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Harris County, TX Crime Lab Scandal
Special NCADP Alert
Texas
With a crime lab scandal exploding beyond control, it is time to tell the state of Texas to stand down on further executions.
The state already has executed four people this month, and is scheduled to execute Dominique Green Tuesday evening. Six more executions are scheduled in November, one in December and four in January.
Many prominent Texans, including former Gov. Mark White, Houston Police Chief Harrold Hurtt, and state senator John Whitmire - all death penalty proponents - have nonetheless called for a moratorium on executions out of Harris County.
Why? Because of what one newspaper called the wretched work of the Houston Police Department's crime lab.
In November 2002, the lab suspended its DNA testing because of strong doubts about its accuracy. Later, additional concerns arose regarding the department?s ballistics and toxicology testing. Then, just this past summer, it was revealed that Houston crime lab analysts erred in tagging and storing evidence in 8,000 criminal cases, including a number of death penalty cases.
There is no alternative but to halt executions immediately pending further study.
"There's no harm in waiting, and there could be enormous wrong in not waiting," wrote the Austin American-Statesman. ?"o one should be executed for a crime he or she did not commit. Not even in Texas."
Please write Gov. Rick Perry and urge him to call for an immediate moratorium on executions in Texas.
