Death penalty in Texas: Williamson County lawmaker files bill to remove

TEXAS - A Central Texas lawmaker is making a push to get the state to abolish the death penalty.

Williamson County State Rep. John Bucy III (D) filed the bill for the upcoming Texas Legislative session.

"I think I've been opposed to the death penalty my whole life as I've thought about its use, and should it exist in our society," said Bucy. "Financially, if you just want to look at it economically, we spend more money to execute than to keep someone in prison, so it's really a lose lose situation with a high risk stake if we get it wrong."

The legislation comes as the Texas Supreme Court ruled that a new execution date for Robert Roberson can move forward.

He was put on death row in the early 2000s after his two-year-old daughter died. He was convicted on a shaken baby syndrome argument, but his lawyers argue he's innocent and point to updated science.

"I feel like I've gotten more engaged with this Robert Roberson case and wanted to make sure that we're continuing this conversation about the lack of humanity tied to the death penalty," said Bucy. 

Kristin Houle Cuellar, the Executive Director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty, said since 1982, Texas has executed nearly 600 people.

"Which is far more than any other state in the nation," said Houle Cuellar. "We have quite a reputation when it comes to the use of the death penalty in Texas."

In the last decade, Houle Cuellar said death sentences are slowly dropping. She believes that’s partially due to the 2005 introduction of life without parole.

"Prosecutors have used that discretion in opting not to seek the death penalty," said Houle Cuellar. "Even in about 30 percent of the cases that they've taken to trial where they've sought the death penalty, jurors have rejected it."

Multiple Texas lawmakers have tried abolishing the death penalty since 2007. All of them failed, but Bucy thinks there's enough momentum to try again.

"While it's an uphill battle to end the death penalty in Texas, we've seen the number of executions go down," said Bucy.  "I think sentiment is changing, and I also think as we see these specific cases come to life, and we start learning the specific stories, people are going to get more and more concerned about the possibility of getting it wrong."

State Senator Sarah Eckhardt and State Rep Joe Moody have filed similar bills, but of course, they'll have to get the vote of approval from fellow lawmakers when the legislative session begins early next year.

Also making national headlines is death row inmate Melissa Lucia. Last month, a judge found that she was innocent in the death of her two-year-old daughter who died in 2007. 

There was a brief period where execution was illegal in Texas. According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled capital punishment was "cruel and unusual punishment" in 1972. Texas commuted all death sentences to life and cleared death row by 1973.

Not long after, the state revised the penal code to include the death penalty again. In 1982, the state executed its first inmates under the new death penalty using lethal injection.

Houle Cuellar adds that Harris, Dallas, Tarrant and Bexar counties lead the state in death sentences and more than half of all Texas counties have never issued a death sentence.