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ELECTIONS 2002
This page is dedicated to
letting the voting public know where Texas candidates stand on enacting
legislation that would allow defendants to inform the jury about their power to
acquit based on conscience and remove the jury selection filter that eliminates
jurors of conscience from serving.
HALL OF FAME:
These candidates have actively
worked for jury power legislation passage in the past.
Gary
Elkins -
State Representative
District 135 (R - Houston)
#
Introduced legislation
in 1997 and actively worked for its passage. Explored viable alternatives
for legislation in 1999.
Jerry
Patterson - former State
Senate - currently running for Land Commissioner (R)
* #
Introduced Elkins' bill in the
Senate in 1997.
HONORABLE MENTION:
These active incumbent
candidates have co-authored or co-signed jury independence legislation in the
past:
- Ken
Yarbrough - State
Representative 138 (D - Houston) -
Joint-authored 1993,
95 & 97 legislation #
- Ray
Allen - State
Representative 106 (R - Grand Prairie)
- Co-authored 1993 and 1995 legislation
- Debra
Danburg - State
Representative 134 (D - Houston)
- Co-authored 1993 and 1995 legislation #
- Frank
Corte - State
Representative 122 (R - San Antonio)
- Co-authored 1993 legislation
- Kenny
Marchant - State
Representative 99 (R - Coppell)
- Co-authored 1993 legislation #
CURRENT SURVEY RESULTS FOR
CONTESTED PRIMARY RACES:
Lone Star FIJA is in the process of contacting candidates
who have 2002 primary opponents to determine their stance on informed jury legislation. In the
meantime, candidates can email statements of their support to tomglass@juryduty.org
and supporters will be listed here. If you are meeting your local
candidates, ask them where they stand on fully informed jury legislation, and
encourage them to let us know of their support. Bolded
brown means a candidate who currently does not support jury
power. Unbolded blue names means a candidate
who replied with no or response. Bolded blue
names indicates some level of support. Bolded
red words are the actions that the candidates definitely plan to
make. Underlined bolded red
statements are from a candidate who pledges to do everything we could hope for
jury power legislation.
STATE
SENATE:
- Jerry
Yost - District 1 (R - Longview) - Pledges
to actively support, co-author, vote for, and possibly sponsor jury power
legislation! He served as a State Representative for 7 terms from 1984
to 1997 and is running against an incumbent State Senator.
- Lester Phipps - District
18 (R - Rosenberg) -
Pledges to actively
support, sponsor, and vote
for jury power legislation! No web. Phone: (281) 344-8353
STATE
REPRESENTATIVE:
- Barry Telford -
District 1 (D - DeKalb) (Incumbent) - Sent letter stating that he
rarely responds to questionnaires because, "they normally want simple
answers to very complex issues."
- Mickey Cooper - District 2 (R - Emory)
- Pledges to
vote
for jury power legislation and possibly joint or
co-author, introduce, or actively prioritize its passage. No web. Phone: (903) 268-7422.
- Herman Hans Reicher -
District 8 (D - Groesbeck) - Pledges to vote
for and joint or co-author
jury power legislation, and possibly introduce and actively support.
- Rob Eissler - District 15 (R
- The Woodlands) - His
Campaign Manager replied with a letter stating that she has asked Mr.
Eissler not to reply to surveys and questionnaires due to time constraints.
- Kerry Williams - District
15 (R - The Woodlands)
- Is opposed to informing jurors of their rights and powers for fear of
abuse. We appreciate Mr. Williams courage in responding to our survey,
even though negative. We hope with those kind of straight-forwardness,
that we can persuade him to our point of view.
- Kathi
Seay - District 20 (R - Georgetown)
- Pledges to
vote for and joint or co-author
jury power legislation, and
possibly introducing and actively working for such.
- Gary
W. Gates, Jr. - District 28 (R - Richmond) -
Pledges to sponsor
and vote for, and
possibly work actively for jury power legislation
- Eddy González - District
40 (D - Edcouch) -
Pledges to actively
support, co-author, vote for, and
possibly sponsor jury power legislation! Phone: (956) 867-4226
- Jerry
Mikus - District 50 (R - Pflugerville)
- Pledges to co-author
and vote for, and
possibly sponsor and work actively for jury power legislation.
- Charles Luke - District 60
(R - Lipan) -
Pledges to actively
support, sponsor, and vote
for jury power legislation! Phone: (817 578-9883
- Jeri Slone - District 72
(D - San Angelo) -
Pledges to vote,
and possibly co-sponsor and actively work for jury power legislation.
Phone: (915) 658-8631
- Diane
Dasher - District 73 (R - Canyon Lake) -
Pledges to actively
support, sponsor, and vote
for jury power legislation!
- Delwin Jones - District 83
(D - Lubbock) - Was
kind enough to reply to the questionnaire, but did not answer. His
reasoning was, "I consider that answering questionnaires on legislative
issues to be a promise in order to get support for election. This
would be a Constitutional violation of the Oath of Office we must take in
order to serve, if elected." Even though we disagree with his
interpretation of the Texas Constitution (we cannot imagine the founders
intended politicians to avoid telling where they stand on the issues), we
respect his stand on principle. We hope Representative Jones' commitment to
the Texas Constitution will extend to Article
1, Section 8, and therefore to jury power legislation.
- Bill
Keffer - District
107 (R - Dallas)
- Although our survey seems to have gotten lost in the mail, Mr.
Keffer has reviewed our web site, and has emailed us that he agrees with
all the questions on our regular survey!
Hence, a perfect
score.
- George West - District 123
(D - San Antonio) -
Says, "I am for
Jury Power and would
decide how far to go after surveying the new legislature." No
phone or web page listed on Democratic or Secretary of State web
pages. Address: PO Box 12373, San Antonio, TX 78212
- Arthur Reyna - District
125 (D - San Antonio) (Incumbent) -
Replied with letter, but declined to take a position. After asking a
lot of questions, in which he was clearly considering our point of view, he
indicated in Criminal Jurisprudence Committee
hearings in 1997 that he thought he agreed with jury power legislation
opponents. We would love to spend more time with him. We think he
might change his mind and see it our way, someday.
- Mark
Cole - District 134 (R - Houston)
- Pledges to vote,
and possibly sponsor and actively support jury power legislation.
- Alma Zepeda - District 148
(D - Houston) -
Pledges to actively
support and vote for,
and possibly sponsor or co-sponsor jury power legislation.
Phone: (713) 302-7388
PAST SUPPORTERS:
These active candidates have signed questionnaires in the past stating their support for jury
power legislation:
- Leo
Berman - State Representative 6 (R - Tyler)
- Kim Brimer - running for State Senate 10 (R -
Fort Worth) formerly State Rep
- Betty
Brown - State Representative 4 (R - Terrell)
- Fred
Brown - State Representative 14 (R - College Station) *
- Mary Denny - State Representative 63 (R -
Aubrey)
- Joe Driver - State Representative 113 (R -
Garland)
- Al Edwards - State Representative 146 (D -
Houston) - (verbal endorsement)
- Michael Galloway -
State Senate 4 (R - The Woodlands) * #
- Domingo
Garcia - State Representative 104 (D - Dallas) *
- Pat
Haggerty - State Representative 78 (R -
El Paso)
- Mike
Krusee - State Representative 52 (R -
Austin) * #
- Jerry
Madden - State Representative 67 (R - Richardson) *
- Tommy
Merritt - State Representative 7 (R - Longview) *
- Joe
Pickett - State Representative 79 (D - El Paso) *
- Elvira Reyna - State Representative 101 (R -
Mesquite)
- Gene
Seaman - State Representative 32 (R - Corpus Christi) #
- Buddy West - State Representative 81 (R -
Odessa)
- Arlene
Wohlgemuth - State Representative 58 (R - Burleson) * #
* - In a contested
primary. # - Will have
contested general race. (Hint, they could use your help!)
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Lone Star FIJA