www.heralddemocrat.com/articles/2007/01/14/Texas_news/state10.txt

Texas will consider death penalty for repeat sexual predators


AUSTIN — Texas lawmakers are talking tough about cracking down on sexual
predators who prey on children. Some propose the death penalty for repeat
offenders, potentially creating hundreds more death row inmates in a state
that already executes more than any other. Other ideas include mandatory
long sentences for first-time offenders or eliminating probation.

But opposition is flaring from unexpected sources: prosecutors and victim
advocates.

They fear some of the proposals would make it harder to get convictions and,
perhaps, put children in even more danger by giving molesters incentive to
kill the only potential witness to their crimes.

And there’s the question of whether the death penalty in sex offenses is
even constitutional.

“We support the intent,” said Torie Camp of the Texas Association Against
Sexual Assault. “We’re concerned about the unintended consequences.”

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican who won a second four-year term, has
led the charge for tougher penalties for child molesters, calling for a
25-year minimum sentence after the first conviction when a victim is less
than 14 and the death penalty option for repeat offenders.

“The idea is to prevent these kinds of crimes,” said Dewhurst spokesman Rich
Parsons. “It sends a clear signal and maybe these monsters will think twice
before committing a crime.”

Gov. Rick Perry, also a Republican, said Texas is a “tough on crime” state
and he’s open to tougher penalties, including the death penalty.

A recent case in West Texas will likely fan the debate.

Dwayne Dale Billings, 21, a registered sex offender, was charged with
aggravated sexual assault of a 9-year-old autistic girl who went missing in
Odessa earlier this month. She was found alive in his home.

Proponents want Texas to join states cracking down with tough “Jessica’s
Laws”, named after a girl who was abducted and killed in Florida, and become
one of a handful that could put some repeat offenders to death.

Sen. John Whitmire, chairman of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, said
Texas is already tough on sex offenders.

Crime victim advocates worry the death penalty may lead to more murder
victims. Child sex cases often have no witness other than the victim.

“If the punishment for raping a child and raping and killing are exactly the
same,” Camp said, “the rapist may kill so that witness is no longer there.”

In family cases, a child molested by a parent or grandparent may be
pressured not to testify if the perpetrator faces a long prison sentence or
the death penalty, Camp said.

The death penalty raises a key constitutional issue.

In 1977, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a death sentence for a Georgia man
convicted of raping a woman, calling it an “excessive penalty for the
rapist, who as such, does not take human life.”

Even so, Florida, Montana, Louisiana, Oklahoma and South Carolina have
already passed new death penalty laws for sex offenses against children,
said Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Resource Center in
Washington, D.C.

No one has been executed under the laws, but one Louisiana inmate is on
death row for the rape of an 8-year-old girl. That case is still being
reviewed by state and federal appeals courts, Dieter said.

Dieter and legal experts say it is unclear whether the Supreme Court would
make a distinction between an adult or child victim when considering the
death penalty in a sex case.

Parsons said Dewhurst’s office believes a state law could be tailored
specifically to deal with child victims and survive court challenges.

Many prosecutors are wary of tinkering with the state’s death penalty
system.

“Change can bring unintended consequences which may not look like anything
until some smart lawyer picks up on it,” said Shannon Edmonds, spokesman for
the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.

“Change a comma and it’s going to be the basis for an appeal,” Edmonds said.
“All it takes is one little problem to grind the whole system to a halt.”

Whitmire said if the death penalty proposals being considered today were
already in the law, 2,900 current prison inmates could be facing the death
sentence. Texas already has nearly 400 inmates on death row.

“We’d have to build a lot of execution chambers,” Whitmire said.

Prosecutors and victims groups instead want lawmakers to expand limits on
witness testimony in sex cases and make it easier to prosecute ongoing
abuse.


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