The speaker of the Texas House included Rep Leach’s law of parties bill on his list of priority criminal justice bills. The bill would prohibit the death penalty in law of parties prosecutions.
Both Rep Jeff Leach’s and Rep Harold Dutton’s separate bills to prohibit the death penalty in law of parties cases have passed the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and will now go to the Calendars Committee to be voted on whether to be sent to the full House for a vote. The votes on both were 7-2.
The Law of Parties bill by Rep Leach has several co-authors now, including two more Republicans, Rep. Smithee and Rep. Patterson. Rep. Dutton also signed on to the Leach bill. https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/Authors.aspx…
Leach 01/25/2021
Thompson, Senfronia 04/15/2021
Dutton 04/15/2021
Smithee 04/15/2021
Coauthors (2) Date Signed On
Ordaz Perez 03/24/2021
Patterson 04/12/2021
Texas State Rep Jeff Leach, a Republican, in this video makes a persuasive argument for his bill to end the death penalty in law of parties cases at the hearing of the Texas House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence on April 6, 2021. He also made it clear that it is his legislative intent that the bill, if passed, would result in removing people like Jeff Wood who are already on death row because of the law of parties. His remarks should convince enough Republicans to support the bill that it could pass the committee and the entire House. He would not be testifying and would not have filed his bill if family members like Terri Been, Jeff Wood’s sister, and other people had not contacted him in 2016 about Jeff’s case to ask him to sign a clemency letter.
More on Jeff Wood’s cases at http://savejeffwood.com/
Join the ACS DC, Chicago, and Minneapolis-St. Paul Lawyer Chapters and the Texas Moratorium Network for a presentation by exonerated death-row inmate Juan Melendez.
Tuesday, April 6, 2021 7:30PM – 8:30PM EDT
Juan Melendez spent nearly 18 years on Florida’s death row for a crime he did NOT commit. In January 2002, he became the 99th death-row inmate to be exonerated and released since 1973. His case highlights persistent and pervasive problems in America’s death penalty system. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about Juan’s struggle for freedom, and his inspirational story of human resilience, courage, faith and forgiveness. Juan’s presentation will follow a Q&A session featuring capital punishment experts Richard Dieter and Judi Caruso.
Featuring:
Judi Caruso, Attorney, New Mexico Law Office of the Public Defender; Former Board Member, Witness to Innocence
Richard Dieter, Former Executive Director, Death Penalty Information Center of DC; Board Member, Witness to Innocence
Juan Melendez, Exonerated Death-Row Inmate
Moderated by:
Hooman Hedayati, Member and Attorney, Texas Moratorium Network Board; Member, ACS DC Lawyer Chapter Board of Directors; ACS Next Generation Leader
The House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence will hold a hearing on Tuesday April 6, 2021 to consider bills filed by State Rep Harold Dutton and another filed by State Rep Jeff Leach that would prohibit death sentences under the law of parties. People can attend the hearing which is set to start at 1PM in the Texas Capitol or anytime before the hearing starts they may submit written testimony that will be distributed to all committee members.
You can read more about the case of Jeff Wood, who is on Texas death row under the law of parties even though he did not kill anyone, plan to kill anyone, help kill anyone or intend to kill anyone at http://savejeffwood.com/.
COMMITTEE: Criminal Jurisprudence TIME & DATE: 1:00 PM or upon final adjourn./recess or bill referral if permission grantedTuesday, April 6, 2021 PLACE: E2.012 CHAIR: Rep. Nicole Collier
For those persons who will be testifying, information for in-person witness registration, can be found here:
https://mytxlegis.capitol.texas.gov/HWRSPublic/About.aspx
A live video broadcast of this hearing will be available here:
https://house.texas.gov/video-audio/
Instructions related to public access to the meeting location and health
and safety protocols for attending this meeting are available here:
https://house.texas.gov/committees/public-access-house-committee-meetings/
Texas residents who wish to electronically submit comments related to
agenda items on this notice without testifying in person can do so until
the hearing is adjourned by visiting:
- Texas Moratorium Network (TMN) is a non-profit organization with the primary goal of mobilizing statewide support for a moratorium on executions in Texas. Significant death penalty reform in Texas, including a moratorium on executions, is a viable goal if the public is educated on the death penalty system and is encouraged to contact their elected representatives to urge passage of moratorium legislation.
We hope that you will join us in this fight for fairness and social justice.Please join our email list and become one of the more than 20,000 people receiving information through our network.
