78R9673 JLZ-D

By:  Dutton                                                       H.R. No. 559



R E S O L U T I O N
	WHEREAS, The State of Texas executed 33 individuals in 2002, 
nearly half of the total executions carried out in the United States 
that year; in the first 2-1/2 months of 2003 alone, Texas already 
has carried out 10 executions; and
	WHEREAS, Having executed 299 inmates since 1982, Texas was 
prevented from executing its 300th inmate by the United States 
Supreme Court on March 12, 2003, when the court stayed the scheduled 
execution of Delma Banks, Jr., pending a decision on whether to hear 
an appeal of his conviction; and
	WHEREAS, Mr. Banks's case is but one of several recent cases 
that have focused national attention on flaws in Texas' criminal 
justice system and that have cast grave doubts on the actual guilt 
of at least some of the individuals convicted by this system; and
	WHEREAS, The most recent example of a wrongful conviction 
based on glaring defects in the evidence presented at the trial 
occurred with the release of Josiah Sutton when retesting of the DNA 
evidence revealed that he was not the perpetrator of the crime of 
which he was accused; although not a capital case, Mr. Sutton's 
wrongful conviction has highlighted the misgivings many Texans have 
about the shortcomings in the state's criminal justice system, 
particularly as it affects many of the 448 convicted offenders 
currently on death row; and
	WHEREAS, While there may be lingering doubts about the 
convictions of some of the state's current death row inmates, 
doubts in other Texas capital cases already have been resolved with 
the exoneration of seven wrongly convicted individuals; indeed, 
there have been more than 100 exonerations nationwide since 1973, 
and the annual rate of release has increased significantly in the 
last 10 years, with 5 releases already in the first 2-1/2 months of 
2003; and
	WHEREAS, Those exonerations have amply demonstrated that a 
diligent review of cases, combined with advances in new 
technologies, rightly employed, can overturn miscarriages of 
justice and clear the names of those wrongly accused; and
	WHEREAS, The exonerations also make abundantly clear the 
imperative necessity to reform a fatally flawed system so as to 
assure all Texans that, while the truly guilty will be punished, the 
innocent will go free; now, therefore, be it
	RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 78th Texas 
Legislature, as a public acknowledgement of that necessity, hereby 
recognize March 25, 2003, as a "Day of Innocence" in Texas.