Executions: Texas needs a moratorium
03/12/2003
Texas, which executes more people than all the states
and even most countries, should pause. New evidence
of a flawed system and cautions expressed recently by
some of those closest to the process make a good case
for a moratorium on executions until Texas carefully
reviews its death penalty process to assure that it
is just.
We're not alone in our reticence. Houston Police Chief
C.O. Bradford, a death penalty proponent, told a state
House committee last week that execution dates for seven
Harris County men should be postponed until DNA evidence
can be more carefully reviewed. Court of Criminal Appeals
Judges Tom Price, Sharon Johnson and Charles Holcomb
last month criticized their own court's decision to
allow a defendant to be executed this past December,
citing concerns about having authorized incompetent
defense counsel for him. And the U.S. Supreme Court,
in ordering a lower court to reconsider a death penalty
conviction last month, cited evidence that the Dallas
County district attorney's office was "suffused
with bias" at the time of the 1986 case.
Here are some issues a review panel should examine:
NEW TECHNOLOGY: At least a dozen of
the 100-plus death row inmates released from death row
nationwide since 1973 have been exonerated by new DNA
evidence. This is scary. Shouldn't Texas be reviewing
the evidence against its death row inmates to assure
that an innocent isn't among them?
QUALITY OF EVIDENCE: At last week's
state House hearing, Department of Public Safety DNA
expert Irma Rios said the Houston lab was close to the
worst she had ever seen. Ms. Rios has audited DNA labs
worldwide for nearly 20 years.
A former employee who filed a whistleblower's lawsuit
against the Harris County medical examiner's office
corroborated the allegations. Elizabeth Johnson said
there was at least one serious problem in each of the
15 Houston crime lab cases she reviewed in the early
to mid-1990s.
What standards of evidence are due defendants? Is Texas
meeting them?
REPRESENTATION: The Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals has ruled that it isn't required to
provide effective counsel in certain death penalty cases.
Sure enough, according to review by the Texas Defender
Service, it doesn't. It is this travesty that the three
appeals court justices railed against last month.
The scheduled execution today of Delma Banks Jr. raises
another representation issue. Allegations of prosecutorial
misconduct in his case make his execution troubling
even to former federal judge and FBI Director William
Sessions, a longtime death penalty advocate.
What standards of representation are due defendants?
Is Texas meeting them?
BIAS: Last month's Supreme Court
ruling suggesting bias in a 1986 case is frightening.
If bias existed in this case, did it exist in others?
How can Texas best guard against such errors?
These are serious issues that should trouble even the
most ardent death penalty supporter. Until we resolve
them, Texas should suspend its executions.
We urge Gov. Rick Perry to appoint a respected, open-minded,
judicious Texan to lead a review of the state's death
penalty process. Mr. Sessions, for example, might make
a good leader of such a review. So might former prosecutor
John Montford, also a former Democratic state senator
and ex-chancellor of Texas Tech. Or former Texas Attorney
General and Supreme Court Chief Justice John Hill.
Advocacy for or against the death penalty isn't the
point. Time out to fix a broken system is. It's in the
interests of all Texans to support such action.Make
your voice heard
Tell elected officials to establish an independent
commission to review the Texas death penalty, and recommend
the Board of Pardons and Paroles suspend executions
until the review is completed.
Senate State Affairs Committee Chairman Bill Ratliff
(R-Mount Pleasant): 512-463-0101; fax: 512-475-3751;
Box 12068, Austin, Texas 78711.
House State Affairs Committee Chairman Ken Marchant
(R-Coppell): 512-463-0468; e-mail: ken.marchant@house.state.tx.us;
Box 2910, Austin, Texas 78768.
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