Sentencing Law and Policy: Texas Justice calls for state's death penalty to be abolished

Justice Tom Price, Texas Court of Criminal Appeals

Wow!  A chink in the armor of the state that executes more than the rest of the country combined.  The Court of Criminal Appeals is the State's highest.  - gwc
Sentencing Law and Policy: Texas Justice calls for state's death penalty to be abolished: 

"As reported in this local article, "Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Justice Tom Price on Wednesday denounced the death penalty, saying that Texas' 2005 life without parole law makes it unnecessary and that the possibility of executing a wrongfully convicted person is an 'irrational risk' that should not be tolerated by the criminal justice system."  Here is more about this notable development which emerged in a legal challenge to a notable planned execution: 
 The Dallas Republican's comments, thought to be the first time such views have been voiced by a judge on the state's highest criminal appeals court, came in a strongly worded dissent to the court's Wednesday rejection of an appeal on behalf of Scott Panetti, a Fredericksburg double-killer said to suffer from schizophrenia.  Panetti, 56, is scheduled to be executed next Wednesday. 
 "Based on my specialized knowledge of this process," Price wrote, "I now conclude that the death penalty as a form of punishment should be abolished because the execution of individuals does not appear to measurably advance the retribution and deterrence purpose served by the death penalty; the life without parole option adequately protects society at large in the same way as the death penalty option; and the risk of executing an innocent person for a capital murder is unreasonably high, particularly in light of procedural-default laws and the prevalence of ineffective trial and initial habeas counsel.""

'via Blog this'