A maximum security prison in Livingston remains on lockdown this morning after five convicts -- three of them shot by tower guards -- tried to escape Friday night after attending a church service.

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Thank you to the guards who keep Texans safe.

"Quintero's capital murder conviction in 2008 drew shock from Johnson's wife Joslyn Johnson, also a police officer, because jurors did not sentence Quintero to death but gave him life in prison."

Can anybody say future danger?

From a Texas Observer article, quoting anti-death penalty activist Richard Dieter:

"When you present life without parole to juries, it lifts any confusion they might have about whether someone is ever going to walk the streets again. Even though a traditional life sentence in Texas meant there was no possibility of parole for at least 40 years, there's always that misapprehension that someone could be out in a matter of a few years. So there might not be any difference in the eye of a juror who's just seen those 8x10 glossy photos of a horrible murder scene who wants to be assured that the person responsible never walks free among us again."

Juan Quintero's trial was a powerful example. When Harris County jurors began deliberating his punishment for killing Rodney Johnson, defense lawyer Danalynn Recer laid a foundation to show that despite her clients heinous act, his life still had value. Jurors were told that he had no record of past violence and was both deeply religious and deeply remorseful.

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Prosecutor John Jordan, who asked for the death penalty, points to Quintero's escape attempt as proof, he said, that mercy was wasted.

"We told the jury if you're a threat handcuffed in the back of a patrol car, you'll always be a threat, anywhere," Jordan said. "When the jury sentenced Juan Quintero to life imprisonment, we feared this day would come."

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[This message was edited by JB on 02-01-10 at .]

You potential jurors out there, if the defendant is sentenced to life without parole, he will NOT be locked into a concrete vault. The prison system will NOT shackle him up and chain him to a wall, no matter the heinousness of his crime.
In spite of what retired wardens and classification people will tell you for a hefty check -- capital murderers serving life, life without parole, death or anything else, are able to continue to victimize people, commit crimes in prison, abuse each other, make a mockery of your verdicts and just about everything else.
Quintero's jury missed it.
He's a cold-blooded cop killer and was living in general population, coming and going pretty much at his pleasure, having an easy time of it, plotting an escape and just about getting away with it. Now he will be in Ad Seg, and that status will be reviewed periodically and one day he'll be back in general population. In the meanwhile, he'll have a little more difficulty in obtaining drugs, cellphones, sex, weapons, etc. Notice I said a "little more difficulty" not an impossibility.

Maybe defense attorneys can shoot some updated video footage of the Polunsky Unit to show how "secure" it really is. I think a lot of us are tired of seeing those worn out videos of the Michael and Connally Units that defense attorneys have used as punishment evidence. (Of course, I don't think any prosecutor had any objections to the Connally video since we always got to ask: "Isn't that the Unit that the Texas 7 escaped from?")

I am not an expert on capital murderers, but surely not everyone who commits a capital murder is a continuing threat to staff and inmates while they are incarcerated. Most of those executed have been on death row for a number of years, and therefore amassed a record as either being either violent or nonviolent while incarcerated. I am curious to know what per cent proved to be nonviolent while on D.R.

Karla Faye Tucker was a crazed killer when she was on meth; but from everything I have heard, after she went to the joint she turned her life around. Only God knows for sure if she would have killed again had her sentence been commuted to life in prison, but from everything I read, it seems highly unlikely. I am sure there are others like her.

I just don't think it's realistic to look at "non-violent" behavior of an inmate locked in his or her cell 23 hours a day. The opportunities to act up are very few and they are all on their best behavior because they don't want to hurt their chances in retrial if their appeals are successful. Just because we take extraordinary measures to contain the threat they pose does not make them non-violent or mean that they have rehabilitated.

In a recent 5-year period, our office prosecuted 94 capital murderers serving life sentences. Those were for new crimes committed after coming to the penitentiary with their life sentences.
During that same period, we prosecuted 240 convicted murderers for new crimes committed inside the walls - those convicted murderers included killers who pled to "straight" murder instead of facing capital murder charges in the freeworld.
As was evidenced in the failed Polunsky escape, and was obviously a shock to the widow of the Houston cop killer, convicted capital murderers are classified, generally, as G-3, a very lightweight classification that thousands of forgers, burglars, DWI felons, etc., serve their time in. I wish I could have told Quintero's jury that - not that it would have changed their minds, but maybe Mrs. Johnson could have been somewhat prepared for the reality of the lack of severity in the treatment of capital murderers.
Of course defense lawyers across the state have made it clear that I lie about that and pervert the reality of it all.
Death row, in addition to being a distribution point for Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Honest John's Cell Emporium and other communication outlets, is a place of drug abuse, weapons smuggling, assault, extortion through the mails, etc.

Knowing the percentage of death row inmates who have been bad as opposed to those who have been good as they await their appeals to go through doesn't mean much. If 99% of condemned capital murderers are good, and 1% have cut the throats of guards, what difference does that make to the victims?
Exit Only.