Naked City

On May 15, the Texas Senate passed SB 1678 by Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, which reorganizes and redefines the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles -- and also approved an amendment offered by Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, that would change the way the board handles decisions in death-penalty cases.

Ellis' amendment would mandate that the BPP actually meet in person when deciding death-penalty cases. Currently, each of the 18 board members merely casts his or her vote by phone or fax. "This amendment will help to prevent innocent people from being executed," said Ellis in a press release. "If the board is going to make a decision whether someone lives or dies, they should at least have to hold a meeting."

Whitmire's bill collapses the current 18-member BPP and its separate policy-making arm into a pared-down seven-member group. The board itself would be supplemented by a handful of parole commissioners who could review more routine parole matters. In theory the seven members -- appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate -- would each represent a different region of the state and would each be supported in that region by two commissioners, who would join the board member to form the standard three-member parole hearing panels. But only the seven-member BPP itself would meet to hear and vote on more serious cases -- including clemency bids on death-penalty cases.