The Secret Pardon
by Brandi Grissom
The Texas Tribune
March 19, 2010
Every couple of minutes, attorney Rob Owen glances nervously at the calendar in his office. Barring the intervention of the U.S. Supreme Court, a reprieve from the secretive Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is the last hope for his client, Hank Skinner, to avoid the poison-filled syringe that awaits him on Wednesday.
The seven-member board makes life-or-death decisions, recommending to the governor whether an execution should be delayed, called off or carried out. Yet it's one of the least transparent agencies in state government, making it all but impossible for Owen, or any other member of the public, to decipher how or why it makes decisions. The board doesn't have to hold public meetings on clemency cases like Skinner's. It's not required to give any reasons for its recommendations. Most times, the seven members simply fax in their votes. Without a majority vote, clemency is denied. What's more, there are no guidelines in statute or in the board's rules that outline a basis for decision-making. And nearly all the documents the board uses to make its decisions are kept secret under state law - even after an inmate is executed. "To the extent we assume that the clemency review process is a meaningful safeguard for cases like Hank's, where there might be doubt about guilt ... our trust is misplaced," says Owen, co-director of the University of Texas at Austin School of Law's Capital Punishment Clinic.
