cases.
A recent report, entitled "Fatal Indifference" and released by the Texas
Defender Service, concluded that Texas' post-conviction (habeas corpus)
death-penalty appeals process is a "fatal combination of incompetent
attorneys and unaccountable courts."
TDS studied 251 Texas habeas cases filed since 1995. Among the
conclusions: death row inmates face a one in three chance of being
executed without having the case properly investigated by a competent
attorney and without having any claims of innocence or unfairness
presented or heard; numerous cases were cited in which appointed lawyers
either filed the wrong kind of claims, failed to support claims or copied
verbatim claims that were previously raised.
The Court of Criminal Appeals, the report also contends, is often
confronted with persuasive evidence of inadequately investigated and
poorly prepared state habeas petitions, but fails to act, despite the
Legislature's statutory "guarantee" of competent counsel.
SB 1224 would help to address many of these problems, but a House version
of the bill would "perpetuate the embarrassment," according to an analysis
by the Equal Justice Center in Austin.
The two versions are bottled up in a conference committee, and it appears
increasingly unlikely that the better Senate version legislation will pass
before the legislative session ends June 2.
Other already missed reform opportunities this session include:
· The Senate earlier killed a bill that would have given jurors in capital
murder cases the option of sentencing a convicted murderer to life without
the possibility of parole. In doing so, the Legislature lost a chance to
provide Texas juries with a needed alternative to the finality of the
death penalty and the relatively short punishment of a life sentence under
current Texas law, which offers the possibility of parole after 40 years.
· Nearly a year after the U.S. Supreme Court banned execution of the
mentally retarded, Texas officials have no idea how many of the almost 450
convicts on death row have the disability and no system in place to ensure
that retarded inmates will not be put to death. In fact, Gov. Rick Perry
remains in denial, insisting that Texas does not execute the retarded,
even while, right under his nose, at least a dozen inmates have been
granted stays while the courts pursue their retardation claims.
Legislation to address these problems also apparently has fallen by the
political wayside.
Republican leaders in the House -- and in the governor's mansion -- who
have helped to thwart these needed reforms will no doubt proudly tout how
they've upheld Texas law and order. In fact, what they've done is thwart
Texas justice and undermined constitutional law and order.
------
Source : Houston Chronicle, editorial