Big Jolly Politics

politics in Harris County and Texas

You are here: Home / Blog / Duane Buck Supreme Court Decision

Duane Buck Supreme Court Decision

by

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court of the United States held that Duane Buck’s death sentence is invalid because defendant’s expert witness testified that Mr. Buck was more likely to be violent because he is black.

Buck was convicted of capital murder in 1996 and was sentenced to death in 1997. Buck’s attorney sponsored the testimony of Walter Quijano, a psychologist. Prior to trial, Quijano wrote, “Race. Black. Increased probability.” In 2000, Texas Attorney General John Cornyn said that asserting a connection between race and dangerousness was wrong and unconstitutional.

Now, the Buck case returns to Harris County for resentencing.

About Don Hooper

Don Hooper is an energy executive based in Houston. He operates oil and gas assets in addition to owning interest in power generation. Mr. Hooper has a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from the University of Houston. He has worked as both a political consultant and lobbyist at the local, state, and federal level. Mr. Hooper is a regular contributor to Big Jolly Politics, a local political blog. Mr. Hooper has written extensively on a variety of city, county, and state issues including the City of Houston finances, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, pro-life matters, and other political issues.
https://bigjolly.com/author/don-hooper/
https://twitter.com/DonPHooper

Comments

  1. Bob in Champions says

    Proof that someone can be a dyed-in-the-wool conservative w/o being racist… both by then-AG Cornyn and by Supreme Court justices.

    I hate that my 2nd thought (after the above statement) was that I don’t know if AG Paxton would have put effort into this case. I really hope we get a new state AG in about 20 months.