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Sunday, November 11, 2007

Dallas County gave twice as many murderers probation as death penalty

By Pegasus News wire

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DALLAS — Dallas County gave probration -- the lightest sentence you can give -- to at least 120 murderers since 2000, according to a study by the Dallas Morning News.

The story also found at least three freed murderers who had previously killed someone. The father of one murdered teenage boy whose killer got probation is quoted as saying, "If you want to commit murder, come to Dallas."

The statistics are pretty overwhelming: 47 convicted killers in Dallas County have been given probation since 2000, which is twice as many murderers that have received the death penalty; twice the rate in Harris County; and more than three times the rate in Tarrant County.

The story seems to conclude that the problem is that, in Texas, juries decide on the sentence, and they feel sympathy for the killer. FYI, if you've murdered someone, hire Dallas lawyer Scottie Allen, who got probation for four murder defendants, more than any other lawyer in the study.

This story is of course worthy and loaded with facts and statistics, something like 200 interviews, as the paper trumpets, arriving in the nick of time for journalism awards season. Look out, as they've armed the link with grim-sounding tribal drumbeats (multi-media!) and have also included an anesthetizing video of the reporters discussing their story (meta!). Lookit this list of all the people who worked on it:

Reporting: Brooks Egerton and Reese Dunklin | Photography/videography: Melanie Burford and Kye R. Lee | Photo/video editors: Kye R. Lee, Mei-Chun Jau, Irwin Thompson, and Chris Wilkins | Interactive presentation: April Kinser, Shane Voirin, G. Noel Gross and Layne Smith | Copy editor: Frank Christlieb | Project editor: Maud Beelman

Posted by T.G.

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