An American Bar Association panel’s groundbreaking assessment of Texas’ death penalty is a road map toward a fairer and saner system of imposing the ultimate penalty, one rid of peculiarities that leave the state open to error and ridicule.
Even those state lawmakers who are always on guard against hidden agendas to abolish the death penalty should welcome this report, unveiled Wednesday at a Capitol news conference.
The ABA’s death penalty assessment panel for Texas, a bipartisan group of Texans, is agnostic on capital punishment. Its job was measuring Texas against national standards of fairness and accuracy. Despite recent successes in shoring up weaknesses, Texas, unfortunately, still comes up short on several counts.
If there’s one thing we’ve heard from even the most conservative lawmakers in Austin, it’s their impatience with defenders of the status quo, where things are tilted grossly toward the state and against individual rights and common sense.
The ABA Texas Death Penalty Assessment is at the link; also available, earlier coverage. Next, additional news coverage.
More on the American Bar Association Death Penalty Due Process Project and other state assessments is at the link.
Comments