Texas Justice calls for state’s death penalty to be abolished
The Dallas Republican’s comments, thought to be the first time such views have been voiced by a judge on the state’s highest criminal appeals court, came in a strongly worded dissent to the court’s Wednesday rejection of an appeal on behalf of Scott Panetti, a Fredericksburg double-killer said to suffer from schizophrenia. Panetti, 56, is scheduled to be executed next Wednesday.
“Based on my specialized knowledge of this process,” Price wrote, “I now conclude that the death penalty as a form of punishment should be abolished because the execution of individuals does not appear to measurably advance the retribution and deterrence purpose served by the death penalty; the life without parole option adequately protects society at large in the same way as the death penalty option; and the risk of executing an innocent person for a capital murder is unreasonably high, particularly in light of procedural-default laws and the prevalence of ineffective trial and initial habeas counsel.”
Price, 61, a former Dallas County state district judge, has served on the high appeals court since 1996. His term ends this year and he has said he will not seek re-election. In his statement, Price asserted that “society is now less convinced of the absolute accuracy of the criminal justice system.”…
“In my time on this court I have voted to grant numerous applications for writs of habeas corpus that have resulted in the release of dozens of people who were wrongfully convicted,” Price wrote. “I conclude that it is wishful thinking to believe that this state will never execute an innocent person for capital murder. … I am convinced that, because the criminal justice system is run by humans, it is naturally subject to human error. There is no rational basis to believe that this same type of human error will not infect capital murder trials.”
Price’s comments were greeted with surprise by law professors and appellate attorneys active in death penalty cases. “I’m still absorbing it. It wasn’t expected,” said Maurie Levin, a former clinical law professor at the University of Texas who now is based in Philadelphia. “It’s long overdue.” While the concerns raised by Price have been “discussed and decried around the country for a number of years now … for a high court judge, a CCA judge, to articulate them so forthrightly is extraordinary.”…
Jani Maselli Wood, an assistant Harris County public defender, an adjunct professor at the University of Houston law school and a former Texas Court of Criminal Appeals staff attorney, said she doubts Price’s statement will influence legislators or incoming juries. But, “it will impact his legacy for what he wants us to remember,” Wood said. “He says we have life without parole, why do we need death convictions. He is remarkably brave. I think it is heroic.”
Price’s statement came in a dissent to the court’s 6-3 vote not to consider a new appeal on behalf of Panetti that argues his mental condition “renders him categorically ineligible for the death penalty under the Eighth and 14th Amendments, because imposition of the death penalty on offenders with severe mental illness offends contemporary standards of decency.” The court found the petition failed to meet requirements for applications of post-conviction writs of habeas corpus.
Judges Elsa Alcala and Cheryl Johnson issued a separate dissenting opinion, saying they would stay Panetti’s execution to allow for an examination of his claim that the Eighth Amendment prohibits execution of seriously mentally ill individuals.
The full six-page “Dissenting Statement” by Justice Price can be accessed at this link, and here is one of a number of notable paragraphs from the opinion:
Some might argue that a victim’s family deserves the finality that comes with the execution of an offender. This is a misguided sentiment as the instant case demonstrates. Applicant has been on death row for about twenty years. The victims’ family has not gotten finality after twenty years due to the numerous appeals and writs filed by applicant in which he has contended that his mental status makes him ineligible for execution. And, perhaps, one would say that the answer is speeding up executions. But creating a more restrictive temporal limitation would only increase the risk of executing a wrongfully convicted person. In my experience, a victim’s family is more likely to quickly experience finality through the criminal justice system when an offender is sentenced to life without parole than when he is sentenced to death.