HOUSTON CHRONICLE - May 1, 2001

Lawmakers back off moratorium on death penalty

By JANET ELLIOTT AUSTIN --From its actions Monday, the Texas House does not appear ready to support a proposed two-year moratorium on executions. Dutton Representatives soundly defeated an attempt by state Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, to slip a moratorium provision into a criminal justice bill Monday. When representatives realized what Dutton was trying to do, they defeated the bill 53-89. The other moratorium bills pending before the House are proposed constitutional amendments, which require a two-thirds majority to pass. Still, Dutton said he did not think Monday's vote on House Bill 1328 -- which would take the responsibility of scheduling executions from trial courts and give it to the Court of Criminal Appeals -- was a harbinger of how the House will treat the proposed constitutional amendment. Dutton said he asked some moratorium supporters to vote against his bill, once he realized it was headed for defeat, so he could bring it back for reconsideration today. Dutton admitted many members of the House are opposed to the moratorium. "Many of them are going to be running for re-election and they want to be able to say they stood with victims," he said. Dutton tried to sneak a death penalty moratorium past House members Monday by sticking a line in the bill that stated the Court of Criminal Appeals could not set an execution date before Sept. 1, 2003. Rep. Terry Keel, a former prosecutor, spotted the stipulation and alerted the House. "This is a circuitous method to enact a moratorium," Keel said. Dutton was forced to admit what he was trying to do. "This is a moratorium bill. That's exactly what it is," he said. Dutton defended his tactic as "cunning." Earlier this session, death penalty opponents were elated when moratorium measures passed committees in the House and the Senate. The votes were viewed as indications that lawmakers were uncomfortable with criticisms about the state's criminal justice system that arose during the presidential campaign. The bills would impose a two-year moratorium on executions and implement a review of the state's death penalty system. Texas leads the nations in executions. Last year, the state executed 40 people. Supporters said the moratorium is necessary to make sure there isn't DNA or other evidence that might exonerate any of the 450 people on death row. Dutton said his bill would have applied to about 30 inmates whose execution dates likely would have fallen in that two-year period. "The death penalty should always remain a necessity, but for only the guilty," Dutton told lawmakers. "There are guilty people who are walking the streets of Texas because we have allowed innocent people to be convicted." Keel said a moratorium would be unfair to crime victims. He said executions shouldn't be delayed because problems can be addressed by the courts on a case-by-case basis. Keel said he wasn't offended by Dutton's effort. "The hope was that the House would be asleep or not notice it," Keel said. "That is part of how laws are made."