Mess with Texas!

That is what the U.S. Supreme Court did today! The case was Smith v. Texas.

The judicial system by which the state of Texas executes criminals is an embarassment to the entire nation. According to the New York Times, "Of the 943 executions in the country since 1976, Texas has carried out 335, more than the next six states combined. It has 457 people on death row, second to the 635 in California, which has conducted 10 executions."

I have been passionately opposed to the death penalty from the time I was a very young person, and I've only become more convinced that it is a barbaric practice that needs to be abolished if we are to develop a civilized society that doesn't teach its children that killing is the answer.

BUT, you don't have to be opposed to the death penalty to be appalled at what has been going on in Texas for decades.

The Times article states, "The errors committed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in upholding the death sentence of LaRoyce L. Smith were so clear to a majority of the Supreme Court that the justices decided the case in the inmate's favor on the basis of the briefs, without hearing arguments."

According to an AP report, in this case, Smith v. Texas, "The Supreme Court on Monday overturned the death sentence of a convicted Texas killer because jurors in his trial did not consider his learning disability and other evidence."

"There is no question that a jury might well have considered (Smith's) IQ scores and history of participation in special-education classes as a reason to impose a sentence more lenient than death," the court wrote in Monday's decision.

The Supreme Court went on to reprimand the Texas high court according to the Times:

The justices said Monday that the Texas appeals court ignored problems the Supreme Court had already identified and that it should have known, when it affirmed the sentence last April, that the jury instructions made the death sentence unconstitutional. The state court "erroneously relied on a test we never countenanced and now have unequivocally rejected," the justices said.

If that isn't enough to convince you something is seriously wrong in Texas, the AP report concludes with this:

Earlier this year, justices lifted inmate Delma Banks' death sentence and delivered a strong rebuke of Texas officials and lower courts for failing to ensure he received a fair trial. The court said prosecutors hid key information that might have helped Banks' case.

And last year, the court sided with a black Texas death row inmate, Thomas Miller-El, who claimed prosecutors in Dallas County stacked his jury with whites. The Miller-El case will be reviewed by justices for the second time next month because an appeals court again found that he should face the death penalty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/16/politics/16scotus.html

http://news.findlaw.com/ap_stories/a/w/1154/11-15-2004/20041115091501_06.html