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LEAD-IN BY HOST: Robert Lookingbill was killed by lethal injection yesterday in Huntsville's Wall Prison Unit, making him the third in a series of six Texas state executions that are due to occur in the month of January. As the Texas legislature begins the 72nd Congressional session, bills dealing with the state's execution policy are being considered by local lawmakers. Jackson Allers reports on how the recent moratorium in Illinois is affecting how Texas lawmakers view state executions.
STORY: Texas will conduct 75 percent of executions scheduled nationwide in 2003. That's 18 of 23 nationwide executions [that are] scheduled to occur in Texas alone and with Robert Lookingbill's death last night by lethal injection, the state is well on its way to the six executions set for January. Meanwhile in Illinois, Republican Governor George Ryan commuted the sentences of 167 death row inmates and called for a moratorium on the death penalty after a three year study concluded: levels of human error in the Illinois justice system could cause the loss of innocent lives despite appellate safeguards. But Governor Rick Perry does not share Governor Ryan's sentiments. Governor Perry's spokesperson, Kathy Walt: "The governor is open to improvements in the criminal justice system but he thinks that the capital litigation death penalty statutes are working." As the 78th Texas Congressional session begins, at least three bills have been introduced addressing aspects of Texas death penalty policy- including one filed by Harold Dutton Jr., Democrat from Houston proposing a two-year moratorium. Other bills being considered include one introduced by Sen. Eddie Lucio, Democrat from Brownsville, which will give Texas a "life without parole" provision in capital cases. Current Texas law only allows for the death penalty or life with the possibility of parole. Governor Perry Spokesperson, Kathy Walt: "Perry thinks that it's a sentencing option [life w/o parole] that the Texas legislature ought to look at and debate." Polls taken recently by the media poll group, Scripps-Howard indicate that over 50 percent of Texans believe that the state has executed someone who was innocent of their crime. And considering a moratorium is exactly what the legislature should do, says Executive Director of the Texas Defender System, Jim Marcus: "About one third of the people on death row have no chance whatsoever of getting a lawyer to look into their case in any meaningful way. Meaning that if they're innocent, they're going to be executed and no body will ever know that they're innocent." Texas law prevents Gov. Perry from granting clemencies to death row prisoners, as in the Illinois case. 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. Another bill being considered is one introduced by Representative Lon Burnham of Fort Worth. His bill would prohibit the execution of a person who was younger than 18 when the crime was committed. Something Burnham says would bring Texas in line with every country in the world that has abandoned the right to execute juvenile offenders - including Bush's designated axis of evil countries - Iraq and Iran. "The major impact of this bill would be to say that you can't hold a child responsible to the degree of penalty that you can an adult. A juvenile offender cannot be tried with the death penalty as an option in the penalty phase of trial. What it does is that it brings Texas in compliance with international law." Representative Ellis of Houston is also introducing a bill that would make retardation a pretrial issue to be determined by a judge and jury - a provision governor Rick Perry should know something about. Spokesperson for the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Rick Halperin: "The fact that the man would veto in the last legislative session a bill to stop killing the mentally retarded; a system that the United States Supreme Court would declare unconstitutional two years later, shows how out of step and out of touch with human reality that Perry is on this issue." There are no bills addressing racial disparities in sentencing applications which are noted in a U.S. General Accounting Office inquiry - indicating a difference with minorities when the death penalty is applied. The American Bar Association has called for a capital punishment moratorium until the issue of racial injustice in sentencing can be addressed. Texas currently has 452 inmates on death row of which 77 percent are minorities. Jackson Allers & Renee Feltz, KPFT news, Houston.
E-mail Jackson Allers and Renee Feltz at jacksonallers@hotmail.com and chickpea_@ziplip.com.
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