TIME TO STOP EXECUTIONS IN TEXAS: SAN ANTONIO DEFENSE
For Immediate Release
August 19, 2002 Contact :Ron Aaron
210- 493-8067 or
210-415-2687 (Mobile)
Kimberly Young - 210 227-2889
TIME TO STOP EXECUTIONS IN TEXAS: SAN ANTONIO DEFENSE
ATTORNEY KIM YOUNG SAYS DEATH PENALTY UNFAIR AND DISCRIMINATORY
"Odds are we've executed innocent people."
San Antonio, Texas - Criminal Defense Attorney Kimberly Young today said itís time to stop executions in the Texas. And she urged passage of the Innocence Protection Act which is currently pending in Congress.
Calling the death penalty unfair and discriminatory, Young said, "I doubt whether it can ever be fixed and made fair." She noted, "More than 3,700 inmates live on death row in Americaís prisons. Most are guilty as charged. But some are not."
A former prosecutor, Young asked, "How can a convicted murderer be innocent? Doesnít our system of justice guarantee that every person charged with a crime is considered innocent until proven guilty, no matter the alleged offense? Don't prosecutors have to prove a defendant's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt? If not, doesnít the accused go free? That's the foundation of our system of justice. Right?
"In theory, perhaps. But opponents and proponents of the death penalty agree the system is broken. Innocent people -- especially if they are poor -- are sometimes convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Guilty people who are wealthy rarely if ever are sent to death row. And folks who kill people of color are less likely to find themselves on death row than those who kill Anglos," she said.
"We know a lot about executions in Texas. As the Texas Moratorium Network recently reported, we lead the nation by far in the number of executions. Since 1976, when new Supreme Court standards governing executions went into effect after a four-year hiatus, there have been 782 executions in the United States. Texas performed 272 of those executions -- about 35 percent of the national total. Yet Texas has only 7.4 percent of the nation's entire population.
"Odds are that one or more of those persons executed in Texas were innocent. In fact, 102 death row inmates nationwide have been freed from death row in recent years based on evidence not available to them at trial. That is why many in Texas are calling for a moratorium on executions. And, that is why Congress is reexamining at all levels the ways in which the death penalty is carried out.
Young said, "The proposed federal Innocence Protection Act would ensure convicted offenders the opportunity to prove their innocence through DNA testing, facilitate States in providing competent legal representation at every stage of a death penalty prosecution and provide the public with more reliable and detailed information regarding the administration of the nation's capital punishment laws. Republicans and Democrats, Liberals and Conservatives, supporters and opponents of the death penalty favor passage of the bill. It should be enacted by Congress and signed by the President this year."
She added, "Friends and acquaintances often ask me how I sleep when I represent clients who may be guilty. I respond that the clients who really keep me awake at night are those convicted of crimes they did not commit. When it comes to the death penalty, that's a result none of us should want or tolerate." # # #
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