Perspective Texas, belly of the death-penalty
beast
By THOMAS C. FOX
Texas puts to death more people than any other jurisdiction in the
Western world -- 167 persons since 1982. It has carried out more than
two-and-a-half times as many death sentences as the next leading state,
Virginia, which has executed 60.
A stunning 25 percent of Texas approximately 450 death row
inmates have been convicted in Harris County, where Houston is located.
Galveston-Houstons bishop, Joseph Fiorenza, was recently elected
president of the U.S. bishops conference.
The 68-year-old Fiorenza, viewed as a moderate, is an outspoken
death penalty opponent and has privately told associates he will make the issue
a top priority for the U.S. bishops.
He (Fiorenza) is the most outspoken bishop in the state (on
the death penalty), says Dave Atwood, president of the Texas Coalition to
Abolish the Death Penalty. Atwood, a Catholic and a Pax Christi board member,
has left his work to become the virtually full-time volunteer head of the Texas
coalition.
Being in Houston, Fiorenza is at the center of the center of
the belly of the beast, Atwood said. He knows the issue. He has
taken a lot of heat for his strong opposition to the death penalty.
Texas is a different beast. Other states bend over backwards
to avoid executions; Texas bends over backwards to have them, says
Atwood.
Texas has no public defenders office. The poor are at the mercy of
locally elected judges, many of whom run for office on pro-execution platforms.
These judges appoint attorneys often with little or no experience -- or
interest -- in defending their clients. Meager funds are allocated to these
unpopular defenses.
The deck is then stacked. Texas has a record of hiring
medical experts who predict with uncanny certitude the predilection
of a defendant to commit further violence, further greasing the skids to
execution. Texas law forbids telling juries what alternatives to a death
sentence might be available.
Texas is also the home of the notorious Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals, which rubber-stamps execution orders, preferring fax verdicts to
deliberations. In one recent case, the court acknowledged the defense attorney
had repeatedly fallen asleep during a capital murder trial. Nonetheless, it
upheld the conviction.
Texas politicians outhustle each other to show their zeal for the
death penalty, which extends to juveniles and the mentally retarded. More than
two dozen of the states death row inmates are minors. An estimated 10
percent are mentally retarded.
Since 1990, only five countries are known to have executed
juvenile offenders: Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the United States.
Most of these -- nine -- were carried out in the United States, five in Texas.
Race is a dominant factor. To murder a white person in Texas means
being five times more likely to receive the death penalty than to murder a
black person.
Amnesty International concludes that Texas criminal
procedures fail to meet minimum international standards for the
protection of human rights.
Fiorenza said in a recent telephone interview, It is a
horrible situation and needs to be changed. ... Our whole criminal justice
system [in Texas] needs to be overhauled. The 21 bishop of Texas have
been among few persons in the state who have raised their voices against the
death penalty. The bishops have repeatedly opposed capital punishment, most
recently in October 1997 when they said capital punishment is wrong under
all circumstances.
Last month, they expressed opposition to the execution of the
mentally retarded, arguing that if the death penalty is viewed as the
most extreme sanction available ... for offenders with the highest degree of
blameworthiness ... (then) how can someone who by definition is
significantly intellectually impaired ever meet ... (such) a standard of
blame?
Fiorenza termed the statement an effort to crack that
seemingly impenetrable [death penalty] wall.
He admits that death penalty opponents face an uphill battle, but
sees shifts; first, with the execution a year ago of the born-again Karla Faye
Tucker; then with Pope John Pauls speaking out against capital
punishment.
The U.S. bishops have been repeatedly on record opposing capital
punishment since at least 1974. State bishops conferences have issued
strong statements.
Nevertheless, episcopal opposition to abortion, another life
issue, has been more visible and vehement, despite the fact that the moral
principle underpinning both positions is identical: Human life, as gift from
God, is sacred; the direct taking of life is immoral.
Why has the abortion issue received more attention?
Some Catholics have distinguished between the taking of
innocent life, as in abortion, and the taking of presumably guilty
life, as in capital punishment.
Others have justified their support for capital punishment as an
act of self-defense.
However, the churchs teachings on capital punishment have
evolved and the wider Catholic audience seems to be beginning to hear the
message.
Speaking in St. Louis, John Paul ended any distinction between
innocent and guilty life by insisting that life
must never be taken, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.
His personal appeal on behalf of convicted murderer Darrell Mease moved
Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan to commute the death sentence.
Fiorenza admits his own thinking on the issue has developed over
the years. The more I reflected on the whole pro-life matter, the more I
came to think an absolute principle was involved. ... Capital punishment is
connected to abortion. ... Ive seen the connection in my own
mind.
He has come to realize that the churchs antiabortion stance
is fortified by absolute opposition to capital punishment. The church
will do far more to win the fight against abortion by helping society
understand that violence to human life at any stage is a horrible moral
evil, he said
A nationwide campaign against Texas obscene and grossly
unjust legalized slaughter is long overdue. To the degree that Catholic leaders
get visibly involved, teaching consistent principles, the churchs
evolving pro-life stance is better understood and the cloak of protection to
the unborn extended.
For information on the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty, telephone Dave Atwood at (713) 520-0300. To make personal contact with
Texas death row inmates go to the Lamp of Hope project at
www.c-com.net/~ksebung/
Tom Fox is NCR publisher.
National Catholic Reporter, February 12,
1999
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