Nirenberg tells Congress that S.A.-Austin will be nation’s next great metroplex.
Measure altered to exclude youths who are mass shooters
Families of those killed and injured in the 2018 mass shooting at Santa Fe High School gave emotional testimony at the Texas Capitol on Wednesday, raising concerns that a bill allowing inmates convicted as juveniles to get out of prison earlier could reduce the amount of time accused gunman Dimitrios Pagourtzis will spend behind bars.
The bill, House Bill 256, gives those sentenced to life in prison for juvenile crimes a chance to petition parole boards for release 20 years after being convicted; the law now requires them to wait 40 years.
“I have a problem with it being 40 years,” said Rosie Stone, mother of Santa Fe student Christopher Stone, one of 10 people killed. “While us parents live a life sentence, he has the opportunity to serve four years per life that he took.
“With this bill, it gives him the opportunity to come forward and serve only two years per life that he took.”
The bill was filed by Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, who said it is aimed at people who were sentenced as juveniles for less significant crimes.
Stone urged Moody to remove juvenile mass shooters from consideration for early parole, and Moody agreed to make that change. But Moody added that no parole board would let Pagourtzis go free if its members heard the testimony from the meeting.
“I want you to think about how you felt hearing that and what you would do,” Moody said. “Let’s say you’re the parole board, would you let the Santa Fe shooter out? I know I wouldn’t. Not in 20 years, not in 40 years, probably not ever. And my bill here wouldn’t make the parole board do that.”
Family members of people convicted as juveniles also crowded the committee room, supporting Moody’s bill.
Elizabeth Henneke, executive director of the Lone Star Justice Alliance, said the bill would allow for people convicted as juveniles to have their cases simply get a second look.
“For every single school shooter, there are hundreds of others who were sentenced to die in prison for a minor role in a crime in which no one was killed,” Henneke said. “We need to trust the parole board to sort out the shooter from the kids.”
The bill also requires a parole board to review more factors when considering whether juvenile offenders should be released — including age at the time of the offense, intellectual capacity and family and community involvement. Families, school employees and faith leaders could also
“For every single school shooter, there are hundreds of others who were sentenced to die in prison for a minor role in a crime in which no one was killed. We need to trust the parole board to sort out the shooter from the kids.” Elizabeth Henneke, Lone Star Justice Alliance
submit statements about the inmate’s personal growth and maturity before the first parole hearing. There still would be no guarantee the inmate’s request for parole would be granted.
Of the 4,500 juveniles in the custody of the Texas Department of Juvenile Justice, about 1,510 have been given sentences of 40 years or longer.
The families of incarcerated individuals also made emotional pleas at the meeting.
Larry Robinson choked up while recounting the case of his son, Jason, convicted of capital murder in the 1990s. Jason Robinson, who was 16 at the time, was addicted to drugs, physically abused by a family member and suffering from nightmares about his father’s deployment in Operation Desert Storm, Robinson said.
“My son will die in prison, and I cannot let that happen,” Larry Robinson testified.
Jason Robinson and two other teens robbed the 19th Hole Pawn Shop in Killeen in 1994. Jason bound and gagged clerk Troy Langseth before one of his accomplices stabbed him multiple times, according to court documents.
Despite the seriousness of his son’s crime, Larry Robinson said he thinks his son — who has spent more than 20 years in prison — would be granted parole if he was given a hearing and the board considered his situation at the time.
“I fought for this country, and now I’m fighting for my son’s life,” he said.