Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the death penalty for crimes committed under the age of 18, Texas judges and juries only have one option for the worst criminal acts committed by juvenile offenders.
That option is life in prison with the possibility of parole. Life without parole does not exist in Texas.
With the courts chipping away at the death penalty, once lukewarm lawmakers may be forced to breathe new life into “life without parole."
Rep. Ruth Jones McClendon, D-San Antonio, tried gaining support on a bill for life without parole for the most terrible crimes.
“This is probably my third term in bringing a life without parole bill before the legislature,” McClendon said.
This week’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling against the death penalty for juvenile offenders may help McClendon’s cause.
“I think it would give it more legs in the legislature,” McClendon said.
Twenty-eight Texans will soon leave death row, for a lesser sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. This includes Robert Springsteen, sentenced to death in 2001 for his participation in the 1991 Yogurt Shop Murders..
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Life without parole
Only legislators can add the missing sentence from the state's law books.
 
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“They have a possibility of getting out and many of these crimes are extremely heinous. And we do not want these youngsters on the street,” McClendon said.
Rep. Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, is also against allowing parole for offenders with life sentences, but OK with life without parole as a harsher option to the death penalty.
“When you kill someone, the punishment is on those families and friends left that are living. But if you want to punish someone, you have them wake up everyday in that 4-by-8 cell, concrete and steel and that’s punishment,” Goolsby said.
That's a punishment that he said that has a chance to become law, but not necessarily because of the high court's ruling.
“I really don’t know how, if that will affect it at all,” Goolsby said.
Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, has not filed a bill on the matter, but he said he doesn’t expect the Supreme Court to change much in Texas beyond what it already has.
“I don’t think that it plays into those other bills on life without parole,” Madden said.
Maybe not now, but some say 28 open doors out of death row may open other doors later, either for the 28 to get parole or for changes to get rid of parole for all life sentences.
Hard-line prosecutors have traditionally opposed the life without parole option in Texas because they fear juries may sometimes choose it to avoid the death penalty, but still punish terrible acts.
Texas has the largest number of death row inmates in the country and the largest number of juvenile offenders on death row.
The 28 affected by the new ruling are out of 70 nationwide.
