Death Penalty Watch

Anyone who knows me well knows that I’ve got an irrepressible interest in crime reporting and exoneration cases. So does the state of Texas—on both sides of the spectrum. And, as Texas prepares for a gubernatorial election amid a series of wrongful death cases, capital punishment is front and center.

Tomorrow, two prisoners who were wrongfully sentenced for a 1997 murder will be released in a case that’s unique because it wasn’t DNA that proved their innocence, but a confession by the murderer after the case had been reopened. Research done by the University of Texas at Arlington Innocence Network and the Actual Innocence Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin prompted officials to reassess the case.

The story behind the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was convicted of starting the fire in his home that killed his three children, has also been in the news recently. According to the Dallas Morning News, “In the past five years, at least six arson experts have examined evidence in the Willingham case and found that there were no credible indications that the fire was intentionally set.“ Governor Rick Perry defends the investigation, maintaining that Willingham was guilty and even calling him "a monster."

The case prompted former governor Mark White, once a dogged death penalty supporter, to release a television commercial in which he apologized for the executions conducted during his term, fearing that some may have taken the lives of innocent people. "There is a very strong case to be made for a review of our death penalty statutes and even look at the possibility of having life without parole so we don’t look up one day and determine that we as the State of Texas have executed someone who is in fact innocent," he said.

Before I moved here, I’d been following the saga of Sharon Keller, the judge who closed her office at 5:00 on the dot despite desperate pleas from a team of lawyers working feverishly to draft an appeal that may have stopped the execution of Michael Richard. “It seemed that Richard’s attorneys were having some computer problems that were preventing them from getting their motion for a stay filed before the clerk’s office closed, at 5. They wanted to know if they could deliver it after-hours—5:15, 5:30 at the latest. Keller, who has been on the CCA since 1994 and the presiding judge since 2000, listened to Marty’s question. Under her leadership the court has been one of the more conservative in the country, developing a reputation, especially on the left, for rubber-stamping death sentences. Her reply would cement this: “We close at five.”

Since 1982, the death penalty in Texas has taken the lives of 441 people. According to the New York Times, "that includes 334 since the start of 1997, a period in which Texas accounted for 41 percent of the national total."