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Crime and Punsihment: 1 Dies, 1 Lives

By Steve Hall

That the title of an Austin American-Statesman editorial.  It appeared in the Saturday edition.  LINKTwo criminals, both with guns fired at the scene. Two shooting victims. One dies, one does not. Two trials, both for capital murder because of a state law that makes all participants in a crime that includes a slaying potentially just as guilty as the triggerman. For whatever reason, one jury sentences the man who killed someone to life in prison. For whatever reason, another jury sentences the man who didn't kill anyone to death by injection. The latter case winds its way through the courts and to the governor's desk. The courts uphold the conviction and sentence. But, en route to the governor's desk, a panel of gubernatorial appointees recommends commutation from death to life in prison for the man who did not kill anybody...continue to full post

Full post as published by StandDown Texas Project on November 23, 2009 (boomark / email).