4 September 2002. One of the Assassination Eyeball series.
Source of maps and photos: Mapquest.com (color) and TerraServer USGS photos (monochrome).

Thanks to C, this has revised from first offering which showed the Wynne prison unit west of Huntsville, not the death chamber unit shown below.

http://www.santegidio.org/it/pdm/news/18_10_00.htm

A system under attack

In recent years, the death penalty process in Texas has come under constant attack. The State Bar of Texas and the Texas Civil Rights Project, a nonprofit group that works to protect civil rights issue in Texas, have called for a moratorium. But pro-death penalty groups say the system is working fine.

Dudley Sharp, of Justice for All, said with only about 15 percent of death penalty verdicts in Texas overturned by the state and federal courts, it proves that arguments of racial bias, incompetence by attorneys or innocence are not holding water. He said the study is "laughable" because it represents the views of criminal defense lawyers, not objective observers.

"They are totally overblown and do not reflect the reality of the system. ... Are there individual cases where Texas could have done a better job? Of course. That exists in every state. ... Attorneys don't like their claims being rejected. That's when they go to the court of public opinion," Sharp said.

But Marcus counters that "Draconian" limitations on federal review of death penalty sentences and elected state judges who do not want to overturn the cases are the real reasons so few convictions are reversed in Texas. He said that most death penalty cases -- including the ones in which lawyers have slept through the trial -- are overturned at the federal court level.

Congressman calls for moratorium

The barrage of criticism leveled at the Texas death penalty system has even led some its supporters to demand a moratorium on executions so the process could be studied. U.S. Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez, who favors the death penalty, is backing legislation in Congress calling for national moratorium on executions. "We don't see a problem with taking a break to make sure the system is done right," Rodriguez, a Democrat, told APBnews.com.

A 'runaway train'

Sam Millsap, a former district attorney in Bexar County who sent several men to death row in the mid 1980s, also is asking for a moratorium, calling the system a "runaway train." "The situation that exits today in Texas can only be described as embarrassing," he said. Before another person is sent to death row or executed, the state must make the post-trial review process fairer for poor defendants, he said.

Record-setting pace

Under the Bush administration, 145 people have been executed in Texas. Since 1982, the state has executed 232 people -- by far the highest number in the nation. Texas sent 37 people to its death house at Huntsville State Prison in 1997, the most in the state's history. But with 33 convicted killers executed so far in 2000 and six others scheduled before the end of the year, Texas could break its own record. The state has 446 convicted murderers on death row. Millsap said he doubted that things would change quickly in Texas, or that the latest report would suddenly shift public opinion. "The attitude among far too many people is that maybe the guy didn't commit the crime, but he's a bad son of a bitch and ought to be executed, anyway," Millsap said

Eyeballing the Huntsville Bush Assassination Site