One Error Is One Too Many: Review and fix Texas' death-row system

Dallas Morning News | Editorials:

"Texas leaders have long asserted that the state's renowned death chamber has been error-free since reinstatement of capital punishment. Now a lone voice convincingly challenges that claim."

Of all the reasons in favor of the death penalty, claiming the system is error-free is the most outrageously dishonest. Many defendents cannot afford a legal defense. In the case of Ruben Cantu, his appeals attorney said she could not afford to hire an investigator to interview her client's alleged accomplice despite receiving a note from him that the 'case with Ruben is real messed up.' In other cases, the defendent's representation is incompetent. Calvin Burdine's attorney slept during much of his trial. In still other cases, such as that of Ricardo Aldape Guerra, evidence of police or prosecutorial misconduct led to his conviction being overturned on appeal. And in some cases, new scientific techniques, not available during the original trial, lead to reversals years later.

Dozens of people have been released from death row when evidence of their innocence emerged, many times as a result of efforts not available to most death row inmates. How can anyone claim that no other errors have avoided detection? For anyone to claim that the legal system in Texas, or any state, or any legal system devised by human society, has always been error-free, and will always be error-free, is grossly offensive. There are valid arguments that can be made in favor of the death penalty. This isn't one of them.