Lawmakers Pitch Life Without Parole Again

Nov. 27, 2000, 8:38PM

Lawmakers pitch new choice for juries: life without parole
Associated Press


AUSTIN -- Texas juries should be allowed to send convicted murderers to prison for life, and not be limited to either a death sentence or a long prison term with the possibility of parole, a group of state lawmakers said Monday.

Current law allows Texas juries two options for capital murder convictions: death or a life sentence that allows for parole after 40 years.

"I think we should give them as many options as possible," said Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, who is sponsoring a bill to create a sentence of life without parole. The Legislature convenes in January.

Lucio said 33 other states, the federal government and the military have the death penalty with an option for life without parole.

Such a sentence might appeal to jurors who fear that a convicted killer could go free or who cannot decide whether to give a death sentence, Lucio said.

Lucio said the bill is not meant to reduce the number of executions in Texas, the nation's busiest death-penalty state, where 37 inmates have been put to death by injection this year.

"I support the death penalty," Lucio said. "I'm not trying to steer jurors away from the death penalty."

But in Harris County, which has sent more inmates to death row than any other Texas jurisdiction, retiring District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr. said the bill "would eliminate the death penalty."

"A jury will have a heck of a time giving the death penalty if they have the possibility of locking them up forever," Holmes said. "As a taxpayer, I don't know why I have to take someone who has engaged in such conduct ... and support that guy for the rest of his natural life. You're going to have to build a geriatric (prison) wing."

Keith Hampton of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association said changing the law would be unlikely to slow the pace of executions in Texas.

"You may see a decrease ... but I think it will be virtually unnoticeable," he said. "They'll still get their death sentences."

Lucio filed a similar bill in 1999. Both it and the House version of the bill died when they never came up for a vote.

Joining Lucio at a news conference to introduce the new bill were Sen. Rodney Ellis of Houston and Reps. Ruth Jones McClendon of San Antonio and Dora Olivo of Rosenberg, all Democrats.

Despite the 1999 defeat and the fact there has been little change in the makeup of the Legislature, the bill sponsors said they felt they should bring it up again.

"This is about empowering juries," said McClendon, who sponsored the House measure in 1999 and again this year. "It's ridiculous that juries don't have the option to give something other than death."

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to consider an appeal from convicted Texas killer Johnny Paul Penry, whose lawyers say he is mentally r****ded and has the reasoning capacity of a 7-year-old.

The court said it will use the case to clarify how much opportunity jurors in death-penalty cases must have to consider the defendant's mental capacity.

Lucio said he didn't know whether Penry's case would be one in which a jury would have imposed a sentence of life without parole.

But a press release distributed by Lucio's office at the same time specifically noted the Penry case as one that could have been affected.

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