Following Gov. Rick Perry’s unprecedented commutation of Kenneth Foster’s death sentence, an inmate convicted of murder under the Texas Law of Parties, legislators have proposed changes to the controversial law.
The Law of Parties allows defendants accused of capital offenses to be sentenced to death if jurors believe the defendant anticipated the offense, regardless of whether he or she actually committed the crime.
A bill authored by state Rep. Terri Hodge, D-Dallas, which passed the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee on Tuesday would prohibit juries from sentencing defendants found guilty under the Law of Parties to death. It also requires defendants in capital felony cases to have separate trials.
In the committee hearing, six representatives voted for the bill, while two voted against it. Two representatives abstained from voting, and one was not present.
“The case of Kenneth Foster and Jeffery Wood made a lot of national attention,” said Clint Magee, Hodge’s chief-of-staff. “It kind of made sense that this is something we need to look at.”
If passed, the bill will take effect Sept. 1 and will not apply to those convicted under the Law of Parties prior to that date. Magee said there are other punishment options for capital offenses and that the bill does not determine how courts should punish convicts otherwise.
“The death penalty is reserved for the worst of the worst,” he said. “You have someone who is sentenced to death when they didn’t actually kill someone.”
Rob Owen, a clinical professor of law at UT, said the Law of Parties could cause lay jurors to apply the legal standard too broadly and could lead to the condemnation of a defendant who did not commit murder but who the jury believes should have anticipated the murder.
“Limiting the application of the death penalty to those who actually kill — as is presently the practice in, for example, the state of Virginia — will prevent such injustices, and I think is a commendable idea,” he said.
Steve Hall, director of The StandDown Texas Project, said he was against the Law of Parties and in favor of Hodge’s bill.
“There’s no doubt that there has been injustice because of it,” he said. “Governor Perry recognized that when he commuted the sentence of Kenneth Foster and called on the Legislature to look at the issue.”
Attorney Rusty Hubbarth, vice president of Justice For All, a victim’s rights group, said that anyone involved in a murder should be held accountable and subject to the death penalty.
“The Law of Parties has a very sound basis in that anyone who is involved in the murder is just as guilty, whether it’s the driver in a robbery or murder-for-hire,” he said.
Hubbarth said that the bill should not become law because death sentences reflect the will of the jury, which hears the evidence presented in court and is therefore able to weigh the culpability of a defendant.
“That is the cornerstone of the American judicial system,” he said.
