Two lawmakers want to give juries the option of sentencing...

Two lawmakers want to give juries the option of sentencing capital murderers to life in prison with no chance of parole.
Current Texas law allows a jury to sentence a person convicted of capital murder to either death by injection or life in prison, which in Texas means an inmate can be eligible for parole after serving 40 years.
Texas is one of four states that does not offer life without parole. Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, sponsor of the proposal, Senate Bill 348, said Texas juries should have such an option.
"This measure would assure every citizen that their neighbourhoods would be safe from dangerous criminals in cases where the jury does not impose the death penalty," Lucio said.
Similar measures in past legislative sessions were opposed by prosecutors who believed a life-without-parole option would make it harder to get death sentences in capital murder cases.
Lucio, who said he supports the death penalty, said his proposal would not deter jurors from selecting the death penalty. He said the third option would provide victims' families closure, knowing that the murderer will spend his or her life behind bars.
Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston, filed a similar bill, House Bill 590, because he said it's important to provide jurors an option.
"I think that juries ought to have a way to do something other than sentence a person to death," Dutton said. "Right now, that's not available in Texas . . . because we've always had that sort of kill 'em mentality."