Texas Catholic Voice December 2024

New Year, new Legislature

We hope everyone is having a blessed Advent and looking forward to celebrating the birth of Jesus with loved ones. By the time our first 2025 Texas Catholic Voice is published, the 89th legislative session will be underway with a new speaker of the house, and maybe even new committee assignments and new House rules.  Of course, everyone is wondering who the next speaker will be. No clear frontrunner has emerged since Rep. Dade Phelan dropped out and other candidates will likely enter the race. Stay tuned. 

Death penalty: Robert Roberson and presidential commutations

Last week the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee once again issued a subpoena to hear testimony from Robert Roberson at a committee hearing on Friday, Dec. 20, regarding how the state failed to use the junk science statute to have a new trial for his murder conviction.

The Texas Supreme Court ruled last month that a legislative subpoena of a death row inmate could not be used to halt an execution but is otherwise permissible and that the executive branch should cooperate with the testimony.

Robert’s attorney says he was eager to provide testimony, but the night before the hearing the attorney general succeeded in stalling efforts to comply with the subpoena for now. The committee has promised it will not relent in seeking a hearing on this topic, even suggesting a hearing between Christmas and New Year's Day or the first week of January before they must disband at the start of the new legislative session.

Regardless of whether Robert will be able to testify, we are grateful that no new execution date has been set at this time. 

Today, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 individuals on federal death row. Those individuals will have their sentences reclassified from execution to life without the possibility of parole. A coalition of Catholic organizations, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, encouraged the president to this kind of action. The list of individuals whose lives have been sparred is here.

Congratulations to Bishop Brendan Cahill who is the new chairman-elect of the USCCB Committee on Migration.

Our office is closed Dec. 23 through Jan. 1. We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!