DA asks Governor to grant clemency

Texas, like many other states in the South, has an unhealthy fascination with the Old Testatment's call for an eye for an eye. Well, to an extent. It's long been the case that an eye for an eye applied mainly to black defendants convicted of murder while white defendants convicted of murdering a black man seemed to escape Biblical wrath more often than not.

Texas even went above and beyond when the felony murder statute made any person involved in a felony offense where a person was murdered subject to being killed by the state.

Back in 1996, Jeff Wood got himself caught up in the maelstrom when he was convicted of murder of a convenience store clerk in Kerrville - even though he was sitting outside in the truck while his friend, Daniel Reneau, shot and killed the clerk.

The prosecutor in that case, Lucy Wilke, asked the jury to sentence Mr. Wood to death for his role in the murder. Now Ms. Wilke is the Kerr County District Attorney and has had a change of heart. So to have the police chief of Kerrville, David Knight, and State District Judge Keith Williams. They all signed a letter to Governor Greg Abbot asking him to grant Mr. Wood clemency and change his sentence to life in prison.

In 2016, Mr. Wood was scheduled to be murdered by the State of Texas. As his execution date approached there was an uproar in the state legislature - from both sides of the aisle - about the scheduled execution. There were also calls to change the law of parties to eliminate the provision allowing a jury to sentence a defendant to death if they thought he should have anticipated that a second felony might flow from the first.

Those efforts failed in the most recent legislative session.

While you might argue that any person who participates in a felony should be culpable for any murder that might occur during the commission of the felony, sticking a needle in the arm of someone who didn't pull the trigger is a bit of a reach.

Regardless of what you might think of Mr. Wood, he is not the person who made the decision to kill the clerk. He didn't intentionally or knowingly cause the death of Kriss Keeran.

Strapping Mr. Wood down on a gurney and pumping poison into his veins isn't going to bring anyone back. It's not going to ease anyone's pain. It will not fill the hole in anyone's life.

It would, instead, make everyone involved complicit in a disproportionate response to an unfortunate incident.

I think the reason that Republican members of the state legislature got behind the effort to halt the execution is they felt that killing a person who didn't pull the trigger would only give more ammunition to the those of us who want to see an end to the death penalty.

All eyes are now on Greg Abbot. But don't expect him to grant clemency. Mr. Abbot is a true believer who thinks it makes him look tough to order an execution carried out.

Execution Watch 3/7/2016

Tonight, that staunch defender of life, Gov. Greg Abbott will once again preside over the murder of another...

COY WESTBROOK is a former security guard who was sentenced to death for a 1997 shooting spree in which his ex-wife and four others were killed at an apartment complex in Channelview, just outside Houston. Mr. Westbrook's lawyer says he is mentally disabled and shouldn't be executed. The psychologist, Dr. George Denkowski, who declared Mr. Westbrook fit to fact a capital murder charge has since had his methods discredited.

For more information on Mr. Westbrook and his case, click here.

RADIO SHOW PREVIEW

EXECUTION WATCH

Unless a stay is issued, Execution Watch will broadcast live:

Wednesday, March 9, 6-7 PM Central Time

KPFT-FM Houston 90.1, HD 3 or online at:

http://executionwatch.org > Listen

Execution Watch: 1/20/2016

On Wednesday the State of Texas will carry out its first murder the year despite having a self-described pro-life governor. Apparently Greg Abbott's pro-life stance only applies when attempting to prevent women from exercising their legal right to terminate a pregnancy. But then again, our wing nut political leaders can rarely be accused of consistency in their political beliefs...

RICHARD MASTERSON was condemned for the 2001 choking death of a Houston female impersonator. A federal appeals court set in motion the assignment of an execution date when it refused to grant Mr. Masterson the permission he needed to file an appeal with the US Supreme Court. His attorneys argued that his previous attorneys were deficient in representing him and that his confession to police was improper.

For more information on Mr. Masterson and his case, click here.

RADIO SHOW PREVIEW

EXECUTION WATCH

Unless a stay is issued, Execution Watch will broadcast live:

Wednesday, January 20, 6-7 PM Central Time

KPFT-FM Houston 90.1, HD 3 or online at:

http://executionwatch.org > Listen

Exposing religion for what it is

Some time ago I wrote in this very space that the Supreme Court had no choice but to recognize same-sex marriage across the nation. Once the first state recognized it, the Equal Protection Clause left no wiggle room.

Not ones to let something as fundamental as the law get in the way, our wingnut governor, Greg Abbott, and wingnut attorney general, Ken Paxton, have announced that they think the Supreme Court got it all wrong. According to these two paragons of ignorance, the Court's decision infringes upon the religious freedom of all the hate-spewing, right-wing, bible-thumpers who are desperately holding on to an image of America that never really existed.

And I, for one, am glad they are all trumpeting the religious freedom angle because this argument shows, once and for all, what religion is really all about.

Gov. Abbott (who sometimes makes Rick Perry look like a scholar and a statesman) sent out letters to the heads of state agencies hours after the Supremes ruled, that it's okay to withhold benefits from same-sex couples if such an arrangement offends the religious sensibilities of the agency heads. What? Has Greg Abbott never read the Fourteenth Amendment? Has he never heard of Loving v. Virginia?

Just what part of every citizen being guaranteed equal rights under the law does he not understand?

Religion has been used throughout history to justify oppression and repression. It has been used to justify the stealing of natural resources. It has been used to justify slavery and Jim Crow. Invoking it to defend discrimination in the choice of marriage partners is the latest use of the "opiate of the masses" to justify the second class treatment of a group of people. So far as I know, the only purpose of religion is to indoctrinate the masses into believing that their state of repression is willed by god and that they will get their equality once they are dead.

And to think that millions of people have fallen for that. Just think about it. When you're dead, you're fucking dead and it doesn't matter whether there's equality or not.

At some point Abbott and his minions will get slapped down and the State of Texas will be dragged kicking and screaming into the modern era. Until then I can sit back and enjoy watching the curtain getting pulled back on religion and exposing it as the con that it is.

Duty and ethics

I ran across a very interesting column in this morning's Houston Chronicle penned by Rick Casey about the State of Texas' attempt to murder Mr. Delma Banks despite prosecutors having sat and kept their mouths shut while two witnesses for the state commit perjury on the stand.

Now, despite the US Supreme Court's decisions to send the case back for review and to vacate the death penalty, the State of Texas is back at it, sending an assistant Attorney General to New Orleans to argue that Mr. Banks is not entitled to the relief granted because his attorneys did not give proper notice of their intent to use a transcript of a coaching session with the prosecutor and one of the lying witnesses.

Nevermind that the prosecutors failed to disclose the existence of the transcript while Mr. Banks sat on Death Row - the state is seeking to reinstate the conviction on a technicality.  A technicality that wouldn't exist had the state done the right thing in the first place.

Every attorney licensed by the State of Texas pledged to follow the US Constitution, the Texas Constitution and The Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct. 

Rule 3.09 defines the duties of a prosecutor.

The prosecutor in a criminal case shall:

(a) refrain from prosecuting or threatening to prosecute a charge that the prosecutor knows is not supported by probable cause;

(b) refrain from conducting or assisting in a custodial interrogation of an accused unless the prosecutor has made reasonable efforts to be assured that the accused has been advised of any right to, and the procedure for obtaining, counsel and has been given reasonable opportunity to obtain counsel;

(c) not initiate or encourage efforts to obtain from an unrepresented accused a waiver of important pre-trial, trial or post-trial rights.

(d) make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense, and, in connection with sentencing, disclose to the defense and to the tribunal all unprivileged mitigating information known to the prosecutor, except when the prosecutor is relieved of this responsibility by a protective order of the tribunal; and

(e) exercise reasonable care to prevent persons employed or controlled by the prosecutor in a criminal case from making an extrajudicial statement that the prosecutor would be prohibited from making under Rule 3.07.

I would pay close attention to 3.09(d) that requires a prosecutor to disclose ANY evidence that might tend to be exculpatory.  Based on the spirit of the rule, defending the State's handling of this matter is a violation of the disciplinary rules as such an argument condones the violation of Rule 3.09(d).  In other words, the Attorney General is asking one of his assistants to violate the oath she took on the day she was sworn in as an attorney.

DPS calls for driver's license checkpoints

Last month I wrote about the DPS' new policy of not renewing or issuing new Texas drivers' licenses to anyone who can't prove they are in the United States legally.

Now, according to the Houston Chronicle, comes word that the DPS has asked Greg Abbott, the Texas Attorney General, for permission to set up drivers' license checkpoints across the state. According to the request, the checkpoints would be set up to check for valid drivers' licenses, registration and insurance.

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio and 14 other legislators have sent Mr. Abbott a letter asking him to ignore the DPS' request for a legal opinion.

The last time I checked, being in the United States without permission was a federal issue, not a state issue.  There is no provision in the Texas penal code making it a crime to be in this county illegally.  There is also no need for state or local police agencies to enforce federal law.

The DPS has enough to worry about with rogue technical supervisors faking maintenance records on the intoxilyzers used to carry out the state's breath alcohol testing program without worrying about whether a driver is here legally or not not.

The Hood saga takes another turn

The hearing set for today in the Charles Dean Hood saga was cancelled after Mr. Bill Boyd, the attorney for retired Judge Verla Sue Holland, requested that the matter be transferred to federal court.

Mr. Hood's attorneys have filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus and a motion for a stay of execution.

Interestingly enough, the Texas Defender Service released a press release showing that, during her time on the Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge Holland recused herself from 78.6% of the cases that came from Collin County.

Mr. Hood's execution is scheduled for Wednesday. The question of whether or not Mr. Hood lives or dies is now up to Gov. Rick Perry, who has been urged by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to issue the stay. Mr. Abbott sent a letter to Mr. John Roach, the current Collin County District Attorney, stating his belief that the issues regarding the alleged affair between Judge Holland and Tom O'Connell "warrant thorough review."

Mr. Abbott also wrote that "if the execution proceeds as scheduled, before questions about the fairness of [Hood's] trial are legally resolved, neither the victims nor justice will be served."

It's time for the governor to do the right thing.