Look who made an appearance in a death-penalty column in the Chronicle this week:
Texas’ method of executing capital murderers could come under scrutiny in a courtroom as the result of what some legal observers call a precedent-setting ruling by a federal judge in Houston.
U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes this month denied a motion by the state Attorney General’s Office to dismiss death row inmate Charles Raby’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of lethal injection on the grounds that it is cruel and unusual punishment.
Raby’s lawyer says the judge’s ruling has cleared the way for Raby to gain access to state documents and employees in an effort to prove that the chemicals used in the lethal injection process cause a condemned killer to “suffer an excruciatingly painful and protracted death.”
“As far as I know, this is the first (lethal injection challenge) case in Texas where the motion to dismiss has not been granted,” said Kevin Mohr, Raby’s attorney.
Kathryn Kase, a representative of the Texas Defender Service, which provides legal counsel to several Texas death row inmates, agrees with Mohr’s assessment.
“To my knowledge, there is no court in Texas that has let it get this far,” said Kase, who is married to Houston Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen. “This is a very, very important ruling.”
One would have thought that Steve McVicker might have been able to find someone else to quote, but there you have it.
Jeff Cohen’s newspaper has been busy with the death penalty this week. Gossip columnist Rick Casey was dispatched to drive home the impression that an innocent man has been executed in Texas:
I want to make one thing clear. [Bexar County District Attorney Susan] Reed is not just focused on going after Moreno. Before she mentioned him in our Friday conversation, she said, “If your story is correct and (Cantu) is innocent, that means there is another murderer out there.”
And she told reporter Olsen that if the story is correct, it demonstrates a nonfunctioning justice system.
While that’s a nice clarification from Casey, the fact is he spends most of his column focused on what Reed will do if indeed Cantu was innocent. The story leaves the impression that of course he was innocent — now all that matters is what is to be done about it. In reality, Cantu’s innocence has yet to be determined — something the Chronicle‘s reporters, editorialists, and even gossip columnists need to keep in mind.
UPDATE (12-05-2005): Owen Courreges posts some very good questions about the Cantu affair.
