The Texas Tribune posts, "Call for a New Execution Date Revives Race Debate." It's written by Maurice Chammah.
The Harris County district attorney's office agreed Monday morning at a hearing in a state district court to give attorneys for death row inmate Duane Buck 30 days to file with an application, asking the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to review his sentencing trial. The application, said Kate Black, one of Buck's attorneys, will include arguments that Buck was unfairly sentenced to death after testimony suggested that he was more likely to be dangerous because he is black. If the state's highest criminal court rejects the application, the district attorney's office will again move to set an execution date."Buck is a very faithful person," Black said of her client's reaction to the news, adding that he was concerned for the well-being of the victims' families as the controversy continues. "He doesn't want to put any additional stress on the victims' families."
During Duane Buck's 1997 capital murder trial, a defense witness, psychologist Dr. Walter Quijano, told the jury, “It’s a sad commentary that minorities, Hispanics and black people, are over represented in the criminal justice system.”
Sixteen years later, those words and their effect on Buck's death sentence have been fiercely debated in appeals courts and in the U.S. Supreme Court and by lawyers, lawmakers and scholars.
Earlier coverage of Duane Buck's case begins at the link.
Related posts are in the race category index.
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