I consider myself progressive; however, I used to be pro-death penalty. In fact, only recently have I realized that I'm against capital punishment.

When I was a kid, I used to believe that the police were always the good guys and the crooks – especially those that are locked away – were always the bad guys. To me, almost everything was black and white. I was shocked out of this delirium by a few incidents involving the Houston Police Department (HPD).

If you were to Google the names Jose Campo Torres, Ida Lee DeLaney, Byron Gillum, or Pedro Oregon, you would find information and articles about their untimely deaths at the hands of HPD officers.

In 1977, Torres was arrested, handcuffed, and beaten by HPD officers and then thrown into a bayou where he drowned. In 1989, DeLaney, an African-American woman, was chased for 13 miles by three drunken off-duty HPD officers who beat and shot her to death. Her crime was unknowingly cutting off the officers on the freeway, and fearing for and defending her life (she fired at them while they chased her) against unknown assailants. Less than a month after DeLaney’s murder, Byron Gillum, also African-American, died as a result of being shot 6 times, including 4 times in the back, by another Houston Police officer. Gillum’s crime was speeding and having an “attitude” (according to the officer). In 1998, Pedro Oregon was shot and killed after several HPD narcotics officers illegally entered his home on a bogus drug raid. (Bogus because the informant that took them to the residence was feeding the police a line to cover his own ass, and because no drugs were found.)

Too often this has been how the Houston Police Department has handed out justice. These have certainly been black eyes the department deserves, and they are not the only ones.

More recently, the HPD has come under federal scrutiny because of its crime lab and the incompetence at which it has been run. For me, this was the absolute last straw that changed my mind about the death penalty.

Anti-death penalty advocates know that Texas executes more prisoners than any other state. This year, of the 16 prisoner executions carried out so far, 5 have been in Texas; tied for second are Indiana and Georgia with 2 each.

Harris County has sent more people – mostly people of color – to Huntsville, Texas where the Texas Department of Corrections houses its execution chamber. Former Harris County District Attorney Johnny Holmes was given the nickname “Hell’s Gatekeeper” during his tenure because of the number of inmates his office sent to death row. Guess which major metropolitan city sits in the heart of Harris County...? Scratch that… Houston is Harris County!

If you Google “HPD crime lab” you will begin to see the depth of the ineptitude that is/was the HPD crime lab and its investigators. The Houston Chronicle reported that the crime lab failed in February to regain its accreditation, citing “problems with transferring evidence and record-keeping," among other issues.

Like most people who are pro-death penalty, I believed that the number of innocents being executed had to be relatively small. I would have assumed less than one percent. Now I believe that even if that percentage was accurate, the number of innocents killed is too high. I also believe that the number of innocents sent to Texas’ death row is much higher than 1%.

Given that Harris County supplies the most occupants to the Texas death chamber, and given that at least half of those are sent via the HPD criminal investigating unit – the Harris County Sheriff’s Department supplies the other half – it doesn’t take Quincy, Perry Mason, or Matlock to conclude that several innocent people have likely been executed by the state of Texas.

President Bush speaks of a “culture of life” and of “erring on the side of life”, yet while he was governor of Texas, he oversaw more executions (152) than any other governor in recent history.

Sooner or later, conservatives are going to have to pronounce a “mea culpa” of their own – especially when it comes to George W. Bush and his administration. How do conservatives reconcile his words with his actions? While he was claiming to practice compassionate conservatism, he was mocking condemned killer Karla Faye Tucker. I’m not saying that Tucker was innocent, but again, it is more than arguable; it is probable that more than 1% of those 152 executions were innocent of the crime(s) they were convicted of and executed for. Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, refuted Bush's claim that he took every execution seriously and reviewed each case thoroughly while he was governor. She explains how journalist Alan Berlow uncovered the fact that Bush’s chief counsel, Alberto “It-ain’t-torture-if-the-president-okays-it” Gonzales, presented the information for review usually on the day of the execution. And we all know about President Bush’s attention to detail and love for reading.

It was the 2000 execution of Gary Graham (AKA Shaka Sankofa) that led me to start re-thinking my position on the death penalty. At the time, I believed that there was a chance that Graham/Sankofa was innocent of the crime he was convicted of. I had simultaneous thoughts about his long criminal history – much of which was violent. I remember thinking, “he may be innocent of this crime, but what about all the other ones he is guilty of?” Here was a man with a violent past, which he is about to pay for. Then I thought, “but this is not what our criminal justice system is about.” Regardless of his other crimes, Graham was executed for a crime he may not have committed. I am not trying to plead his case either way, but there is considerable evidence and information that supports that argument.

The problem in Texas is systemic in that a sentence of life without parole is not even an option for juries hearing capital criminal cases. A change in that is currently being considered. Governor Rick Perry (R) also recently granted clemency for Frances Newton, whose case has information that should at least raise doubts about her guilt. The prosecution conveniently left some evidence out and Ms. Newton’s court-appointed attorney reportedly fell asleep during her trial. Newton is from Harris County. HPD conducted the investigation. You do the math.

The death penalty could be considered in the most heinous cases. However, not until prosecutors can prosecute without prejudice, and there is absolutely no reasonable doubt over guilt, the death penalty should be a last resort – in all cases where applicable. Given those criteria, perhaps the death penalty should be abolished completely.