Early reporting on hearing regarding constitutionality of death penalty in Texas

Houston judge on Monday began a hearing on the legality of the death penalty in Texas, which executes more convicts than any other U.S. state

John Green, 25, is awaiting trial after being charged with murdering a woman during a robbery in Houston in 2008. He says he is innocent.

His lawyers have challenged the constitutionality of Texas' death penalty, claiming that there is a high probability of wrongful convictions and executions under current trial rules. Their effort is predicated on Texas rules that allow defendants to challenge the legality of potential punishments even before trial begins.

The state has executed 464 inmates over the last three decades -- far more than any other U.S. state. But death penalty opponents cite two prominent Texas cases in which significant exculpatory evidence has come to light years after inmates' sentences were carried out.

During roughly two weeks of testimony, state District Judge Kevin Fine will hear arguments from prominent death penalty opponents, who will shine a spotlight on the legal processes and evidentiary support used in Texas' capital punishment trials, which critics say are error-prone....

County prosecutors said they will "stand mute" during the hearing, after citing 19 reasons why it should not proceed. Prosecutor Alan Curry told Judge Fine he would "respectfully refuse to participate" in the hearing. Fine later told Curry, "I expect your participation."

Fine evoked the ire of Texas Governor Rick Perry in March when he granted a request by Green's lawyers to declare the state's death penalty as unconstitutional, a common request in capital murder cases that Texas judges routinely deny. Fine rescinded the ruling after pointing to evidence that "we execute innocent people," and called for the hearing.

Fine is a Democrat who presides in Harris County, which has sentenced more prisoners to death than any other Texas county. Texas is a predominantly Republican state where support for the death penalty runs high.

Time Magazine Opinion Piece about Stevens and the Death Penalty

Stevens' Case Against the Death Penalty: Shirking the Blame

His revisionist history has been widely praised — including by TIME.com's legal columnist — and that's understandable. Stevens is an excellent writer and a charming talker, and he says a number of true things about the death penalty. The system consumes an extraordinary amount of judicial resources to resolve a vanishingly small number of cases. Meanwhile, more than 3,000 condemned prisoners languish indefinitely in expensive death-row lockdowns — many of them for more than a quarter-century and counting. This makes a mockery of the idea of finality in the justice system, and makes our legal institutions look feckless. Stevens hits the nail on the head when he writes, "While support of the death penalty wins votes for some elected officials, all participants in the process must realize the monumental costs that capital cases impose on the judicial system."

 

Huffington Post on Death Penalty constitutionality challenge in Texas

Death Penalty May Be Ruled Unconstitutional In Texas

At a hearing scheduled for Monday, December 6, a district court in Texas will decide whether the death penalty is unconstitutional in the state based on the disproportionately high risk of wrongful convictions in Texas. This is the first time in the state's history that a court will examine the problem of innocent people being executed in a Texas capital trial.

Arizona delays execution due to drug importation questions

Court stays execution over drug origin from UPI.com

The Arizona Supreme Court says it has delayed an execution until the state answers questions about how it obtained a lethal injection drug made overseas.

Sodium thiopental is used in Arizona and other states as a sedative in combination with two other drugs in lethal injection executions. But because it is not made in the United States anymore and there is no legal mechanism for it to be imported from its British manufacturer, lawyers for condemned prisoner Daniel Wayne Cook contend acquiring sodium thiopental from abroad may be illegal, The Arizona Republic reported Wednesday.