But Why Are Houstonians So Easily Shocked?
A Harris County Lawyer continues her (his?) excellent series on the inner workings of the District Attorney’s Office in Houston with “The Capital Murder Decision” which takes us through the process used to determine whether or not to seek the death penalty:
Harris County has long been synonymous with being the "Death Penalty Capital of the World" and it has always been pretty much the center of every debate on capital punishment since the 1970s.
Good opening – I’m glad to not have to debate that point, but let’s throw in some facts and figures just to prove that the nickname is more than well deserved, it’s literally true. If Harris County were a State, it would rank second to Texas and ahead of current number two Virginia in number of inmates executed since 1982, when Texas reinstated the death penalty.
One portion of the decision making process?
If a Defendant has priors, the prosecutor won't just order the Judgment and Sentence reflecting the conviction. They will order the offense report, the old file, and everything else that they possibly can to understand what happened on the prior offense.
Reading offense reports of priors is certainly appropriate. But let’s not forget the number one rule of offense reports: The police put in all the bad facts, and leave out anything mitigating or exculpatory. So if you want the worst possible take on an offense? Read the police report – several times preferably.
They often pull the Defendant's school records if he is young. They will talk to the victim's family members and discuss their feelings about the case.
Victim’s family members are rarely going to oppose the death penalty in a murder case. I hope I would – but frankly, I’m not sure. Actually, I think I’d want to kill the S.O.B. myself, but I wouldn’t want the government to do it. And I’m against the death penalty.
They will look at the offense itself and decide how bad the facts of the case-in-chief are. Sadly, in this day and age, a capital murder during a convenience store robbery doesn't really "shock the conscience" like it used to.
Now we get to the thesis of AHCL’s post. Harris County only asks jurors to execute in cases where the murder shocks the conscience.
But that still doesn’t come close to answering the question of why Harris County’s death penalty rate is so high. And it’s high – I should say the highest and by a long shot - by any metric: total executions, percentage of murder convictions where a sentence of death is imposed, number of capital cases indicted, etc. It’s the percentages of death sentences to murders that begs the next question:
Why are the consciences of Harris County prosecutors/jurors so easily shocked – compared to every other geographical region in the country with statistically significantly lower death penalty rates?
