Death Chamber Unusually Quiet in Texas

Monroe, LA, News-Star ^ | 10-20-03 | Graczyk, Michael, AP

[Theodore R.]

Death Chamber Unusually Quiet in Texas

By MICHAEL GRACZYK Associated Press Writer

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) -- The state is in the midst of its longest break in executions in seven years, a lull some attribute to coincidence but others say may be due to recent changes affecting death row prisoners.

So far this year, 21 convicted killers have been put to death in the nation's busiest death chamber, the last in September. But no one is on Texas' execution calendar again until December, when four are planned in about a week's time. The last time the state went so long without an execution was from September 1996 to February 1997.

For death row inmate Ynobe Matthews, however, the two-month delay is nothing to celebrate. He is scheduled to die on Jan. 6 after dropping all his appeals.

"I suppose there will be more lined up for next year," said Matthews, who was convicted of abducting and strangling a 21-year-old woman in 2000. "It's a little too soon to say whether a trend is developed."

Some death penalty experts say the lag is a coincidence. Others say legal fights to halt executions of mentally retarded inmates may have slowed the pace.

At least six inmates this year successfully have delayed their punishment, sometimes hours before their scheduled executions, by citing mental retardation in appeals.

"The issue of mental retardation is obviously one issue that is slowing things down" in Texas, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. "It also may have been just a coincidence that so many were frontloaded in the first half of the year."

The U.S. Supreme Court last year ruled that it was against the law to execute the mentally retarded.

Roe Wilson, an assistant district attorney in Harris County, which has the most inmates on Texas' death row, attributes the slowdown to changes in state law that require inmates to receive a warning 90 days before an initial execution date is set. Though the new rules were passed in 1995, they are only now beginning to affect many cases reaching the end of their appeals.

Texas has accounted for more than one-third of the 875 executions in the United States since the Supreme Court brought back capital punishment in 1976. The state resumed capital punishment in 1982.

Jerry Strickland, a spokesman for the Texas Attorney General's Office, said the lull is a coincidence.

If the four inmates on the list for December are put to death, Texas would finish the year with 25 executions, compared with 33 last year and 17 in 2001. A record 40 were executed in 2000.

And if there's a slowing of the execution pace, there's no comparable reluctance by Texas juries to send convicted killers to death row. Last year, 36 capital murder convicts received the death penalty; 31 were handed down in 2001, and 30 in 2000.

"There's still so many cases," said Matthews, who was sent to death row in 2001. "It's still not over. They're still hunting for us."

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[SwinneySwitch]

"Some death penalty experts say the lag is a coincidence. Others say legal fights to halt executions of mentally retarded inmates may have slowed the pace."

Could it be the death penalty actually works?

[nmh]

A lull? By golly I've got a suggestion. Throw in some liberals.

Hmmmm am I really kidding? ;)

[nmh]

"Could it be the death penalty actually works? "

Me thinks it does. Murderers love to dish it out but don't want to take the same punishment (death) they coldly inflict on others. They're cowards.

[MeekOneGOP]

Here is a pic The Dallas Morning News put up with their AP article ...

Lull hits Texas' normally busy execution calendar

AP

From left: Richard Duncan, Billy Vickers, Kevin Zimmerman and Bobby Hines are all scheduled to be executed in December.

No one is on the state's execution calendar again until December - when four are planned in about a week's time. Some death-penalty experts say it's a coincidence. Others say legal fights to stop the executions of mentally retarded inmates may have slowed the pace.