The death penalty controversy sparked by the commutation...

The death penalty controversy sparked by the commutation of all 167 death row inmates in Illinois may spread to Texas if two bills filed last week pass the state Legislature.
The bills, filed by Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, both aim to end executions in Texas, at least temporarily. The first bill calls for the abolition of the death penalty in Texas by Sept. 1. The second would institute a two-year moratorium on executions and create the Texas Capital Punishment Commission to study death row convictions and correct inequities in the system.
"It will go nowhere. Absolutely nowhere, just like it should," said Dudley Sharp, resource director of Justice For All, a criminal justice advocacy organization.
"The majority of Texans believe, under certain circumstances, that it's appropriate to give the death sentence," Sharp said.
Edwin Colfax, director of the Illinois Death Penalty Education Project, is hopeful that an anti-death penalty bill will become law in Texas.
"I think that if people are successful in getting the word out about how the system works in practice, then its chances are good. We see that when people support the death penalty, they support it conceptually. But when they see it doesn't work in practice, they're much more likely to support moratorium and reform," Colfax said.
The Texas bills were filed three days before Illinois Gov. George Ryan emptied his state's death row.
A moratorium or repeal of the death penalty in Texas would dramatically reduce the number of executions in the United States. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 71 inmates were executed in the United States in 2002. Texas executed 33 people, about 46 percent of all executions nationwide. Texas currently has 452 inmates on death row, and 18 executions are currently scheduled for this year.