Another life gone because of bad law

On Nov. 19, Robert Lee Thompson, 34, became the 23rd person to be executed in Texas this year.

He should still be alive.

Not because he was a good man, because he wasn’t — or least he was not 13 years ago when the 21-year-old Thompson and his buddy, Sammy Butler, were involved in the armed robbery of a Houston store in which clerk Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed was killed.

Evidence showed that Butler shot Mohammed to death, and for this act a Harris County jury sentenced him to life in prison.

Another jury sentenced Thompson to death.

Thompson was guilty of a crime that day. He shot a different store clerk, who survived the incident.

But now this criminal has fallen prey to a flawed, often-misinterpreted law and the callous decision of a governor focused on political ambition rather than justice.

The Thompson case speaks to the capriciousness of how capital punishment is applied in Texas: an actual killer gets to live while his accomplice dies for the same crime. It also brings into clear focus once again the bad piece of state legislation known as the "law of parties."

The statute, originally intended for conspiracy cases, says that "if, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it." The law goes on to say that accomplices in such circumstances should have been able to "anticipate" the possibility of another crime being committed.

On a 5-2 vote on Nov. 18, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles made a rare recommendation that the governor commute Thompson’s sentence to life in prison. Gov. Rick Perry, who is not obligated to follow the board’s recommendation, denied the request the afternoon of Nov. 19 and Thompson was executed 45 minutes later.

"After reviewing all of the facts in the case of Robert Lee Thompson, who had a murderous history and participated in the killing of Mansoor Bhai Rahim Mohammed, I have decided to uphold the jury’s capital murder conviction and capital punishment for this heinous crime," the governor said in a statement. "There is no reason to set aside the capital murder conviction handed down by a Texas jury and upheld by numerous state and federal courts."

Wrong, governor. There was a reason. You simply were blind to it.

The governor, who is engaged in a tough re-election campaign against U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, perhaps could not see past next March’s Republican primary.

In 2007, Perry did follow the recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles in commuting the death sentence of Kenneth Foster six hours before Foster was to have been executed. Foster also had been convicted under the "law of parties" statute, but the governor did not cite that as his reason for the commutation. Instead, he noted his concern that Foster and his co-defendant had been tried together.

Texas is one of only five states with a law of parties statute. It is the only state that applies that law in death penalty cases.

The Star-Telegram Editorial Board is on record calling for the Texas Legislature to address this awful and misapplied law. Bad people should be held accountable for their crimes, but execution based on the law of parties is not right.

A half dozen people have died under this law. That’s six too many.

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