Travis County District Attorney Election Death Penalty ad

http://www.tmnpac.org

Jeanette Popp spoke at a press conference on the plaza of the Blackwell/Thurman Criminal Justice Center in Austin on Saturday, January 12. Popp urged the candidates for Travis County District Attorney to impose a moratorium on the death penalty in Travis County by not seeking the death penalty in any capital trials and instead using life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty. The above video was recorded after the press conference.

Jeanette Popp's daughter Nancy DePriest was murdered in Austin in 1988.

March 4, 2008, the day of the primary in Travis County, would have been Nancy's 40th birthday.

Jeanette became intimately familiar with the many flaws of the Texas criminal justice system after two innocent men, Chris Ochoa and Richard Danziger, were wrongfully convicted of her daughter's murder and spent 12 years in prison. They were exonerated and released in 2001. The City of Austin settled separate lawsuits with Danziger and Ochoa for $9 million and $5.3 million respectively in 2003. Danziger also settled with Travis County for $950,000. The actual killer, Achim Marino, was convicted in October 2002.

"The death penalty system in Texas is broken. The next DA in Travis County should reflect how the Travis County community's views on the death penalty have evolved in recent years and pledge that for now the death penalty is off the table within Travis County", said Scott Cobb of Texas Moratorium Network. "If we want to slow down the number of executions in Texas and reduce the risk of executing an innocent person, we need to elect a district attorney who will pledge to impose a moratorium on seeking new death sentences and a moratorium on setting execution dates for cases with existing death sentences. Certainly a DA candidate in Travis County who makes such a pledge will find a rich reward of votes in the Democratic primary", said Cobb.

For more information visit TMNPAC.org and contribute online through ACTBLUE.

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[fourteenKnuckels]

Christopher Ochoa falsely confessed to the rape & killing Of Nancy DePriest to the cops. Then went on to confess in court & accused his friend in graphic testimony, Of doing the same.

Then Chris Ochoa walked around the prison for 10 years saying he did it.

Chris Ochoa is an ass that put HIMSELF on DR ! Just b/c this jerk screwed up his own life does not mean we should feel sorry for him or let other people get away with murder. There is not LWOP in Tx. They can get parole after 40 yrs.

[stopexecutions]

Actually there is no more Life with Parole in Texas, the legislature changed LWP to LWOP a few years ago.

[ffairlane57]

Since when does China become a role model?

[adelaidemarie]

would u like to know what it does to a mother to Know the wrong person is paying for the crime?

poor and black will guarantee a guilty verdict. little george has commit Mass crimes against HuManity and society rewards him with presidency. where is your logic?

hate kills, u should know that by now.

[deadman66691978]

there was only 42 exicutions in the u.s. this year. way to few in my books when hundreds are still on death row. hurry up and get these pieces of human filth exterminated.

[ma7799]

@skewbeef

Since when does UK become a role model. Maybe we should ship a million blacks and Mexicans over to your country and see what happens to YOUR crime rate!

[ma7799]

@hoomanity

"It seems that it doesn't really scare hell out of killers. Right?"

That isn;t the idea, but sends them 6 feet under so they cannot harm anyone. It;s capital punishment; not capital deterrence.

[ma7799]

@mst3k4evur

one word:Detroit!!!

[ma7799]

@skewbeef

"since 1973 125 inoccent people have been excecutled"

There is no evidence that we not executed EVEN ONE innocent person in the U.S. Use facts and not bleeding-heart rumors.

[ma7799]

This is not a consistent argument; this inmate never was sentenced to death in the first place.