Amid ongoing high-profile death row cases, Texas lawmakers have introduced a bill to abolish the death penalty in the state.
Democratic state Rep. John Boushie III has introduced the bill in the upcoming Congress.
“I think I’ve been against the death penalty all my life because I’ve thought about the use of the death penalty and whether it should exist in society,” Busey said, according to FOX 7.
“If you just want to look at it economically, we spend more money on executions than we do on keeping someone in prison. So if we get it wrong, we have a real lose-lose situation with big risks.” he continued.
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Pictured is a stretcher in the execution chamber at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, Oklahoma. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki, File)
This comes after the Texas Supreme Court last week cleared the way for the state to schedule a new execution date for inmate Robert Roberson, whose first execution was postponed last month.
Roberson is currently on death row after being convicted of killing his 2-year-old daughter Nikki Curtis by shaking her, a condition known as shaken baby syndrome, which prosecutors allege. But his lawyers argue that Nikki actually died from other health problems, including pneumonia, and that new evidence proves his innocence. The lawyers also said doctors could not rule out these other medical explanations for the child’s symptoms.
Mr. Roberson was scheduled to be executed on October 17, but shortly before that, the state Supreme Court issued an order delaying the execution.
If sentenced to death, he would be the first person in the United States to be executed in a case based on shaken baby syndrome.
More than 80 Texas state legislators, detectives who assisted prosecutors, medical experts, parental rights groups, human rights groups, best-selling novelist John Grisham and other advocates say Mr. Roberson is a criminal. They are asking the state to grant leniency for their convictions. Innocent. A group of state legislators also visited Mr. Roberson in prison to offer encouragement.
“I felt more involved in this Robert Roberson case and wanted to continue the conversation about the lack of humanity associated with the death penalty,” Bucy said.
Texas state lawmakers meet with Robert Roberson at a prison in Livingston, Texas, on September 27, 2024. (Deputies on Criminal Justice Reform via AP)
Texas has executed about 600 people since 1982, said Christine Hall Cuellar, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.
“This is far more than any other state in the nation,” Hall-Cuellar told FOX 7. “We have a pretty good reputation when it comes to the use of the death penalty in Texas.”
Houle Cuellar said death sentences in the state have declined over the past decade, in part due to the introduction of life without parole in 2005.
“The prosecution chose to use its discretion not to seek the death penalty,” Hall Cuellar said. “Even in about 30 percent of cases that went to trial for the death penalty, juries rejected it.”
Hall-Cuéllar said Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Bexar counties issue the most death sentences in the state, and more than half of all Texas counties have never issued a death sentence. .
Since 2007, several Texas lawmakers have tried unsuccessfully to abolish the death penalty. But Bucy says there is now enough momentum on this issue to reintroduce legislation to eliminate the practice.
Texas judge grants injunction before man’s execution in ‘shaken baby syndrome’ case
An empty gallows stands at the Texas Death Row on April 25, 1997 in Huntsville, Texas. (Getty Images)
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“Abolishing the death penalty in Texas is an uphill battle, but the number of executions is decreasing,” he said. “I think sentiment is changing, and I think as these specific incidents become reality and we start learning specific stories, people are going to become more and more concerned about the possibility of misunderstandings. .”
State Sen. Sarah Eckhardt and state Rep. Joe Moody, both Democrats, have introduced similar legislation to abolish the death penalty, which would need to be voted on by their colleagues when the legislative session begins early next year.
In another Texas death row case, a judge last month found Melissa Lucio not guilty in the death of her 2-year-old daughter Mariah in 2007. Senior State District Judge Arturo Nelson recommended that Lucio’s conviction and death sentence be overturned. The judge also considered any evidence or testimony that might support the claim that Mariah was not abusive and that Mariah’s death was an accident caused by a fall down the stairs, including statements from Lucio’s other children. The prosecution determined that the matter had been concealed.
