A case which has embarrassed the Texas criminal justice system for two decades has finally been closed, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
A Houston man, Duane Buck, was sentenced to death back in 1997 specifically because he is Black. It was a case which allowed critics of the Texas justice system to point to 'inherent racism' in the system and question many of the actions of the state's leaders.
Buck was convicted of killing two people during a rampage at a Houston party back in 1995. At the sentencing phase of his trial, a psychologist testified that Buck was 'more likely to re-offend,' which is one of the conditions jurors must apply when making death penalty decisions, specifically because he is African American.
The U.S. Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing.
Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg says Buck has now been resentenced to life in prison plus sixty years, which was the right decision.
"It is important to close history on our courts ever again being a place where race was injected as evidence," Ogg said. "Race is never evidence."
Buck's case was taken up by several anti death penalty groups as a key reason why the death penalty should be abolished.
Ogg says the new verdict, which is likely to keep Buck behind bars for the rest of his life, is appropriate.
"His counsel was ineffective and race was injected into the argument," she said. "After 22 years, and after he has been a model inmate in prison, I thought it was unlikely that another jury would sentenced him to death."