Texas death penalty out of step with public attitudes in post-<u>Baze</u> America Commentary
Texas death penalty out of step with public attitudes in post-Baze America
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Bryan McCann [member, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Austin, TX Chapter]: "When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Baze v. Rees [opinion, PDF; JURIST news archive] case that Kentucky's lethal injection protocol did not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, death penalty opponents everywhere braced for the resumption of state-sanctioned killing. Those of us who organize against the death penalty in Texas were particularly expecting our state government to resume executions in earnest, given the Lone Star State's reputation for the busiest death row in the nation [Texas Department of Criminal Justice, "Executed Offenders"]. Following an eight-month de-facto national moratorium on executions as states awaited the Baze decision, Texas planned to resume its macabre style of frontier justice on June 3 with the execution of Derrick Sonnier.

Yet, as June 3 came and death penalty opponents gathered before the State Capitol to protest, we learned that Mr. Sonnier would not die [Dallas News report]. His lawyers successfully argued before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that that state's own changes in its lethal injection procedures had not undergone sufficient judicial scrutiny. This fleeting moment of relief, however, would change to an all-to-familiar sadness and outrage as Karl Chamberlain entered the execution room in Huntsville, Texas as his mother stood outside the infamous "Walls Unit" to protest her son's death.

Karl Chamberlain was sentenced to death for the 1991 rape and murder of his neighbor. A white male, Chamberlain expressed remorse for his crime as he lay on the gurney. The presence of protesters in Huntsville, Austin, and other locations in Texas notwithstanding, his was not a high profile execution. Yet, as Texas' machinery of death appears once again to be fully functional with fourteen scheduled executions [Texas Department of Criminal Justice, "Scheduled Executions"] through October, the occasion of Mr. Chamberlain's death requires analysis. Now that Texas has ended its 406th life since 1982, how might we speculate on the future of capital punishment in Texas and elsewhere?

As I stood at the rally for the scheduled execution of Derrick Sonnier, having already heard the news of his stay, I spoke with Akwesi Evans of the African American community newspaper Nokoa. He commented that he doubted Texas would have treaded so carefully if Sonnier had faced the needle several years earlier. While there is no telling whether Sonnier's lawyers' arguments would have been more or less successful in, say, 2005 than 2008, I believe there is an underlying truth to Evans' remarks. Things are changing in Texas, as they are throughout the nation. Public opinion continues to turn against the death penalty. While a majority of Americans continue to support the sanction, they represent a far smaller percentage than in previous decades. Since former Governor George Ryan cleared Illinois' death row in 2003, the public is acutely concerned about the possibility of sending an innocent person to their death. Though the Supreme Court appears to have affirmed the use of capital punishment across the nation, other states have begun to question their use of the sanction. Most notably, the New Jersey legislature [JURIST news archive] passed and the governor signed [JURIST news archive] a bill abolishing the death penalty.

Even the Texas death penalty has shown signs of weakness. Last summer, a small group of family members and anti-death penalty organizers waged an unlikely battle against the impending execution of Kenneth Foster, Jr '[NYT article]. We captured international attention and won. Kenneth is now serving a life term and may one day be paroled. The same Court of Criminal Appeals that granted Derrick Sonnier a stay has been under intense national scrutiny, especially after Presiding Judge Sharon Keller [NYT article] refused on September 25 to keep the court open 20 minutes late to allow Michael Richard's attorneys to recover from computer problems and file his last appeal. This appeal, of course, was based on the pending Baze case that would temporarily halt executions across the country. Richard would die at precisely the moment when the rest of the nation was halting executions and awaiting the High Court's decision on lethal injection. Individual high profile cases like those of Rodney Reed [advocacy website] – a black man sentenced to death [news report] for murdering the white fiancé of a notoriously violent white police officer, and the so-called "Yogurt Shop Murders" – two men convicted for a quadruple homicide after a reckless and politically-charged eight-year investigation, as well as the disgraceful resignation of Houston's District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal [news report], continue to highlight deep flaws in the structures of criminal justice in Texas.

Since receiving his stay, Derrick Sonnier learned his new execution date is July 23. This chilling fact, the haunting image of Karl Chamberlain's mother grieving her son just feet away from his ritualistic death, and the unwavering pace at which Texas plans to reclaim its status as the "Belly of the Beast" all seem causes for pessimism and defeat. Yet, embedded within the obvious tragedies that take place as a matter of public policy on Texas' death row and others are reasons to be hopeful. As I type this, an email appeared in my inbox announcing that a State District Judge has withdrawn the execution order for Charles Dean Hood, who was scheduled to receive a lethal injection in about half an hour. The death penalty is on the defensive in a way it has not been since it was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court amid the movements and struggles of the early 1970s. Slowly but surely, ordinary people are recognizing the death penalty for what it is: a barbaric, racist practice that almost always punishes the poor, sentences the innocent to die, and fails to prevent crime. Though we are right to mourn the loss of Karl Chamberlain and others that Texas will poison in the name of justice, we should remain encouraged and motivated by the fact that even the state that executes more than the rest of the states combined is doing so with more caution and more fear of an increasingly disapproving citizenry."

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