Texas Moratorium Network & ACLU-TX Central TX Chapter
invite all interested members of the community to a

PUBLIC FORUM with the
CANDIDATES for TRAVIS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY

Monday, February 4th, 6pm at
Gene’s Po Boys
1209 E. 11th St. (at the Rosewood “Y”)
(parking behind building)

There are four candidates* running – all in the Democratic primary (no Republicans are running, so the winner of the Democratic primary on March 4 will be the next DA) – to replace Ronnie Earle, generally a well-received prosecutor, even a hero to some, especially for the Public Integrity Unit’s indictment of Tom Delay.

But there are some areas in which Earle and his office were lacking, including continuing to seek the death penalty instead of exclusively using life without parole as an alternative and believing police officers are categorically above the law by commonly withholding evidence from grand juries that would likely lead to their prosecution such as with APD’s Julie Schroeder (shooting death, Daniel Rocha) and Michael Olsen, who, despite videotaped evidence of wrongdoing in 2003 (excessive force, Jeffrey Thornton), was cleared and put back on the force just to again be cleared again after the shooting death of Kevin Brown last summer. (Both Schroeder and Olsen were fired nonetheless).

Come find out what the candidates believe the DA’s priorities should be in matters regarding criminal justice and public safety. This 90-minute forum will attempt to get the candidates on record on a range of important issues, including the death penalty, police misconduct, political corruption, juvenile justice, drug laws and other issues. During one segment of the forum, attendees will be given the opportunity to pose their own questions to the candidates. People may also send suggestions for questions to the contacts below.

*CANDIDATE WEBSITES:
http://www.garycobb4da.com
http://rosemarylehmberg.com
http://www.montfordforda.com
http://www.electrickreed.com

For event info contact: Scott Cobb scottcobb99@gmail.com 512-689-1544 or
Debbie Russell debmocracy@yahoo.com, 512-573-6194.

Posted on January 25th, 2008 by admin
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Everyone should head over to The Texas Observer and read their long article on the Travis County DA race: “Replacing Ronnie Earle: The Race to Become the Most Important Prosecutor in Texas”The article focuses on the Public Integrity Unit. Rick Reed comes out in the article looking like a real fighter within the DA’s office for the indictment against Tom Delay. In fact, according to the article, if it were not for Reed, there may not have even been an indictment against Delay.

In an interview, Reed publicly revealed bitter dissention that seized Earle’s office before the DeLay indictment. He says his colleagues, including Lehmberg, wilted at the prospect of seeking an indictment against one of the nation’s most powerful politicians. “Everyone felt the pressure. Different people reacted differently to it,” Reed said. “I was the only person pushing to present the case to the grand jury.”By fall 2005, the grand jury had already indicted two of DeLay’s associates from the controversial 2002 campaign-John Colyandro and Jim Ellis. Everyone in the DA’s office seemed to agree on the Ellis and Colyandro cases, Reed said, adding that much of the same convincing evidence also implicated DeLay.

“Yet when it came to Mr. DeLay, the suggestion was that he’s a very powerful man, therefore we ought to be more careful in making this decision, and we ought to be reluctant to do it because of the fact he’s so powerful,” Reed said. “The issue that motivated the argument was political: he’s a powerful man, and the sky’s going to fall if we present this to the grand jury. … I’ll tell you quite candidly, that offended me. It offended me then, and it offends me now. In the American judicial system, I think every person ought to be treated equally. Whether or not a person holds a political office just shouldn’t be a consideration.”

Reed said Lehmberg opposed seeking an indictment, as did several of the other prosecutors. He said he believes Lehmberg wouldn’t have indicted DeLay had she been DA at the time. Reed said he convinced Earle through a series of conversations and memos, besting the three other veteran prosecutors.

Posted on January 18th, 2008 by admin
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Bill Aleshire, an Austin attorney and former Travis County Judge, has written a post on the Burnt Orange Report that says voters should withhold their endorsements from Travis County District Attorney Candidates who refuse to say they will not use the death penalty.

This is a unique opportunity because the selection of the next District Attorney is practically confined to the Democratic Primary since there is no Republican candidate. Although the death penalty maintains broad support statewide, Democratic voters in Travis County can elect a D.A. who would professionally and competently enforce the law without using the death penalty.

The death penalty is not mandatory. The D.A. decides whether to seek the death penalty or not. Death penalty opponents have been practically beaten into submissive silence by the notion that stopping this inhumane practice is not politically feasible. Instead of debating an end to the death penalty, it has shifted to debating–can you believe it?–whether the death penalty should be administered “humanely.” That’s the same Orwellian nonsense as making bombs “smart.”

Don’t give up. The Democratic Primary voters could make a difference in how the next D.A. handles this issue. The criminal justice system, even in this allegedly progressive community, is not perfect, and innocent people can be convicted, particularly if their ultimate fate on appeal is dependent on the likes of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals who would close their doors rather than give a death-row inmate 15 minutes extra to file an appeal.

In 2003, at the urging of Texas Moratorium Newtwork, the Travis County Commissioners Court passed a resolution endorsing a moratorium on the death penalty, which made Travis County the first county government in Texas to urge a stop to executions. The next DA has a chance to put that earlier endorsement by the Commissioners into effect by putting into place a policy that at least during the first term in office of the next Travis County DA, there will be no new death sentences sought.

Posted on January 16th, 2008 by admin
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Jeanette Popp’s daughter Nancy DePriest was murdered in Austin in 1988. Jeanette became intimately familiar with the many flaws of the Texas criminal justice system after two innocent men, Chris Ochoa and Richard Danziger, were wrongfully convicted of her daughter’s murder and spent 12 years in prison. They were exonerated and released in 2001. The City of Austin settled separate lawsuits with Danziger and Ochoa for $9 million and $5.3 million respectively in 2003. Danziger also settled with Travis County for $950,000. The actual killer, Achim Marino, was convicted in October 2002.

March 4, 2008, the day of the primary in Travis County, would have been Nancy’s 40th birthday.

“The death penalty system in Texas is broken. The next DA in Travis County should reflect how the Travis County community’s views on the death penalty have evolved in recent years and pledge that for now the death penalty is off the table within Travis County”, said Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network. “If we want to slow down the number of executions in Texas and reduce the risk of executing an innocent person, we need to elect a district attorney who will pledge to impose a moratorium on seeking new death sentences and a moratorium on setting execution dates for cases with existing death sentences. Certainly a DA candidate in Travis County who makes such a pledge will find a rich reward of votes in the Democratic primary”, said Cobb.

Posted on January 14th, 2008 by admin
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Jeanette Popp spoke on the plaza of the Blackwell/Thurman Criminal Justice Center in Austin on Saturday, January 12. Popp urged the candidates for Travis County District Attorney to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in Travis County by not seeking the death penalty in any capital trials and instead using life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty.

Jeanette Popp’s daughter Nancy DePriest was murdered in Austin in 1988.

March 4, 2008, the day of the primary in Travis County, would have been Nancy’s 40th birthday, if she had not been murdered.

Jeanette became intimately familiar with the many flaws of the Texas criminal justice system after two innocent men, Chris Ochoa and Richard Danziger, were wrongfully convicted of her daughter’s murder and spent 12 years in prison. They were exonerated and released in 2001. The City of Austin settled separate lawsuits with Danziger and Ochoa for $9 million and $5.3 million respectively in 2003. Danziger also settled with Travis County for $950,000. The actual killer, Achim Marino, was convicted in October 2002.

“The death penalty system in Texas is broken. The next DA in Travis County should reflect how the Travis County community’s views on the death penalty have evolved in recent years and pledge that for now the death penalty is off the table within Travis County”, said Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network. “If we want to slow down the number of executions in Texas and reduce the risk of executing an innocent person, we need to elect a district attorney who will pledge to impose a moratorium on seeking new death sentences and a moratorium on setting execution dates for cases with existing death sentences. Certainly a DA candidate in Travis County who makes such a pledge will find a rich reward of votes in the Democratic primary”, said Cobb.

Posted on January 14th, 2008 by admin
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Texas continues to lead the nation in using the death penalty, carrying out 62 percent of executions nationwide in 2007. Overall, 86 percent of all U.S. executions in 2007 were in the South. It is time to turn the page on this legacy of the Old South. The death penalty system in Texas is broken and puts innocent people at risk of execution.The TMN PAC has three goals in the 2008 elections: 1) elect a progressive Travis Count District Attorney, 2) elect Democrats to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and 3) elect reform-minded voices to the Texas Legislature in order to build a majority in favor of a moratorium on executions.

1) The question for voters in the upcoming election for Travis County District Attorney is whether they are ready to turn the page on this legacy of the Old South and elect a District Attorney who will pledge to impose a moratorium on seeking new death sentences and a moratorium on setting execution dates for people already on death row from Travis County.

The next district attorney should pledge to reduce the number of new death sentences from Travis County to zero and instead use life without the possibility of parole as an alternative.

We will pressure all DA candidates to pledge to impose a moratorium on seeking new death sentences and a moratorium on setting execution dates for people already on death row from Travis County.

2) The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has been called the “worst court in Texas” by Texas Monthly. Sharon Keller has brought the current court into even more disrepute by saying “We close at 5” and refusing to accept an appeal from a man on the day of his execution. All nine judges on the CCA are Republicans. We will work to elect Democrats to the Court. It is not in the interest of Justice to have all the judges on the state’s highest criminal appeals court from one party.

3) We will support reform-minded candidates for the Texas Legislature in order to ensure a Democratic majority that will enact a moratorium on executions.

Posted on December 26th, 2007 by admin
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The New York Times has an article today “Executions Decline Elsewhere, but Texas Holds Steady“. Some of the information in the article explains why the district attorney elections in 2008 in Travis County and Harris County, as well as other Texas counties, are so important in the effort to slow down or stop executions in a flawed Texas capital punishment system that puts innocent people at risk of execution.

Unlike other states where the number of executions have declined, in Texas execution dates are set by aggressive district attorneys asking convicting courts to set the date. If we want to slow down the number of executions in Texas, we need to elect district attorneys who will pledge to impose a moratorium on seeking new death sentences and a moratorium on setting execution dates for existing death sentences. Certainly a DA candidate in Travis County who makes such a pledge will find a rich reward of votes in the Democratic primary.

Adam Liptak writes in today’s NYT:

This year’s death-penalty bombshells — a federal moratorium, a state abolition and the smallest number of executions in more than a decade — have masked what may be the most significant and lasting development. For the first time in the modern history of the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions took place in Texas.

Over the past three decades, the proportion of executions nationwide performed in Texas has held relatively steady, averaging 37 percent. Only once before, in 1986, has the state accounted for even a slight majority of the executions, and that was in a year with only 18 executions nationwide.

But this year, enthusiasm for executions outside of Texas dropped sharply. Of last year’s 42 executions, 26 were in Texas. The remaining 16 were spread across nine other states, none of which executed more than three people. Many legal experts say that trend is likely to continue.

Indeed, said David R. Dow, a law professor at the University of Houston who has represented death row inmates, the day is not far off when essentially all executions in the United States will take place in Texas.

“The reason that Texas will end up monopolizing executions,” he said, “is because every other state will eliminate it de jure, as New Jersey did, or de facto, as other states have.”

The article goes on to point out that even while an ever greater percentage of all U.S. executions now take place in Texas, the numbers of new death sentences are declining here in Texas as they have been across the country:

In the 10 years ending in 2004, Texas condemned an average of 34 prisoners each year — about 15 percent of the national total. In the last three years, as the number of death sentences nationwide dropped significantly, from almost 300 in 1998 to about 110 in 2007, the number in Texas has dropped along with it, to 13 — or 12 percent.

The big difference though is that in Texas execution dates are set by convicting courts at the request of district attorneys and in Texas there are some DAs who have lots of execution dates set, such as Chuck Rosenthal in Harris County.

“Any sane prosecutor who is involved in capital litigation will really be ambivalent about it,” said Joshua Marquis, the district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore., and a vice president of the National District Attorneys Association. He said the families of murder victims suffer needless anguish during what can be decades of litigation and multiple retrials.

“We’re seeing fewer executions,” Mr. Marquis added. “We’re seeing fewer people sentenced to death. People really do question capital punishment. The whole idea of exoneration has really penetrated popular culture.”

As a consequence, Mr. Dieter said, “we’re simply not regularly using the death penalty as a country.”

So while the number of executions in Texas been relatively constant, averaging 23, the state’s share of total executions nationwide has steadily increased: from 32 percent in 2005 to 45 percent in 2006 to 62 percent in 2007.

Posted on December 25th, 2007 by admin
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Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is retiring. He was first elected in 1976. The next DA in Travis County should reflect how the Travis County community’s feelings on the death penalty have evolved since 1976 and pledge that the death penalty is off the table within Travis County.

Last October when Paul Burka first reported that Earle may be retiring, Burka wrote that “a DA is supposed to be the conscience of the community”, which brings up the issue of to what extent the conscience of the community in Travis County has changed since 1976.

We expect it has changed enough that any person who seeks the Democratic nomination for Travis County District Attorney in 2008 is going to have to seek the support of voters within a community whose conscience does not include support for the Texas death penalty. Of course, there are voters here who support the death penalty in theory, but there are many more whose theoretical support is trumped by their disgust with how the death penalty operates in Texas. And in Travis County, there is also a substantial bloc of voters who reject the death penalty both in theory and as it is practiced.

We are certain that a big majority of Democratic voters, if not all voters, in Travis County believe that the death penalty system in Texas is broken.

There is a precedent already in Texas for a district attorney to declare a county-wide moratorium on death penalty prosecutions. The Nueces County District Attorney’s Office put a hold on seeking the death penalty in capital murder cases last October in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to hear a case that questions whether lethal injection is cruel and unusual punishment.

But we expect the people of Travis County know that the problems with the death penalty system are bigger and deeper than just the issue of how a lethal injection is administered. The Texas death penalty system is riddled with problems from start to finish, from the initial investigation and arrest, the process used to decide whether to seek the death penalty, the actual prosecution and defense of a capital trial, the appeals process and the manner in which an execution is finally carried out.

The most fundamental problem is perhaps an inability to distinguish with certainty whether a person is guilty or innocent. If a system can not ensure that the guilty are convicted and the innocent protected, then the death penalty should be off the table. The need for local prosecutors to impose a moratorium on death penalty prosecutions is particularly great because of the failure of state leaders to enact a moratorium and create a commission to study the death penalty. In fact, the state legislature would not even create an innocence commission.

We are sure that the people of Travis County are very comfortable with life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty. Any candidate who seeks to become district attorney in Travis County should pledge not to seek the death penalty. Life without parole is a valid alternative. In a contested Democratic primary in Travis County, a candidate who acknowledges that the death penalty system in Texas is riddled with problems and puts innocent people at risk of execution is likely to be rewarded with votes.

Posted on December 25th, 2007 by admin
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