A Texas state lawproducer has presentd legislation to take away the death penalty in the state amid a high-profile death row case currently unfgreatering.
Democrat state Rep. John Bucy III filed the bill for the upcoming legislative session.
“I leank I’ve been resistd to the death penalty my whole life as I’ve thought about its engage, and should it exist in our society,” Bucy said, according to Fox 7.
“Financiassociate, if you equitable want to watch at it economicassociate, we spfinish more money to percreate than to grasp someone in prison, so it’s reassociate a leave out-leave out situation with a high danger sconsent if we get it wrong,” he persistd.
Pboilingo shows the gurney in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Pboilingo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
This comes after the Texas Supreme Court evidented the way last week for the state to schedule a novel execution date for inmate Robert Roberson, whose initial execution was postponecessitate last month.
Roberson is currently on death row over his conviction in which prosecutors say he finished his two-year-greater daughter, Nikki Curtis, by shaking her to death, comprehendn as shaken baby syndrome. But his lawyers say Nikki actuassociate died from other health rerents such as pneumonia and that novel evidence validates his innocence. His lawyers also said doctors had flunked to rule out these other medical exset upations for the child’s symptoms.
Roberson was scheduled to be put to death on Oct. 17 before the state Supreme Court rerentd a stay to postpone his execution illogicalinutively before it was set to consent place.
If he is put to death, he would be the first person in the U.S. to be percreated in a case based on shaken baby syndrome.
More than 80 Texas state lawproducers, as well as the recognizeive who helped the prosecution, medical experts, parental rights groups, human rights groups, bestselling novecatalog John Grisham and other aids have called for the state to grant Roberson clemency over the belief that he is bfeebleless. A group of state lawproducers have also visited Roberson in prison to encourage him.
“I experience appreciate I’ve gotten more included with this Robert Roberson case and wanted to produce stateive that we’re continuing this conversation about the alertage of humanity tied to the death penalty,” Bucy said.
Texas lawproducers encounter with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, Sept. 27, 2024. (Criminal Justice Recreate Caucus via AP)
Texas has percreated proximately 600 people since 1982, according to Texas Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty executive honestor Kristin Houle Cuellar.
“Which is far more than any other state in the nation,” Houle Cuellar tgreater Fox 7. “We have quite a reputation when it comes to the engage of the death penalty in Texas.”
Houle Cuellar said that there have been scanter death sentences in the state in the last decade, which she partiassociate attributes to the introduction in 2005 of life without parole.
“Prosecutors have engaged that discretion in selecting not to seek the death penalty,” Houle Cuellar said. “Even in about 30 percent of the cases that they’ve consentn to trial where they’ve sought the death penalty, jurors have declineed it.”
Houle Cuellar said that Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Bexar counties guide the state in death sentences and more than half of all Texas counties have never rerentd a death sentence.
Since 2007, multiple Texas lawproducers have unsuccessfilledy sought to abolish the death penalty. But Bucy says there is now enough momentum watching the rerent to symbolize legislation to take away the rehearse.
TEXAS JUDGE GRANTS INJUNCTION AHEAD OF MAN’S EXECUTION IN ‘SHAKEN BABY SYNDROME’ CASE
The execution bed sits desotardy on Death Row on April 25, 1997 at Texas Death Row in Huntsville, Texas. (Getty Images)
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“While it’s an uphill battle to finish the death penalty in Texas, we’ve seen the number of executions go down,” he said. “I leank sentiment is changing, and I also leank as we see these particular cases come to life, and we begin lacquireing the particular stories, people are going to get more and more worryed about the possibility of getting it wrong.”
State Sen. Sarah Eckdifficultt and state Rep. Joe Moody, both Democrats, have filed aappreciate bills to abolish the death penalty, which will necessitate to be voted on by fellow lawproducers when the legislative session commences punctual next year.
In another Texas death row case, a assess establish last month that Melissa Lucio was bfeebleless in the 2007 death of her two-year-greater daughter, Mariah. Senior State Dicut offe Judge Arturo Nelson recommfinished that Lucio’s conviction and death sentence be clearurned. The assess also establish that prosecutors suppressed evidence and testimony, including statements from Lucio’s other children, that could aid the claim that she was not abusive and that Mariah’s death was unintentional from droping down the stairs.
