Dallas Morning News Editorial Board Names a Moratorium on Executions a Top Priority in 2011

The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board has named a moratorium on executions and a study commission one of their major goals of 2011.

Texas legislators gather in Austin in nine days. If ever there were a year for progress on some of this newspaper's goals for our city, region and state, this is it. We warned last year that the price continues to grow for the state and city as our leaders keep kicking major problems down the road. Texas and Dallas have a chance to find solutions this year. In fact, 2011 is the year for our leaders (and wannabes) to stand and deliver. You may recall the 1980s movie by that title, the one about crusading school principal Jaime Escalante. We see no reason the same couldn't be said for our legislators, council members and school trustees – and their constituents. Enough kicking the can. Stand and deliver.

Get it right on criminal justice

The goals

• Revamp rules for eyewitness evidence.

• Require digital recording of interrogations.

• Examine the appeals and pardons procedures.

• Create a reliable forensic science commission.

• Halt executions and appoint a panel to recommend changes to Texas' use of the death penalty.

The plan

Some of the sensible reforms that could have kept innocent people out of prison failed in the 2009 session to procedural motions. But after a year in which human error was exposed in the high-profile Anthony Graves case – on top of a foundation of doubt from years of DNA exonerations – the need for justice reform is too big to ignore.

That's why we will call on legislators to revamp and make uniform rules for dealing with eyewitness evidence. This most unreliable form of evidence cannot be left to the shaky methods of untrained investigators. We also will keep pushing the Legislature to mandate digital recording and archiving of interrogations. Likewise, legislators need to require that even confessions are verified by other evidence.

As they pursue those goals, lawmakers must examine the appeals and pardons process so the truth has a chance of coming to light. Texas' appeals process is myopically focused on legal maneuvers, leaving little room for claims of actual innocence.

Austin also needs to create a post-conviction forensic science commission with a sense of public purpose, unlike the current one, which is prone to political hijacking.

Finally, we will press legislators to halt executions in Texas and create a blue-ribbon panel of experts to make recommendations about the future of the nation's busiest death chamber.

Where other states have acted boldly, Texas has averted its eyes. That should change in 2011.

Dutton's Moratorium Bill on agenda for Committee Hearing next Thursday, April 2

Rep Dutton's moratorium bill (HB 913) is on the agenda for next Thursday, April 2, in the Subcommittee on Capital Punishment. We need to make an effort for this bill. If at all possible, people should try to drop to the hearing and sign a form in favor of this bill, which would actually stop executions for two years and create a death penalty study commission. It only takes a few minutes to fill out the form in favor and then leave, but you have to turn in the form in person.

Also contact the capital punishment subcommittee members and tell them you support HB 913.

Please forward this message.

Members of the Subcommittee on Capital Punishment

Robert Miklos, Chair of Subcommittee on Capital Punishment
District 101 (Dallas County-part)
Email: http://tinyurl.com/caazxo
Phone: 512-463-0464; FAX: 512-463-9295

Wayne Christian (Vice Chair), District 09 (Shelby, Nacogdoches, San Augustine, Sabine, Jasper Counties)
Email: http://tinyurl.com/d55lo6
Phone: 512-463-0556; FAX: 512-463-5896

Joseph Moody, District 78 (El Paso County-part)
Email: http://tinyurl.com/dc5bgh
Phone: 512-463-0728; FAX: 512-463-0397

Pete Gallego
Email: http://tinyurl.com/bymedd
Phone: 512-463-0566; FAX: 512-263-9408

Terri Hodge
Email: http://tinyurl.com/d4rd8d
Phone: (512) 463-0586 Fax: (512) 463-8147


HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING

Criminal Jurisprudenc:

SUBCOMMITTEE:
Capital Punishment

TIME & DATE:
8:00 AM, Thursday, April 02, 2009

PLACE: E2.016

CHAIR: Rep. Robert Miklos

HB 913
Dutton | et al.
Relating to the creation of a commission to study capital punishment in Texas and to a moratorium on executions.

HB 916
Dutton

Relating to standards for judicial review of certain writs of habeas corpus in capital cases.

HB 938
Dutton
Relating to the admissibility of certain confessions in capital cases.

Pastor: Stop executions

In offering Monday's prayer in the House, the Rev. Michael Piazza of Dallas used the podium to back a moratorium on the death penalty. Just briefly.

Before starting his prayer, Piazza, pastor of the Cathedral of Hope church, noted that more than 1,000 members of his congregation had signed a petition seeking a moratorium and asked lawmakers to consider such a move.

After the amen, there was no rush to do so in the state with the nation's most active execution chamber.

Source: Austin American-Statesman

DMN editorial: Death penalty moratorium needed

That's the title of Dec 29 editorial by Dallas Morning News calling for a death penalty moratorium in Texas. Last year DMN changed it's century old support of the capital punishment and called for the abolition of the death penalty in Texas.

The year draws to a close with Texas in its familiar No. 1 place nationally in capital punishment statistics (18 of the nation's 37 executions in 2008). It has also been a year rich with examples of why this state should stop its error-prone machinery of death.

For a change, discussion about flawed justice need not start in Dallas County, the nation's ground zero for DNA exonerations. Just to the north, Collin County illustrates how even a highly educated, affluent community can get it wildly wrong in the high-stakes gamble called capital punishment.

No murder case more nauseated North Texas than the 1993 strangulation of 7-year-old Ashley Estell after she was plucked from a Plano city park. A Collin County jury deliberated only 27 minutes before convicting serial molester Michael Blair of capital murder. It took far longer – 14 years – for the truth to fully emerge. DNA and other forensic tests undermined the case so thoroughly that a judge dismissed the conviction this summer.

In a second discredited case, evidence has never been a question. Rather, it took 18 years for the truth to emerge about an illicit sexual affair that the trial judge had been having with Collin County District Attorney Tom O'Connell, who personally asked jurors for the death sentence. The double murder conviction against Charles Dean Hood raised serious questions of corrupted ethics this summer, and the courts have yet to address it.

There is no quick or neat fix for breakdowns in justice that range from poor technology to dishonesty among officers of the court. Dozens of DNA exonerations across the state – including the nation-leading 19 in Dallas County – have demonstrated how unreliable eyewitness testimony can be. Further, statistics indicate a disturbing arbitrariness of capital punishment, varying greatly by county. Data also show that a killer is far likelier to die for killing a white person.

It's notable that a veteran state lawmaker from conservative Collin County, Plano's Brian McCall, is sufficiently concerned about the justice system that he favors a two-year moratorium on executions in Texas. Mr. McCall is a Republican with law-and-order bona fides, having authored legislation in 1994 creating the state's first criminal DNA database.

That tool has achieved its primary objective of helping law enforcement officials identify culprits and solve crimes. It has also offered new perspective on how much more reform our system of laws requires before we can be confident that fatal error will never occur in Huntsville's busy death chamber.

It's the view of this newspaper that the justice system will never be foolproof and, therefore, use of the death penalty is never justified.

Mr. McCall comes at the question differently, asserting the deterrent benefits of capital punishment and arguing at the same time for better safeguards against bias and failure.

On the need for better safeguards, this newspaper finds common ground with Mr. McCall. On the need for a hiatus in Huntsville, we hope lawmakers who convene in Austin next year will find the courage confront the issue. READ MORE about why this newspaper reversed its 100-plus years of support for the death penalty.

dallasnews.com/deathnomore

The UN just voted in favor of the resolution for a death penalty moratorium

The resolution passed the UN vote a little while ago:

105 in favor, 48 against and 31 abstentions.

Last year it passed with 99 in favor, 52 against and 33 abstentions.

5,000,000 signatures for moratorium collected

The community of Sant’Egidio and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty have collected five millions signatures from around the world calling for a moratorium on executions. According to their press release,

A delegation of anti-death penalty activists from around the world will meet with the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Mr. Srgian Kerim, on Friday, November 2, at 10:30 AM, to deliver a petition containing over five million signatures that urge the General Assembly to pass a resolution calling for a global moratorium on executions.

The delegation, led by Mario Marazziti of the Community of Sant'Egidio, will include Sister Helen Prejean, leading American advocate of the abolition of the death penalty and the woman behind the movie Dead Man Walking, Yvonne Terlingen, Head of Amnesty International's UN Office in New York, Renny Cushing, Marie Verzulli, and Bill Babbitt from Murder Victims' Families for Human Rights, an international organization of victims' family members and family members of the executed, Speedy Rice from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Elizabeth Zitrin, member of the executive board of Death Penalty Focus.

Angola, Albania, Brazil, Croatia, Gabon, Mexico, the Philippines, Portugal (for the EU), and New Zealand are presenting the text of the resolution to the General Assembly as a cross-regional initiative. Close to one hundred other countries have signed on as co-sponsors.

After meeting with the President of the General Assembly, the delegation will hold a press conference at 11:00 AM at UNCA CLUB, UN, Room 326, at the Third Floor of UN Headquarters.

Videotaped statements will also be available from Rev. Rowan Williams, Primate of the Church of England (London), Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (Buenos Aires), Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino, President of the Pontifical Council Justice and Peace (Vatican City), and Siti Musdah Muliva, Moslem theologian at the University of Jakarta.

Appointments:

UN HEADQUARTERS

UN, 10.30, President's office

UN, 11 AM, UNCA CLUB, Room 326, Third Floor

Contacts:

Mario Marazziti

Telephone: +39 335 726 3641

Mobile +39 346 850 1247

email/blackberry: m.marazziti@gmail.com

Yvonne Terlingen

Telephone +1212 867 8878 ext 2

Mobile + 1917 406 1185

Fax +1212 370 0183

Statesman Poll: 79 percent of Texan's are concerned about the possibility of innocent people being executed

Taken from TMN blog.

Gardner Selby, a political columnist for the Austin American-Statesman, wrote an article last week that contained new polling data on the views of Texas Democrats and independent voters on the death penalty. The August poll of 350 Democratic-leaning and 150 independent voters was taken by Wilson Research Strategies. The poll shows that the risk of executing innocent people is a major concern. 79 percent said they're concerned about the possibility of innocent people being executed; 45 percent are very concerned.

The polling data does not come as a surprise to any of us who have been working on the death penalty issue. We have known for a long time that we were making progress in educating the public on the problems in the Texas death penalty system. Our experience has shown us that support for a moratorium is overwhelming among grassroots Democrats in Texas. In 2004, a group of us convinced the Texas Democratic Party to support a moratorium on executions in the party platform.

TMN's Scott Cobb was a member of the platform writing committee that year and wrote the section on capital punishment in the platform. Last summer, he and Hooman Hedayati met with the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas, Chris Bell, and convinced him to support a moratorium. Unfortunately, Bell never went public with his support for a moratorium. If he had, then he might have won more votes in the general election that year, which had four major candidates. Bell needed to identify himself strongly with the core values of the Democratic Party in order to bring out the base and win the election. By publicly endorsing a moratorium, as well as other issues that Democrats care about, such as universal health care, Bell might have had a chance to defeat Perry, given four major candidates. But Bell limited his public comments to support for an Innocence Commission. His comments on health care were also not strong enough to increase turnout for him in November. Had he come out strongly for both a moratorium and universal health coverage, then he might have made enough of an impression among Democratic voters that they would have turned out in large numbers for him. That could have made a difference in last year's four candidate race, five counting the Libertarian candidate.

Candidates who articulate support for a moratorium are likely to find support from a large number of potential voters, at least from voters who identify themselves as Democratic or independent.

From the Statesman article:

The poll tested seven questions related to the death penalty in Texas, showing that Democrats and independents have misgivings about how Texas applies the punishment.

Less than half the polled voters favor abolishing the death penalty. But 79 percent said they're concerned about the possibility of innocent people being executed; 45 percent are very concerned.

Granted, the poll didn't include Republicans, effectively overlooking the party whose candidates have won every statewide office since 1998.

Is it still meaningful that four in five Democrats and independents have misgivings?

My sense: It'll take Friedman stumping before anyone knows. It's that hard in tough-on-crime Texas to envision another candidate questioning the death penalty, though Bell would support a moratorium while cases are reviewed.

The polled voters appear uncertain what to do about the death sentence, which has been carried out more than 400 times in Texas since 1982.

Very few of the voters rate abolishing the penalty as a vital issue. Forty-four percent of voters prefer life without parole as the punishment for people convicted of capital murder, with 30 percent sticking with the death penalty and 14 percent preferring life in prison with a chance of parole.

EU urges Texas to halt executions

08/21/2007
Associated Press

The European Union on Tuesday urged the governor of Texas to halt executions and introduce a moratorium on capital punishment in the United States' busiest death penalty state.

In an unusual direct appeal, the EU said Texas Gov. Rick Perry must "exercise all powers vested in his office" to halt the impending 400th execution since Texas resumed carrying out death sentences in 1982. The execution of Johnny Ray Conner is scheduled for this week. He is to die for the shooting death of a Houston grocery store owner during an attempted holdup in 1998,

"The European Union notes with great regret the upcoming execution in the State of Texas," the bloc said in a statement. The death penalty is banned in the 27-nation EU, which also fights for its the global abolition.

"The irreversibility of the punishment means that miscarriages of justice - which are inevitable in all legal systems - cannot be redressed," the EU said in a statement.

Moratorium Now!

If you live in Texas, please contact your state senator and state representative and ask them to support a moratorium on executions. You can use our automatic email system (only for Texas residents), or you can find out who your Texas representatives are, and write them from their own websites or call them on the phone. If you live outside Texas, the best way for you to help us right now is by donating money for Lobby Day on March 13, so we can afford to bring some exonerated people to testify.

While executions have slowed in other states, the torrid pace continues in Texas. So far in 2007, there have been five executions in the U.S. and four of them were in Texas. Through March, there are seven more executions scheduled in the U.S. and six of them are in Texas. In many states, executions have recently been halted because of challenges to the lethal injection process, but not in Texas.

Nevertheless, we believe when hearings are held in the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee that we can convince them to support a moratorium. There are 7 Democrats and 2 Republicans on that committee. The chair is a Democrat. The last time that this committee was controlled by the Democrats, in 2001, it approved a moratorium proposal. We think they will do it again when they hear how Texas may have executed three innocent people: Ruben Cantu, Cameron Todd Willingham and Carlos De Luna.

Save the date of March 13, which is the date for the Death Penalty Issues Lobby Day and "Day of Innocence" at the capitol.