Is Texas capital punishment swagger slowing? HC August 25, 2014 HUNTSVILLE - Perhaps nothing symbolizes this states swagger over being tough on crime like Old Sparky, an electric chair that was used to execute 361 inmates and is now the centerpiece of a prison museum. It sits just minutes from the Texas penitentiary where it was forever unplugged 50 years ago this summer following the execution of Houstons Joseph Johnson Jr. for murdering a grocer. While the oak chair is now a capital punishment relic photographed daily by visitors, this states death row is undergoing what looks to be a historic shift. Texas forged an international reputation as it has executed far more inmates than any other state in the nation since 1982, when it resumed capital punishment with lethal injection. But this year, Texas just may lose its distinction as the state carrying out the most executions annually, sitting in a three-way tie with Missouri and Florida. Each state has executed seven people so far this year. In Texas, a slew of changes in capital punishment that have been trotted out over the past decade or so and are taking hold. Those include requiring better legal representation for people facing the death penalty, giving jurors the option of sentencing defendants to life in prison without parole, and increasing the use of DNA and other scientific testing. And significant to the change is the realization by lawmakers and others that the system that condemns someone is not bulletproof. The state executed an average of 29 people annually from 1997 to 2007, with 40 in 2000, according to statistics maintained by the Death Penalty Information Center. But it is now on track to have no more than 11 this year, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the fewest number in 23 years. Texas is not getting weaker on crime, but getting smarter about who is sentenced to death by reducing the chances of condemning an innocent person, said former Texas Gov. Mark White. We are starting to recognize that being tough on crime doesnt mean you have to be tough on innocent people, White said. We have learned a lot: use the cutting edge of science, and not just the fast draw of the Old West. That aint tough He pointed to more than a dozen Texas death row inmates who were convicted, only to years later be freed on the grounds they were innocent. Being tough on an innocent person, that aint tough, that is stupid, White said. Being tough on crime does not mean being careless in how you find a perpetrator. Anthony Graves is among the innocent. He was exonerated four years ago in the 1992 Burleson County murder of a woman as well as her four grandchildren and daughter. He had been convicted of helping Robert Carter in the murders, but from shortly after Carters arrest to his last declaration from the gurney moments before his execution, Carter said Graves had no role. Students in a University of St. Thomas journalism class worked with The Innocence Network at the University of Houston Law Center to review the Graves case, and Graves lawyers later successfully argued that prosecutors elicited false statements from two witnesses and withheld two statements that could have changed the minds of jurors. The district attorney conceded that Graves did not do the crime and dropped the charges rather than pursue a new trial. Graves said the debate should no longer be about whether it is right or wrong to execute a person, but whether the current justice system gets it right. That is when you have an honest conversation about it, he said of focusing on whether the system works properly. To each his own. You cannot get mad at somebody because they believe someone should be executed for a crime they committed. That is between them and their god. Graves said that he believes more Texans are now realizing that sometimes the wrong person is sent to death row. I did not give up eighteen and a half years of my life to come out here and be called some liberal activist against the death penalty, said Graves, who was improperly convicted due in part to official misconduct, perjury and misleading scientific information. From what I have gone through, I have seen it fail from top to bottom, he said. I see a failed system that wrongfully convicted me, put me on death row and tried to murder me. There is no way in hell that I can tell you that works. Other exonerations have hinged on scientific work, and DNA comparisons have grown more and more heralded each year. Michael Blair, who was wrongfully convicted in 1993 for killing a 7-year-old girl in Collin County was freed in 2008 due in part to DNA testing. In 2013, such testing of all biological evidence became required by Texas law in all death-penalty cases. Besides seeing a drop in the number of people the state executes, the number Texas sends to death row annually also has decreased. This state now trails Florida and California. Defendants facing the death penalty have been required since 2006 to have two lawyers, and since the year before that had the possibility of being sentenced to life behind bars. The life sentence affords jurors a punishment option that takes into account aspects of defendants background, such as being emotionally disturbed. Juan Quintero shot Houston Police officer Rodney Johnson multiple times in the back of the head, but jurors in 2008 gave him life in prison instead of the death penalty. They said afterward that they considered Quinteros mental health and family background, among other factors in sparing him. $2.5 million per case The option of pursuing a life sentence can also be more appealing for rural counties, as it is less expensive to prosecute than a death penalty cases, which come with years of appeals. Steve Taylor, who was a defense attorney for 24 years and recently joined the Liberty County District Attorneys Office, said the total cost for litigating a death penalty case is about $2.5 million. Some say it could be much higher. That includes costs by the prosecutors and the state, as well as the cost of lawyers who are often appointed to represent death penalty defendants. Texas believes that some cases just take death, he said. It depends on a variety of things - what does the victims family want? There are lots of reasons that go into that decision, but financial cost to a smaller county versus a large tax based county makes a big difference. Kathryn Kase, executive director of Texas Defender Service, an organization that consults with lawyers and trains them for death penalty cases, said the message is clear. Judges, jurors, prosecutors and certainly defense attorneys understand that we have to be much more careful when we have a death penalty case because the decision to kill someone, if it is carried out, is irreversible, said Kase, who is based in Houston. Kase said that while she supports the changes, she is not yet convinced the trend will continue. I dont know that you can say those days are over, she said of the states nation-leading use of the death penalty. It is a system with a lot of cogs and wheels and it is very easy for it to go out of balance. Still, numbers are down even in Harris County, which has sent far more people to death row than any other county in the nation. Harris County has sent four people to death row so far this year. That compares with nine a decade ago and 14 in the year 2000. It takes a special kind of person to put the barrel of a gun to the head of a uniformed police officer and shoot, Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson told jurors about Harlem Lewis III, who in July was convicted of killing Bellaire Police Cpl. Jimmie Norman and business owner Terry Taylor. Lewis lawyers unsuccessfully sought to convince jurors that he should be spared the death penalty in part because he has a low IQ and because he was remorseful. The next person scheduled for execution is Houstons Willie Trottie, who killed his ex-girlfriend and her brother after she broke off a relationship with him. He is to be followed by Lisa Coleman of Arlington, who was convicted of beating, tying up and starving a 9-year-old boy to death. Death row fascination Fascination over Texas death row has been fueled over the years with an appetite for details on everything from last meals to last words, and a play-by-play of executions, from the exact time the condemned person enters the death chamber here, to when the lethal injection begins to flow, to when they are pronounced dead. It has been the stuff of movies, books and documentaries. Jim Willett, a retired warden who works part time at the Texas Prison Museum, said streams of visitors are curious about executions and want to see Old Sparky. It is the main draw, said Willett, who oversaw 89 executions during his career. The chair, which helped deliver up to 1,800 volts of electricity to the bodies of the condemned is roped off from the public. An alarm sounds should anyone get too close. Leather straps that once restrained Joseph Johnson Jr. now hang limp. Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said change seems to be coming for Texas. Arizona recently drew attention over an execution in which an inmate was gasping and snorting for two hours, and Oklahoma grabbed headlines for an execution that took 43 minutes. There is a perception that Texas is still Texas, and death penalty central, Dieter said. I think that the numbers will change, and this year will be the first crack. houstonchronicle/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Is-Texas-capital-punishment-swagger-slowing-5709682.php
Posted on: Mon, 25 Aug 2014 17:20:23 +0000
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