| Senator offers two versions of life without parole bill 04/05/2001 Associated Press AUSTIN – Sen. Eddie Lucio wants to let juries decide whether a defendant should be sentenced to life without parole so badly that he has drafted two versions of the bill to get it passed out of committee.
One version, drafted more for defense attorneys, would allow juries to decide whether a person convicted of capital murder should receive the death penalty, life without parole or life with parole.
Another version that is geared more to prosecutors would strike the life with parole option.
Law allows juries two options for capital murder convictions: death or a "life" sentence that allows for parole after 40 years.
Most prosecutors at a Senate Criminal Justice hearing Wednesday said they did not support changing existing law.
"The current system is a fair system," said Bell County District Attorney Lon Curtis. "It has been held constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court."
Changes to it, he argued, could provoke constitutional challenges that could take years to resolve and "could result in the court holding that what the Legislature is being asked to do is unconstitutional" because it could give the jurors too much discretion in deciding the sentence.
"That's a complete red herring," said Keith Hampton of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. "There is nothing unconstitutional to giving a jury three choices."
Both sides agreed that convicted murderers already are serving what amounts to a life without parole sentence because they are not being released on parole.
Tony Fabelo, the executive director of the Criminal Justice Policy Council, said a life without parole sentence would barely affect Texas, with the state having to build only 225 more beds over the next 35 years.
He said most of the prisoners who are given life with parole will not live long enough to be eligible for parole. The average age for a person to be sentenced to prison is 29.
Offenders who receive life without parole instead of the death penalty will serve an average of 25 years in prison beyond the point that they would have been executed, he said.
Lucio said his measure is not to reduce the number of executions in Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, where six have been put to death this year.
"I support the death penalty," said Lucio, who tried to push a life without parole bill last session. "Frankly, there are some crimes where I suppose justice can only be served with the death penalty."
Lucio said he favors giving jurors three options, but said he just wanted to see the bill passed through the committee, which left it pending Wednesday.
Rep. Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, is sponsoring a bill in the House that would allow jurors to choose the death penalty, life without parole and life with parole.
"Juries sometime may have reservations about sentencing someone to death but they feel that person is so dangerous they never want (him) to walk among the community again," Hinojosa said.
With his bill, they will have the option of life without parole.
Hinojosa's bill passed out of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, which he chairs.
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