Capital Punishment in Texas - Term Paper Example

 The Death Penalty in Texas During George W. Bush’s six years as Governor of the State of Texas, as governor, Mr. Bush penned his name to 152 orders denying clemency in capital punishment cases (Berlow 2003 91). Of those cases, 150 were men, and two were women (Berlow 91). One was a 33 year-old mentally retarded male, diagnosed as having the mentality of a seven year-old convicted of murder (Berlow 91). Texas, more than any state in the Union, has exercised its discretion in executing men and women who were convicted of violent crimes. The Supreme Court, for the most part, has supported the states’ application of the death penalty, refusing 11th hour intervention (Berlow 91). The application of the death penalty in Texas makes several poignant statements: first, violent crimes in Texas will bring about violence in the application of the death penalty; second, it is a loud statement of lack of confidence in an individual’s ability to be rehabilitated after having committed a violent crime, regardless of the circumstances; and, third, demonstrates a confidence in the modern technologies, such as DNA testing, that have recently been proven to have been the basis for wrong convictions because DNA testing and maintenance of DNA samples were compromised. This raises the question of whether or not the continued application in Texas and elsewhere in the United States is in fact justice served. Or would justice be better served by holding off on the use of the death penalty, until the justice system can be certain, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the evidence it presents is irrefutable with respect to each life being put at risk? Also, can a system responsible for rehabilitating offenders really succeed in that goal, and can a criminal with a violent past be rehabilitated in a way where justice would be better served by life imprisonment as opposed to death? The case of mentally retarded man went to the Supreme Court of the United States not once, but twice. “The Supreme Court yesterday overturned the death sentence of a mentally retarded Texas murderer, saying that the jury had been improperly instructed on how to weigh his mental condition. The justices decided on a 6-3 vote that the Texas jury that resentenced rapist-murderer Johnny Paul Penry after his 1989 appeal was given instructions that did not meet criteria the high court had earlier set, and they overturned his death sentence a second time (Murray 2001).” These are questions and situations that this essay will examine with respect to the application of the death penalty in the state of Texas. Individual cases where prisoners have been executed will be examined, as will some pending cases. Texas The state of Texas is big, the history of Texas looms large in the overall history of the United States, and people from the state like to perceive themselves as all-American. That is, promoting the health, welfare and protection of all things that are American; the Constitution, the right to bear arms, freedom of speech, and freedom, under current U.S. law, to execute individuals found guilty of violent offenses for which a jury of their peers convicts them and a judge applies the penalty of death under federal and state laws. Carroll Pickett was a chaplain in the State of Texas penal system, and he took the final walk with more than 90 inmates who were executed. Pickett was haunted by these experiences, and kept tapes of his experience with each inmate. He has made a documentary with directors Steve James and Peter Gilbert (2008) titled At the Death House Door: No One Should Die Alone. The documentary is new, and premiered on March 9, 2008 at a film festival. Pickett and other anti-death penalty advocates met with Texas penal and state officials on March 5, of this year (James and Gilbert 2008), in Austin, to discuss the application of the death penalty in the State of Texas. This was a special hearing being conducted on capital punishment in Texas. The discussion at the special hearing goes to the documentary film, where two cases of the death penalty are being examined in the documentary film. One, is the case of a brutal murder of a woman; and Mr. Owen says: “. . . that’s the kind of crime that routinely we feel anguish and fury at when it happens in our communities (Transcript, special hearing, 2008).” The second story, and the one that has brought much negative attention to Texas’ death penalty system, is the case of Carlos DeLuna, a man convicted of a brutal crime, and who was ultimately put to death by the State of Texas. Chaplain Pickett brings attention to DeLuna’s case because, he says in the documentary, he was convinced that DeLuna was an innocent man. Mr. Owen responds, saying: “Carlos DeLuna, a kid from a troubled background who was in trouble with the law from time to time throughout his brief time on the streets and who, when he was found on that night of the crime, cowering underneath a pickup truck with no shirt and no shoes seemed like an obvious candidate to be the guilty party. I think it’s fair to say, though, that every innocent person wrongly accused looks guilty when they’re first brought in by the authorities, and I’m sure that was probably true of each of the 127 condemned prisoners in this country who have been released from death row as wrongly convicted since 1973 (Special Hearing, 2008).” According to the transcript, 127 people wrongly condemned to die were released between 1973, and 2008. The death penalty, regardless of which side of the issue one stands, cannot be supported by either side when the legal system cannot ensure that the people who are being convicted and sentenced to death are indeed guilty of the crime for which they have been convicted. The case of Carlos DeLuna is one that remains ambiguous, and it is here that the Texas official, Owens, takes a somewhat defensive stand, saying that the problem is not uniquely one of Texas. While Owens is correct, of course, it does not change the fact that Texas is the state with the highest number of executions to date. Therefore, the likelihood that Texas has, or will, execute an innocent person is more likely to occur in Texas than in any other state. Present at this special hearing is Texas District Attorney Craig Watkins, who commented on the death penalty and on the DeLuna case. What Watkins indicated is that the office of the District Attorney is a politically elected office, and, as such, it is very influenced by politics. That is to say that the people who elected him, and the people who are his elected superiors, all have an influence in the direction of high profile cases, and how Texas deals with violent offenders. The case of DeLuna, he says, is one where troubled man with a criminal history, and a history that lends itself to an escalation in the violent behavior of the man such that he could be expected to have committed a violent and deadly crime. Having said that, Watkins says, it is fair to remember that it is the discretion of the people of the State of Texas that the death penalty is carried out in their state. That the people of Texas want to feel protected, and there are many issues – being a border state with a foreign country with a high number of illegal people transgressing that border with histories of crimes, or who have an intent to commit a crime. All of these things are on the minds of the people of Texas when they either speak out, or do not speak out politically, that is, by voting for elected officials such as the District Attorney. What Watkins is saying, is that the death penalty in Texas is the wish of the people of the State of Texas, and that they in fact weigh the risk of executing an innocent person versus the risk of that person being a burden to society by life time incarceration; or if at some point in time that person is, under whatever conditions, released into the public again. So by virtue of the fact that the public elects Watkins to office, and he is an official who supports and seeks the death penalty for violent crimes committed in Texas, it is an expression of the desire of the people that the death penalty in Texas is legally applied and carried out. Unfortunately, in the DeLuna case, and in other cases like that of Billy Conn Gardner (Berlow 2003), allegations are often made as to the competence of the legal representation that the defendant receives – usually through the Public Defender’s office. In those cases, Watkins says, appeals are made on the basis of that lack of defense, and higher courts decide whether or not the opportunity to have a new trial, or even whether or not the defendant is set free (Special Hearting 2008). While the State of Texas is acting perhaps at the will of the majority of the people in sentencing violent offenders to death, and in carry out those executions; the reliability of modern technology in DNA testing has proven not that the testing itself is flawed, but that the human element involved in that testing process is often one that compromises the process. When this leads to the conviction of an offender, it is not good enough to say that the calculated risk of error in conviction and death is acceptable. While this is deplorable, District Attorney Watkins has a valid point when he says that his election, his seeking the death penalty, and carrying out death penalties sentences is the desire of the people of Texas. So until the people of Texas seek to bring about an end to the use of the death penalty in their state, it can be expected that more executions will be carried out in the State of Texas, and that perhaps innocent people will die. Works Cited Berlow, Alan. "The Texas Clemency Memos: As the Legal Counsel to Texas Governor George W. Bush, Alberto R. Gonzales-Now the White House Counsel, and Widely Regarded as a Likely Future Supreme Court Nominee-Prepared Fifty-Seven Confidential Death-Penalty Memoranda for Bush's Review. Never before Discussed Publicly, the Memoranda Suggest That Gonzales Repeatedly Failed to Apprise Bush of Some of the Most Salient Issues in the Cases at Hand." The Atlantic Monthly July-Aug. 2003: 91+. Questia. 24 Apr. 2008 . Gilbert, Peter and James, Steve. At the Death House Door, Documentary Film, The Chicago Tribune Company, 2008. Independent Film Channel and The University of Texas Law Scool. A Special Hearing on Capital Punishment: Perpsectives At the Death House Door, Senate Committee Room E1 106, Texas State Capitol, Austin, Texas, 5 March 2008. Murray, Frank J. "Court Nullifies Death Penalty of Retarded Texas Murderer." The Washington Times 5 June 2001: 12. Questia. 24 Apr. 2008 . Read More