Is the Death Penalty a Dying Breed?

That's the titleof Diane Jennings' report in today's Dallas Morning News.  LINK

Executions nationwide and in Texas were down in 2008. So were death sentences.

The numbers don't lie – but not everyone agrees on what they say.

Defense attorneys think the statistics indicate a waning enthusiasm in the Lone Star State, the death penalty capital of the country, for the ultimate sanction.

It has taken a little longer for the transformation to be felt here," said Rob Owen, co-director of the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin. "I think we are seeing the leading edge of that national transformation."

Prosecutors doubt that, saying the numbers simply reflect the cyclical nature of criminal justice.

"A real sea change? I think it's too early to tell," said Michael Casillas, chief prosecutor of the appellate division of the Dallas County district attorney's office. "Things are, even in the criminal justice system, kind of cyclical."

Whether the numbers indicate a temporary slowdown or a slow grinding to a halt, neither side thinks the death penalty will disappear any time soon.

The 18 executions that took place in Texas in 2008 occurred in the last half of the year, following a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that had temporarily halted capital punishment. And 13 executions have been scheduled in the next nine weeks.

Even in Dallas County, where District Attorney Craig Watkins has indicated his discomfort with capital punishment and the district attorney's office is reviewing the case of every inmate on death row from Dallas, prosecutors are going to start seeking execution dates again soon, said Lisa Smith, deputy chief of the appellate section.

The review of several dozen cases, some dating back decades, is about halfway complete.

And:

Perhaps more telling, said David Dow, litigation director for the Texas Defender Service, was the fact that a Harris County jury refused to impose a death sentence in the case of an illegal immigrant who killed a police officer.

Whether Harris County will continue to limit its use of capital punishment is unknown: A new district attorney, former judge Pat Lykos, took office after the resignation of the previous district attorney, and observers aren't sure how strong her appetite is for capital punishment.

But regardless of what happens in Harris County, Dow and Owen said several factors account for the apparently dwindling death penalty in Texas: a parade of exonerees in the state in the last couple of years, which has made jurors aware of the fallibility of the system; improved representation by defense lawyers; the high cost of prosecuting death penalty cases; and the availability of life without parole as an option.

But Shannon Edmonds, staff attorney for Governmental Relations for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association, said it's too early to tell whether the life without parole option has made a difference, and he doubts that news of wrongful convictions in Dallas County affects jurors several counties away.