Texas Ahead of U.S. Supreme Court on Issue of Life Without Parole for Juvenile Offenders

The U.S. Supreme Court banned life without parole for juvenile offenders convicted of non homicide crimes today in a 5-4 vote. This is one criminal justice issue where Texas is ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court, because Texas has banned life without parole for juveniles even in cases in which a juvenile is convicted of a capital crime. Last session, the Texas Legislature passed and Governor Perry signed SB 839 authored by Senator Juan Hinojosa (photo) that banned juvenile offenders convicted of capital crimes from being sentenced to Life Without Parole, instead making them eligible for parole after 40 years.

More than 2,000 juveniles are serving life without parole for killing someone across the country. Those sentences are not affected by today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

Here is what The Texas Observer reported about why Senator Hinojosa filed his bill last session: 

One of the Legislature’s leading voices on criminal justice issues has decided that teenage killers too young to face execution should also be exempt from being sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

“To me it’s a matter of fairness and consistency,” said state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen. “If the U.S. Supreme Court said to Texas and all the other states, ‘You cannot give these juvenile offenders the death penalty’ [which the Supreme Court did in 2005], then I believe the state of Texas should not be sending them to prison for life without parole.”

Hinojosa, a long-serving lawmaker who sits on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee (and led the House Corrections Committee during his final years as an eight-term state representative), plans to introduce legislation this session that would cap sentences for youthful offenders convicted of capital murder at life in prison, with the possibility of parole after 40 years behind bars.

Such a sentence would be in line with non–capital punishment death sentences handed down before the 2005 Legislature’s enactment of the life-without-parole law. Hinojosa says he decided to push for the new legislation after reading a recent article in the Observer examining the effects of the law (“The Life Penalty,” Nov. 28, 2008).

That law draws no distinction between offenders who commit capital murder before turning 18 and those who kill as adults.

“I think, for someone so young, there is a chance to rehabilitate their lives,” Hinojosa said.

Four under-18 offenders are now serving life-without-parole sentences in Texas. All were sentenced before the 2007 Legislature required the state’s district courts to report demographic information on capital murder cases to the state Office of Court Administration.

HB 2267, Kenneth Foster Jr Act, to Be Heard in Senate Committee Thursday, May 21

HB 2267 will be heard in the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice, Thursday, May 21, at 1:30 PM or upon adjournment of the Senate.

This is the law of parties bill by Rep Terri Hodge and Rep Harold Dutton, recently renamed the Kenneth Foster, Jr Act. It would require separate trials in capital cases and would prohibit the state from seeking the death penalty against co-defendants in Law of Parties cases if they are not the person who actually killed someone.

Please come to the hearing and sign a Witness Affirmation Form in in favor of HB 2267.

The hearing will be in room E1.014.

If you can not attend the hearing, then call the offices of the Committee members and urge them to vote in favor of HB 2267.

Please call Texas State Senators and Urge Them to Vote for HB 2267

If you live in Texas, click here to find out who your state senator is.

After you have first called your own state senator, move on to calling the members of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice (Listed below).

After you call the committee members, just start calling any or all of the other state senators from this list.

Sample Message (change it to your own words) "Hello, I am calling to urge Senator X to vote in favor of HB 2267, the "Kenneth Foster, Jr Act". It has already been approved by the Texas House of Representatives. HB 2267 would require separate trials for co-defendants in capital trials and would prohibit the state from seeking the death penalty for people who do not kill anyone but are convicted under the Law of Parties. I do not believe it is fair to sentence someone to death, like Kenneth Foster was, if they did not kill anyone.

The Law of Parties allows people who "should have anticipated" a murder to receive the death penalty for the actions of another person who killed someone. A person sentenced to death under the Law of Parties has not killed anyone. They are accomplices or co-conspirators of one felony, such as robbery, during which another person killed someone, but a person should not be executed for the actions of another person.

Thank you and call your state senator today!

Members of the Senate Committee on Criminal Justice

Chair, John Whitmire
Phone: (512) 463-0115
Email Form

Vice-Chair, Kel Seliger
Phone:(512)463-0131
Email Form

John Carona
Phone:(512) 463-0116
Email Form

Rodney Ellis
Phone:(512) 463-0113
Email Form

Glenn Hegar
Phone: (512) 463-0118
Email Form

Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa (He is the Senate sponsor, so no need to call him)
Phone: (512) 463-0120
Email Form

Dan Patrick
Phone:(512) 463-0107
Email Form