death penalty news Apirl 19, 2005
TEXAS: Senator eyes more power for new panel -- Council would be able to probe innocence claims under Ellis' substitute bill Sen. Rodney Ellis wants to put some teeth into Gov. Rick Perry's recently created Criminal Justice Advisory Council by giving the panel power to investigate innocence claims. But Perry's office said the council, which has not been named, is not designed to look at individual cases. At a Senate Criminal Justice Committee meeting today, Ellis will offer a substitute for Senate Bill 1033, legislation to create a Texas Innocence Commission. Ellis has filed similar bills in the past two sessions. The substitute would give the governor's advisory council power to subpoena witnesses and documents to investigate possible wrongful convictions. "What I'm trying to do is strengthen the positive moves that the governor has made," said Ellis, D-Houston. But Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said Perry created the council to look at changes that might need to be made in the state's criminal justice system to keep pace with advances in forensic science. "The focus of the governor's criminal justice council is not on individual cases but on bigger picture issues," said Walt. Ellis said it's possible for the council to look at individual cases as well as systemic changes. "The individual cases are what give you some sense of what can be done to improve the overall system," Ellis said. Walt said that the advisory council won't be named until after the legislative session because it will include some lawmakers. When announcing the council last month, Perry said it will represent a broad perspective including law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys and victims rights advocates. Barry Scheck, whose New York-based Innocence Project has helped clear several Texas inmates, will testify in favor of the bill. Scheck said Monday that he will highlight two cases in which there are serious concerns that unreliable forensic science led to executions. Capital murder One case involves Claude Howard Jones, who was executed in December 2000 for the capital murder of a liquor store owner. At trial, a Texas Department of Public Safety analyst testified that his microscopic examination of a hair found on the store counter was consistent with Jones. But before Jones was executed, his lawyers asked then-Gov. George W. Bush to stay the execution so that a DNA test could be performed on the hair. Scheck said that such a test was not conducted. He said that without the hair evidence, the prosecution had a circumstantial case that relied upon an accomplice's testimony. Arson case The second case involves Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in February 2004 for setting a fire that killed his three children. Scheck said Willingham's case is similar to that of Ernest Willis, who was freed last year after 17 years on death row. A federal judge found that scientific evidence of arson was faulty and ordered the state to either retry Willis or set him free. An arson expert who reviewed Willingham's case concluded that the fire was likely accidental, Scheck said. He said Willingham's attorney submitted an affidavit from that expert, Gerald Hurst, to Perry seeking to stop the execution. Prosecutors, though, pointed to other evidence against Willingham presented at his trial: a jailhouse informant who claimed Willingham confessed to him and witnesses who said Willingham did not try hard enough to save his children. Walt said at the time of Willingham's execution that Perry carefully considered "all of the factors." (source: Houston Chronicle)
