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By
JIM VERTUNO, Associated Press Writer
AUSTIN,
Texas (AP) - As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to hear the appeal
of a Texas death row inmate whose lawyers say he is mentally
retarded, a group of state lawmakers said Monday juries should be
allowed to sentence killers to life in prison without parole.
Current
law allows Texas juries two options for capital murder convictions:
death or a ``life'' sentence that allows for parole after 40 years.
``I
think we should give them as many options as possible,'' said
Democratic Sen. Eddie Lucio, who is sponsoring a bill to create a
life without parole sentence. The Legislature convenes in January.
Lucio
said 33 other states, the federal government and the military have
the death penalty with an option for life without parole. Such a
sentence might appeal to jurors who fear that a convicted killer
could go free or who cannot decide whether to give a death
sentence, Lucio said.
Lucio
said the bill is not meant to reduce the number of executions in
Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, where 37 inmates
have been put to death by lethal injection this year.
``I
support the death penalty,'' Lucio said. ``I'm not trying to steer
jurors away from the death penalty.''
But
retiring Harris County District Attorney John B. Holmes Jr. said
the bill ``would eliminate the death penalty.'' Harris County has
had 147 people sentenced to death, more than any other county in
the state, since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1974.
``A
jury will have a heck of a time giving the death penalty if they
have the possibility of locking them up forever,'' Holmes said.
``As a taxpayer, I don't know why I have to take someone who has
engaged in such conduct ... and support that guy for the rest of
his natural life. You're going to have to build a geriatric (prison)
wing.''
Keith
Hampton of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association said
changing the law would be unlikely to slow the pace of executions
in Texas.
``You
may see a decrease ... but I think it will be virtually
unnoticeable,'' he said. ``They'll still get their death
sentences.''
Lucio
filed a similar bill in 1999. Both it and the House version of the
bill died when they never came up for a vote.
Despite
that defeat and the fact there has been little change in the
Legislature's makeup, the bill sponsors said they felt they should
bring it up again.
``I
think I think as long as its clear we're not trying to eliminate
the death penalty and just trying to give juries a different
option it has a decent shot of passing,'' said Sen. Rodney Ellis
of Houston.
On
Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to consider an appeal from
convicted Texas killer John Paul Penry, whose lawyers say he is
mentally retarded and has the reasoning capacity of a 7-year-old.
The court said it will use the case to clarify how much
opportunity jurors in death penalty cases must have to consider
the defendant's mental capacity.
Lucio
said he didn't know whether Penry's case would be one in which a
jury would have imposed a sentence of life without parole. But a
press release distributed by Lucio's office at the same time
specifically noted the Penry case as one that could be have been
affected.
The
death penalty still has strong support in Texas even though recent
polls have shown some concern about its enforcement.
A
Scripps Howard Texas Poll released in June found that 57 percent
of those surveyed believe Texas has put an innocent person to
death. Nonetheless, 73 percent of those surveyed favored the death
penalty.
A
Gallup Poll earlier this year put support nationally for capital
punishment at 66 percent, its lowest level since 1981.
Steven
Hawkins, who heads the National Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty, said public support of the death penalty erodes when
juries are given the choice of life without parole.
``We
definitely see life without parole as a positive development
because it offers an alternative to the death penalty,'' Hawkins
said.
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