I am a prosecutor who has tried a death penalty case where the defendants were later exonerated. Based on this experience, I strongly urge you to oppose the provisions in the House version of the Patriot Act Reauthorization (H.R. 3199) that would change longstanding trial practices designed to protect against wrongful execution
I am a prosecutor who has tried a death penalty case where the defendants were later exonerated. Based on this experience, I strongly urge you to oppose the provisions in the House version of the Patriot Act Reauthorization (H.R. 3199) that would change longstanding trial practices designed to protect against wrongful execution.
In 1987, I was first assistant district attorney for McLennan County, Texas, which comprises the city of Waco and several smaller municipalities. That year, in separate trials, I prosecuted Joe Sidney Williams, Jr., and Calvin Washington for a capital murder that had taken place in Waco the previous year. Both men were convicted. Fourteen years later, in 2001, Mr. Williams and Mr. Washington were both exonerated by DNA evidence that conclusively proved their innocence. Mr. Washington was pardoned by Governor Perry, and Mr. Williams had his innocence proclaimed by court order. This was the worst experience of my professional life. It still haunts me.
I asked for the death penalty for Joe Sidney Williams and Calvin Washington. In Texas, after a jury returns a capital murder conviction, a death sentence is automatically imposed if the jurors unanimously vote yes on what are called special issues (there were two special issues in 1987, and three today). A lack of unanimity means an automatic life sentence. The juries that convicted Mr. Williams and Mr. Washington unanimously voted yes on one special issue but were divided on the other, resulting in life sentences for both men. This is the only part of these terrible trials that I do not still regret. Imagine how much worse this tragedy could have been if Calvin Washington and Joe Sidney Williams had been sentenced to death or, God forbid, put to death before their innocence could be proven.
I urge you to oppose the provisions in H.R. 3199, the House version of the Patriot Act Reauthorization, that would allow prosecutors in federal death penalty cases to re-impanel the sentencing juries and try again for death if the initial jury could not reach unanimous agreement.
If such a system had been in place in Texas in 1987, we very well may have relitigated the sentencing phases of Mr. Washington's and Mr. Williams's trials, and they might now be dead. Doubt of at least one juror in the sentencing phase of a capital case is doubt enough.
Sincerely,
Karen Amos
Attorney-at-Law
