Stefanie Faucher
This email contains news coverage from:
Associated Press - Appeals Court Judge Declares Against the Death Penalty
Buzzfeed - Republican Texas Criminal Appeals Judge Calls For End To Death Penalty
Texas Tribune - Criminal Appeals Judge Price: I Oppose Death Penalty
Houston Chronicle - Texas appeals court judge calls for abolishing death penalty
WOAI-AM - Texas High Court Justice Calls for Death Penalty to be Abolished
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Appeals Court Judge Declares Against the Death Penalty
November 27, 2014
A justice of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal appellate court in the state, has made a powerful argument in favor of abolishing the death penalty, Newsradio 1200 WOAI reports.
Ruling in the minority in a 6-3 decision rejecting last minute appeals by Hill Country killer Scott Panetti, Justice Tom Price said 'societal values indicate that the death penalty should be abolished in its entirety.'
"When I first joined it, this Court received a great number of death penalty appeals and writs, as compared to the number of these cases that reach this court now," Price wrote in his dissent. "I believe this decline is because District Attorneys and juries now have the life without parole option and are less convinced of the absolute accuracy of the criminal justice system."
He continued by discussing alternatives to capital punishment.
“Before the life without parole option, juries had no choice but to sentence a defendant to death if they wanted to ensure that he would never re-enter society. After the enactment of the life without parole option, juries are not assured that the public at large is forever protected from a capital murder defendant who will never re-enter our society."
Price said there is also a serious concern about the number of cases of people being released from prison, and even from Death Row, due to new evidence. The most publicized case is that of Michael Morton, a suburban Austin grocery store manager who served 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife before being released after evidence indicated another man committed the crime.
"A 2012 study by the University of Michigan and Northwestern University law schools ranks Texas number three nationally in wr4ongful convictions over the last 24 years, behind Illinois and New York."
Price says the number of exonerations of innocent people is increasing, thanks to new technology, and Texas had the highest number nationally.
"In my time on the court, I have voted to grand numerous applications for writs of habeas corpus that have resulted in the release of dozens of people who were wrongfully convicted, and I conclude that it is wishful thinking to believe that this State will never execute an innocent person for capital murder."
Price, 69, is no radical liberal. He is a lifelong Republican and a graduate of Baylor University Law School. He is retiring from the bench in January.
Price is believed to be the first Texas Court of Criminal Appeals justice to openly call for eliminating the death penalty. Texas executes more people than every other state combined.
Despite Price's dissent, the court ruled 6-3 not to block the execution of Panetti, who murdered his in laws in Fredericksburg back in 2002.
Panetti is a diagnosed schizophrenic who dressed up like a Hollywood cowboy during his trial, sais his 'alter ego' named 'Sarge' committed the murders, and called Jesus and JFK as character witnesses.
Without comment, the court majority said Panetti fails to meet the legal definition of insanity, and ordered his execution, set for December 3, to continue as scheduled.
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http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/republican-texas-criminal-appeals-judge-calls-for-end-to-dea
Republican Texas Criminal Appeals Judge Calls For End To Death Penalty
“I conclude that it is wishful thinking to believe that this State will never execute an innocent person for capital murder.” After more than 15 years on Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals, Judge Tom Price calls for abolition.
By Chris Geidner, November 27, 2014
WASHINGTON — One week before Scott Panetti is due to be executed by the state of Texas, a retiring, longtime Republican judge on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has announced that he “now believe[s]” the death penalty “should be abolished.”
“Having spent the last forty years as a judge for the State of Texas, of which the last eighteen years have been as a judge on this Court, I have given a substantial amount of consideration to the propriety of the death penalty as a form of punishment for those who commit capital murder, and I now believe that it should be abolished,” Judge Tom Price, first elected to the state’s highest court for criminal matters in 1996, wrote Wednesday.
Price, who did not seek re-election this year, chose to announce his position in a dissenting opinion to the court’s rejection of Panetti’s request that the state stop his execution because, Panetti argues, his “severe mental illness renders him categorically ineligible for the death penalty” under the U.S. Constitution.
Price’s statement was reminiscent of other longtime judges to have sided with abolition of the death penalty over time, including, most notably, Justice Harry Blackmun’s famous 1994 statement, “From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.” Blackmun had made his statement in the case of Bruce Callins, who eventually was executed by the state of Texas in 1997.
The state, which has held more than 400 executions since Price took the bench on the Court of Criminal Appeals, leads the nation in executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Panetti would be the state’s 11th execution this year.
Laying out the U.S. Supreme Court’s prohibition on execution of an intellectually disabled or insane person, Price compares those prohibitions with the continued possibility of executing a severely mentally ill person, concluding, “I can imagine no rational reason for carving a line between the prohibition on the execution of a mentally retarded person or an insane person while permitting the execution of a severely mentally ill person.”
Then, he goes further, calling even a blanket prohibition on execution of the severely mentally ill “a bandaid solution for the real problem.”
“Evolving societal values indicate that the death penalty should be abolished in its entirety,” Price states, noting that “because the criminal justice system is run by humans, it is naturally subject to human error” and stating, “I conclude that it is wishful thinking to believe that this State will never execute an innocent person for capital murder.”
In addition to arguing that life without parole “adequately protects society at large in the same way as the death penalty punishment option,” he adds that he has seen “too many” filings “by ineffective attorneys” in death penalty appeals. “I conclude that the increased danger that a wrongfully convicted person will be executed for a capital murder that he did not commit is an irrational risk that should not be tolerated by our criminal justice system,” Price concluded.
His opinion on Wednesday was in dissent, meaning that, as of now, Panetti’s execution is still scheduled to go forward on Dec. 3.
Here’s how Judge Price began:
He then laid out his experience:
And then laid out the Supreme Court’s experience:
And then laid out Texas’ experience:
Before reaching, and explaining, his conclusion:
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http://www.texastribune.org/2014/11/26/criminal-appeals-judge-price-i-oppose-death-penalt/
Criminal Appeals Judge Price: I Oppose Death Penalty
By Jim Malewitz, November 27, 2014
A Republican judge on Texas’ highest criminal court says he now opposes the death penalty.
Judge Tom Price of Dallas, one of nine members of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, wrote Wednesday that he has “given a substantial amount of consideration to the propriety of the death penalty as a form of punishment for those who commit capital murder, and I now believe that it should be abolished.”
That statement came in a six-page dissent after the court, in a 6-3 vote, rejected the latest effort to stay the looming execution of Scott Panetti, a diagnosed schizophrenic who is on death row and scheduled to be put to death on Dec. 3.
Price, whose term expires in January, could not immediately be reached for comment. But Kristin Houlé, the executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Price is the first statewide Republican judge she is aware of who has publicly opposed the death penalty.
"My conclusion is not reached hastily," Price wrote in the dissent. "Rather, it is the result of my deliberative thought process from having presided over three death-penalty trials as a trial court judge and having decided countless issues related to capital murder and the death penalty as a judge on this court."
That thought process included the Panetti case.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that mentally ill inmates can be executed only if they understand what is about to happen and why. Panetti’s attorneys have argued – so far to no avail – that he is too incompetent to legally be put to death and that his mental health is deteriorating.
The Wisconsin native was sentenced to death for the 1992 shooting deaths of his in-laws. At the time, Panetti – who represented himself at trial and dressed up in a cowboy outfit in court – was a diagnosed schizophrenic and collected federal disability checks because he could not work.
“Yet, unless and until a federal court or the Supreme Court grants his application, [Panetti], who few dispute is severely mentally ill, will be executed,” Price wrote.
Price added: “Evolving societal values indicate that the death penalty should be abolished in its entirety.”
Highlighting Texas’ wrongful convictions over the years, Price also wrote that he is growing more convinced that the criminal justice system is prone to human error.
“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,” he wrote, “and I conclude that it is wishful thinking to believe that this state will never execute an innocent person for capital murder.”
Houlé said the news of Price's change of mind came as a huge surprise to the anti-death penalty community. "I was really thrilled to see Judge Price’s strong statement in support of ending the death penalty," she said. "He joins a growing chorus of voices."
Price, who was first elected to the court in 1996, did not seek reelection this year. He is being replaced by Bert Richardson, who is currently the visiting judge presiding over the abuse of power case against Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
This is not Price’s first public critique of Texas’ justice system. In 2000, the judge said the case of Roy Criner – freed from prison after serving 10 years for a rape he didn’t commit – made his court a “national laughingstock.”
And during his failed bid that year to be the court’s presiding judge, Price asked, according to a 2004 story in Texas Monthly, “How far to the right is this court going to be? Even Republicans want there to be fair trials."
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Texas appeals court judge calls for abolishing death penalty
By Allan Turner | November 26, 2014
Veteran Texas Court of Appeals Justice Tom Price on Wednesday denounced the death penalty, saying that Texas' 2005 life without parole law makes it unnecessary and that the possibility of executing a wrongfully convicted person is an "irrational risk" that should not be tolerated by the criminal justice system."
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."
He cited a 2012 University of Michigan-Northwestern University law school study that ranked Texas third nationwide in wrongful convictions during the past 24 years. He also cited a National Registry of Exonerations report that determined 2013 was a record-breaking year for exonerations in the United States; Texas topped the list.
"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."
Greeted with surprise
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."
Levin, who frequently has represented Texas death row inmates, said she was "deeply grateful" for the judge's statement. "He is somebody we would listen to," she said. "He has had a front row seat. ... He is part of a growing chorus of people who are intimately involved ... who are uncomfortable with the system that implements executions, and that is not nothing."
Rob Owen, a former professor at the University of Texas capital punishment clinic and now on the law faculty at Chicago's Northwestern University, also hailed Price's statement.
"I think it is important that he makes clear this is not a casual change of mind," Owen said. "He's not sentimental, feeling sorry for the guys waiting to be executed. He is concerned about public safety, and he says we have an alternative punishment that's clearly sufficient in the eyes of many jurors and prosecutors and is far quicker than the years of appeals that go with the death penalty."
While opinion polls reflect staunch support for capital punishment in Texas, Owen noted that "the death penalty is going away everywhere. The number of new cases in Texas is dropping steeply - they dropped about two-thirds in the 25 years I watched them. Every additional voice being raised that we should hasten it on its way is helpful and a spark for a lot of public discussion."
'Remarkably brave'
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.
Panetti was condemned for the 1992 murders of his mother- and father-in-law. At age 20, he was diagnosed as schizophrenic. While representing himself at his first trial, he attempted to subpoena Jesus Christ and President John F. Kennedy. His lawyers contend that his mental condition has worsened on death row.
In a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Panetti, justices held that a condemned inmate must have a "rational understanding" of his punishment, not just an awareness that he is to be executed and why.
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Texas High Court Justice Calls for Death Penalty to be Abolished
November 28, 2014
A justice of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the highest criminal appellate court in the state, has made a powerful argument in favor of abolishing the death penalty, Newsradio 1200 WOAI reports.
Ruling in the minority in a 6-3 decision rejecting last minute appeals by Hill Country killer Scott Panetti, Justice Tom Price said 'societal values indicate that the death penalty should be abolished in its entirety.'
"When I first joined it, this Court received a great number of death penalty appeals and writs, as compared to the number of these cases that reach this court now," Price wrote in his dissent. "I believe this decline is because District Attorneys and juries now have the life without parole option and are less convinced of the absolute accuracy of the criminal justice system."
He continued by discussing alternatives to capital punishment.
"Before the life without parole option, juries had no choice but to sentence a defendant to death if they wanted to ensure that he would never re-enter society. After the enactment of the life without parole option, juries are not assured that the public at large is forever protected from a capital murder defendant who will never re-enter our society."
Price said there is also a serious concern about the number of cases of people being released from prison, and even from Death Row, due to new evidence. The most publicized case is that of Michael Morton, a suburban Austin grocery store manager who served 25 years in prison for the murder of his wife before being released after evidence indicated another man committed the crime.
"A 2012 study by the University of Michigan and Northwestern University law schools ranks Texas number three nationally in wr4ongful convictions over the last 24 years, behind Illinois and New York."
Price says the number of exonerations of innocent people is increasing, thanks to new technology, and Texas had the highest number nationally.
"In my time on the court, I have voted to grand numerous applications for writs of habeas corpus that have resulted in the release of dozens of people who were wrongfully convicted, and I conclude that it is wishful thinking to believe that this State will never execute an innocent person for capital murder."
Price, 69, is no radical liberal. He is a lifelong Republican and a graduate of Baylor University Law School. He is retiring from the bench in January.
Price is believed to be the first Texas Court of Criminal Appeals justice to openly call for eliminating the death penalty. Texas executes more people than every other state combined.
Despite Price's dissent, the court ruled 6-3 not to block the execution of Panetti, who murdered his in laws in Fredericksburg back in 2002.
Panetti is a diagnosed schizophrenic who dressed up like a Hollywood cowboy during his trial, sais his 'alter ego' named 'Sarge' committed the murders, and called Jesus and JFK as character witnesses.
Without comment, the court majority said Panetti fails to meet the legal definition of insanity, and ordered his execution, set for December 3, to continue as scheduled.
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