This is starting to reach embarrassing proportions. We learned yesterday that another Texas inmate has been found to be innocent using DNA tests. Since 2001, at least 30 inmates of Texas prisons have been freed because they were innocent of the charge they were sent to prison on.
Charles Chatman was convicted of rape in 1981 and given a life sentence. Twenty-six years later, new DNA tests prove his innocence.
It is starting to look like our court system here in Texas is deeply flawed. How else can we explain that in the last seven years, 30 innocent men have been freed from our prisons? This is far more than in any other state.
It's even scarier when you consider that Texas also leads the nation in executions -- by a long shot. Doesn't it make you wonder how many men on death row might also be innocent (or already executed men might have been innocent)?
If Chatman had been given the death penalty instead of a life sentence, he would have been executed long ago. Executions may take quite a while, but none take 26 years.
It is time for Texas to follow New Jersey's lead and outlaw executions. With this many inmates being found to be serving sentences for crimes they did not commit, there is simply no way to justify continuing to execute prisoners.
The chances are too great that an innocent man will be executed because of our flawed and unfair court system. That would be unforgiveable.
One step during the next two months that we can take to slow down executions in Texas is to elect a District Attorney in Travis County who will pledge not to seek the death penalty and instead to use life without parole as an alternative. Travis County does not send nearly as many people to death row as Harris County, but as a voter in Travis, I do not want Travis County to send ANYONE to death row. The system is simply not able to prevent innocent people from being wrongfully convicted and sent to death row. Mistakes can happen anywhere. In 2001, there were two innocent people released from prison after serving 13 years of life sentences in prison for a murder they did not commit. They were wrongfully convicted in Travis County. Their names are Chris Ochoa and Richard Danziger. They were wrongfully convicted after a rogue cop threatened one of them with the death penalty and coerced a false confession. The City of Austin settled lawsuits in that case for about 15 million dollars and Travis County settled separately for almost another million.
ReplyDeleteThe candidates for DA in Travis should all take the pledge not to seek death. There is no Republican running for DA here and there are four Democrats running. If at least one of the Democrats takes the pledge not to seek death sentences, then I am sure that most progressives will vote for her or him. The people of Travis County, particularly the ones who vote in a Democratic primary, have different values than places like Harris County. We can make Austin and Travis County a death penalty free zone in Texas by electing a progressive Democrat as DA.
OMG! That picture is so barbaric! What a sad statement for humanity Texas is. I'm so ashamed.
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