Bill to Curb Texas Executions Vetoed

Just hours before a ban on the execution of mentally retarded criminals would have become law, Texas Gov. Rick Perry stepped in with a veto Sunday afternoon.

The bill, aimed at softening Texas’ reputation as the nation’s most vigorous death penalty state, also would have given judges the power to decide the mental status of convicted killers.

Opponents argued the legislation was a menace to the state’s jury system and an invitation to excessive, inappropriate appeals. As it is, juries are supposed to consider the defendants’ mental capabilities when picking a punishment.

“This [bill] tells the citizens of this state, ‘We do not trust you to get it right,’ ” said Perry, flanked by prosecutors and family members of murder victims in the state Capitol on Sunday.

Perry maintains that none of the 247 convicted killers executed in the Texas death house since 1982 was mentally retarded.

“This legislation is not about whether to execute mentally retarded murderers,” the governor said. “We do not execute mentally retarded murderers. It’s about who makes the determination.”

Not everybody shares Perry’s certainty. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Texas has executed six retarded defendants since 1982.

“It gives us the appearance of being barbaric,” state Sen. Rodney Ellis said Sunday at a news conference.

“Gov. Perry had a historic opportunity to show the world that we are not only tough on crime, but fair and compassionate as well. He missed that opportunity,” the Houston Democrat said.

Texas courts are notoriously deadly--eight people have been executed so far this year. But Perry, who took over after former Gov. George W. Bush was elected president, defended Texas’ justice system Sunday. Juries can already hear evidence of insanity, he pointed out, as well as evidence that the defendant can’t tell the difference between right and wrong.

“Today, I wanted to clearly lay out that we do not execute the mentally retarded in Texas,” he said. “That is a fallacy.”

According to Ellis, who sponsored the legislation, the most recent execution of a mentally retarded inmate took place in August, when 33-year-old Oliver David Cruz died by lethal injection on a state gurney in Huntsville. Cruz was sentenced to die for the 1988 rape and stabbing death of a 24-year-old San Antonio woman. Then-Lt. Gov. Perry presided over that execution; Bush was out of the state.

Of the 38 states that use the death penalty, 15 have outlawed the execution of mentally retarded criminals. The Texas bill was modeled after one inked last week by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president’s brother.

If Perry had not acted Sunday, the bill would have become law without his signature. The governor said he would have signed a bill that allows juries, rather than judges, to decide a killer’s mental capabilities.

Perry’s decision comes just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new punishment trial for Texas death row inmate Johnny Paul Penry. Convicted of raping and murdering 22-year-old Pamela Moseley Carpenter more than two decades ago, Penry has told reporters he believes in Santa Claus. Lawyers for Penry say he has the mental capacity of a 6-year-old. In November, Penry was three hours away from death when the Supreme Court halted his execution.

In the fall, the high court will take up a North Carolina case to decide whether to ban the execution of the mentally retarded nationwide.