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After three decades (and a billion dollars wasted), Penry gets a life sentence

By Douglas A. Berman

The AP here details remarkable final chapter to an infamous and telling Texas capital punishment story:The state will not seek the death penalty against convicted killer Johnny Paul Penry in an agreement that will require Penry to serve three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, officials said Friday.  Polk County Criminal District Attorney William Lee Hon reached the agreement with attorneys for Penry, who was convicted of raping and fatally stabbing a woman at her home in Livingston in 1979.... The agreement means Penry's case will not have to go back to a jury to consider his punishment for a fourth time. In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court, acting on an appeal from the Texas Attorney General's Office, refused to reinstate Penry's death sentence, clearing the way for a new penalty phase...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on February 17, 2008 (boomark / email).