[Deathpenalty]death penalty news --- TEXAS

[Joerg Sommer]

death penalty news

November 13, 2004


TEXAS:

Support for the death penalty remains high - But more Texans think the 
state has executed innocent people

Texas residents overwhelmingly favor the continued use of capital 
punishment, but a growing number think the criminal justice system has 
flaws and the state has executed innocent people, according to a new 
statewide poll.

Three-fourths of the Texans polled support the death penalty, compared with 
19 percent who oppose its continued use, according to the Texas Poll of 
1,000 residents in October.

Support for the death penalty has waned slowly in Texas from its peak of 86 
percent in 1994, but it remains significantly higher than in the nation at 
large. Nationally, about 66 percent of survey respondents express support 
for capital punishment.

Public sentiment about the death penalty is complex, making it difficult to 
gauge based on simple poll questions, said Dennis Longmire, a professor of 
criminal justice at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville and director 
of the school's survey research.

"Saying 'I support the death penalty' is an expression of personal values 
rather than a public policy recommendation," Longmire said. "It's an 
expression of the belief that the criminal justice system is broken and is 
unable to adequately protect the citizenry from serious violent crime."

Executing the innocent

The number of Texans who believe the state has executed innocent people 
reached 70 percent this year, compared with 65 percent in 2001. Meanwhile, 
those who say the state has never wrongly executed someone fell to 15 
percent this year, from 21 percent in 2001, according to the poll.

The growing belief in wrongful executions, however, has not affected public 
support for a moratorium on the death penalty, which some states, including 
Illinois and Maryland, have imposed to review the fairness of the system.

Fifty-two percent of Texans oppose such a temporary halt to executions 
while 44 percent support the idea. Those figures are similar to results of 
a poll in 2002, when 50 percent opposed a moratorium and 41 percent favored 
it, the Texas Poll said.

Several public officials from Harris County have urged a moratorium on 
death sentences here because of problems at the Houston Police Department 
crime lab.

The lab's DNA division was shut down in December 2002 after an independent 
audit revealed shoddy scientific technique, poorly trained analysts and 
possible contamination of evidence. Also, police this year discovered 240 
mislabeled boxes of evidence affecting some 8,000 investigations.

Polling Texans

The poll numbers were disheartening to many who oppose the death penalty.

"I think it is immoral that people would say they believe we're executing 
innocent people, but don't want to do anything about it," said David 
Atwood, director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

But death penalty supporter Dudley Sharp said the finding that 70 percent 
believe Texas has executed innocent people is largely the result of a 
"tremendous disinformation campaign" by death penalty opponents.

Sharp, a former policy analyst with the Houston-based victims' rights group 
Justice For All, also criticized the poll for not asking: "Do you think the 
death penalty saves innocent lives, either by deterrence or preventing 
murderers from harming again?"

Longmire said that, among those who said the state has executed an innocent 
person, many may think such mistakes are very infrequent and others may 
think such executions took place many years ago and many problems have been 
addressed since then.

Texas leads nation

The Texas Poll, based on a telephone survey of 1,000 residents, was 
conducted by the Scripps Research Center in Abilene. The margin for error 
is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Texas, partly because of its size, consistently leads the nation in the 
number of death sentences imposed and carried out each year. The state has 
executed 333 inmates since resuming capital punishment in 1982, and death 
row currently has 446 inmates.

Support for the state law that permits execution for murders committed at 
age 17 has dropped to 51 percent from the 60 percent reflected in a poll 
last year.

Texas is one of only seven states that have carried out executions for 
crimes committed at 17.

A choice of life or death

The poll also showed a growing number of Texans support giving jurors the 
option of sentencing a capital murderer to life without parole. Current law 
asks juries to choose between death and a life sentence that allows for 
possible parole after 40 years.

About 78 percent of those polled support adding a life-without-parole 
option, up from 71 percent in 2001.

Texas lawmakers will consider such a law next year. Previous efforts to add 
the option failed.

Many prosecutors, including Harris County District Attorney Chuck 
Rosenthal, say such a change would create a population of hopeless inmates 
who would become violent without the incentive of possible release.

Supporters, including many defense attorneys, say a life-without-parole 
option would reduce the number of death sentences because jurors would feel 
more comfortable with that alternative, knowing the killer would never be 
released.

(source: Houston Chronicle)