softheart
01-15-2003, 10:01 AM
January 14, 2003
State House bills call for end of death penalty in Texas
By Erin Keck (The Daily Texan)
The death penalty controversy sparked by the commutation of all 167 death
row inmates in Illinois Saturday may spread to Texas if two bills filed
last week pass the state Legislature.
The bills, filed by Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, both aim to end
executions in Texas, at least temporarily. The first bill calls for
abolition of the death penalty in Texas by Sept. 1. The second would
institute a two-year moratorium on executions and create the Texas Capital
Punishment Commission to study death row convictions and correct
inequities in the system.
"It will go nowhere. Absolutely nowhere, just like it should," said Dudley
Sharp, resource director of Justice For All, a criminal justice advocacy
organization not affiliated with the student organization of the same
name.
"The majority of Texans believe, under certain circumstances, that it's
appropriate to give the death sentence," Sharp said.
Edwin Colfax, director of the Illinois Death Penalty Education Project, is
hopeful that an anti-death penalty bill will become law in Texas.
"I think that if people are successful in getting the word out about how
the system works in practice, then its chances are good. We see that when
people support the death penalty, they support it conceptually. But when
they see it doesn't work in practice, they're much more likely to support
moratorium and reform," Colfax said.
The Texas bills were filed three days before Illinois Gov. George Ryan
emptied his state's death row on Saturday, reducing the sentences of three
men and changing most other death sentences to life without parole. On
Friday, Ryan had issued pardons for four other men who he said had been
tortured and made false confessions to police.
"Our capital punishment system is haunted by the demon of error - error in
determining guilt, and error in determining who among the guilty deserves
to die," Ryan said to a crowd at Northwestern University just outside of
Chicago Saturday afternoon.
Death penalty supporters maintain the appellate process is an adequate
safeguard for keeping the innocent off death row and that Ryan's
commutations were unnecessary.
"The system is not irretrievably broken," Sharp said. "The majority of
these cases were good defense and good prosecution of guilty people."
Texas law prevents Gov. Rick Perry from granting clemencies as Ryan did.
Perry may grant executive clemency only after the Board of Pardons and
Paroles has recommended eligible inmates. Without the Board's approval, he
may only grant a 30-day stay of execution.
A moratorium or repeal of the death penalty in Texas would dramatically
reduce the number of executions in the Unites States. According to the
Death Penalty Information Center, 71 inmates were executed in the United
States in 2002. Texas executed 33 people, about 46 percent of all
executions nationwide. Texas currently has 452 inmates on death row, and
18 executions are currently scheduled for this year.
-----------
Source : The Daily Texan
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/01/14/3e23b7bf0292f
State House bills call for end of death penalty in Texas
By Erin Keck (The Daily Texan)
The death penalty controversy sparked by the commutation of all 167 death
row inmates in Illinois Saturday may spread to Texas if two bills filed
last week pass the state Legislature.
The bills, filed by Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, both aim to end
executions in Texas, at least temporarily. The first bill calls for
abolition of the death penalty in Texas by Sept. 1. The second would
institute a two-year moratorium on executions and create the Texas Capital
Punishment Commission to study death row convictions and correct
inequities in the system.
"It will go nowhere. Absolutely nowhere, just like it should," said Dudley
Sharp, resource director of Justice For All, a criminal justice advocacy
organization not affiliated with the student organization of the same
name.
"The majority of Texans believe, under certain circumstances, that it's
appropriate to give the death sentence," Sharp said.
Edwin Colfax, director of the Illinois Death Penalty Education Project, is
hopeful that an anti-death penalty bill will become law in Texas.
"I think that if people are successful in getting the word out about how
the system works in practice, then its chances are good. We see that when
people support the death penalty, they support it conceptually. But when
they see it doesn't work in practice, they're much more likely to support
moratorium and reform," Colfax said.
The Texas bills were filed three days before Illinois Gov. George Ryan
emptied his state's death row on Saturday, reducing the sentences of three
men and changing most other death sentences to life without parole. On
Friday, Ryan had issued pardons for four other men who he said had been
tortured and made false confessions to police.
"Our capital punishment system is haunted by the demon of error - error in
determining guilt, and error in determining who among the guilty deserves
to die," Ryan said to a crowd at Northwestern University just outside of
Chicago Saturday afternoon.
Death penalty supporters maintain the appellate process is an adequate
safeguard for keeping the innocent off death row and that Ryan's
commutations were unnecessary.
"The system is not irretrievably broken," Sharp said. "The majority of
these cases were good defense and good prosecution of guilty people."
Texas law prevents Gov. Rick Perry from granting clemencies as Ryan did.
Perry may grant executive clemency only after the Board of Pardons and
Paroles has recommended eligible inmates. Without the Board's approval, he
may only grant a 30-day stay of execution.
A moratorium or repeal of the death penalty in Texas would dramatically
reduce the number of executions in the Unites States. According to the
Death Penalty Information Center, 71 inmates were executed in the United
States in 2002. Texas executed 33 people, about 46 percent of all
executions nationwide. Texas currently has 452 inmates on death row, and
18 executions are currently scheduled for this year.
-----------
Source : The Daily Texan
http://www.dailytexanonline.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/01/14/3e23b7bf0292f