Osler's Razor

The long death-penalty saga of John Paul Penry has finally come to a close. As Doug Berman compellingly describes it the prosecutors avoided a fourth retrial (on sentencing) by agreeing to life without parole, after appeals of the prior botched trials cost upwards of one billion dollars in total.

Penry's case is a long and circuitous one, and played a major role in defining Texas' death penalty procedures. At the core of the case was Penry's mental retardation, which repeatedly resulted in new trials with the same result. One of Penry's appeals was heard last year right here in Room 127 at Baylor Law School, and I remember feeling caught in a time warp as the attorneys discussed the events of the crime, which occurred in 1979.

Now Penry will spend the rest of his life where he has spent the last 28 years-- in prison. Was it worth the cost? Many of us are beginning to suspect that the death penalty will not be salvaged, even in Texas, in the face of intractable costs and declining enthusiasm for the sanction.