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Before he turned 18, Michael Lopez accumulated quite a criminal record.

Arrested for shoplifting at age 11; aggravated robbery at 15; and, 2
years ago last week, the brutal murder of Harris County Deputy Constable
Michael Eakin at 17.

The record prompted Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Tom Price to
tell Lopez's appellate attorney Wednesday: "Your client is a mean little
guy."

The fact that Lopez is a "little guy" is precisely the point that Houston
attorney Stanley Schneider was trying to convey to the Texas court while
arguing Lopez's case Wednesday.

Schneider believes Lopez was too young to face a death sentence without
1st undergoing an examination or court hearing to determine his maturity.

The attorney is appealing the teen's death sentence on the grounds that
the Texas capital murder statute is unconstitutional because it considers
17-year-olds competent adults in death-penalty proceedings. That violates
Lopez's constitutional guarantees of equal protection and subjects him to
cruel and unusual punishment, Schneider argued Wednesday.

Of the 38 states that have death-penalty statutes, 23 of them include
17-year-olds, Schneider said. Of those 23 states, 18 require some sort of
review of 17-year-old killers by a judge to determine their maturity
level. Texas is 1 of 5 states that does not.

Texas and Georgia are the only 2 states that have executed someone for
committing a murder at age 17, Schneider said. Georgia has executed 1
such defendant. Texas has executed 7. "I'm not saying someone should go
unpunished for their acts," Schneider told the court.

A 17-year-old deemed too immature to face the death penalty for his crime
could still be sentenced to life in prison if convicted, he said.

But 17-year-olds are considered children in more than 300 Texas statutes,
Schneider said. Nearly everywhere but the criminal code, he said. Most
Texas laws designate 18 as the age of adulthood, Schneider argued.

"Anyone over 18 can go into the Army without their parents' permission,"
Schneider said. "Anyone over 18 can vote. Any woman over the age of 18
can have an abortion without notifying her parents. A 17-year-old is
still a child. ... They don't understand. If they weren't (children),
then why would our legislature say a 17-year-old woman can't have an
abortion of her own choice?"

Harris County Assistant District Attorney Carol Cameron disagreed that a
separate hearing is necessary to determine the maturity of a 17-year-old
charged with murder. In the punishment phase, juries get to hear about a
17-year-old's background and consider whether he is mature enough to
receive the death penalty, said Cameron.

As for Lopez, Cameron said, "This defendant was 17 years and 5 months;
this defendant was morally culpable for this offense."

Schneider disagreed. At the end of a trial, a jury might be too
influenced by the grisly details of the crime to fairly consider the
maturity of a 17-year-old defendant, he said. He argued that such
decisions should be made by an objective judge before a trial begins.

No ruling was made Wednesday in the Lopez case, but the appeals court
should rule within 6 months.

The details of Eakin's murder are harrowing. The officer pulled over the
car Lopez was riding in for speeding early on Sept. 29, 1998. Lopez, who
later told police he was high from sniffing paint thinner that night,
bolted from the car because he was afraid he would be sent back to jail
for violating his probation on an unrelated charge. Eakin chased him into
a field.

When Eakin's body was found, his handcuffs were in his hand and his
revolver remained in its holster, indicating that he did not know Lopez
was armed, Harris County prosecutors said. Eakin had been shot twice from
close range.

(source: Houston Chronicle)

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Oct. 11, 2000-----

TEXAS: (re: juvenile status for execution)

Mature Enough to Die?

Court to decide constitutionality of death penalty for 17-year-
old without judge's determination of maturity

A 17-year-old can't go into the U.S. Army without his parents'
permission or vote. A pregnant 17-year-old must have parental consent to
get an abortion, unless a judge finds she is mature enough to make that
decision by herself. But a judge isn't required to determine the
maturity of a 17-year-old who commits a capital crime before a jury
decides whether to sentence him or her to death.

"Texas' oxymoronic treatment of juveniles is unjust," says Houston
criminal-defense lawyer Stan Schneider, who told the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals on Oct. 4 that it's unconstitutional to apply the death
penalty law to a 17-year-old killer unless a judge has examined the
individual's maturity and moral culpability.

"A 17-year-old is still a child," said Schneider, a member of the Houston
firm of Schneider and McKinney.

Schneider said Texas is one of only five states that doesn't require
pre-trial hearings on the "death worthiness" of someone who commits a
capital murder at the age of 17. Eighteen other states allow the
execution of offenders who commit their crimes before they turn 18, but
those states require hearings to determine the sophistication or
maturity of an offender, he said.

Texas has executed 7 men who committed capital murders when they were 17,
Schneider said. Probably the best known was Gary Graham, who received a
lethal injection on June 22 -- 19 years after the robbery and murder that
landed him on death row.

Carol Cameron, an assistant district attorney in Harris County, said the
Legislature passed the law requiring 17-year-olds to be treated as
adults in the criminal justice system.

"It's the state's position that we follow that," Cameron told the court.

Schneider said the legislature decided in the late 1880s that children
should not be executed but then decided arbitrarily that the death
penalty could be imposed once an individual reached 17.

That has not been changed in the last 125 years, he said.

The 2 lawyers debated the constitutionality of applying the state's death
penalty law to 17-year-old killers as the criminal appeals court held its
first hearings in the courtroom of the recently opened John B. Connally
Center for the Administration of Justice at the University of Texas
School of Law.

HOME ENVIRONMENT

In Michael Lopez v. State of Texas, the nine-member court for the 1st
time will look at whether it's constitutional to execute someone who
committed a capital offense at the age of 17 without holding a pre-trial
hearing to determine the defendant's level of maturity.

Schneider says he has tried unsuccessfully in the past to get the issue
before the court. After Houston criminal-defense lawyer Stanley Kirk was
appointed to represent Lopez on appeal, Schneider said that he asked to
work with Kirk on the case.

Lopez was 17 when he shot to death Harris County Deputy Constable Michael
Eakin as the officer was attempting to handcuff him on Sept. 29, 1998.
Court records indicate that Lopez ran away from a car that Eakin had
stopped on a Houston toll road.

The teen-ager ran, Cameron said, because he did not want to be taken into
custody. Lopez, who was on probation, had a gun in his possession when
Eakin stopped the car, Cameron said.

Cameron said Lopez first shot Eakin in the neck, severing his spinal cord.
Lopez apparently then straddled the fallen lawman -- who was already dead,
according to court records -- and shot him again in the head, she said.

"I'm not saying someone should go unpunished for their actions," Schneider
said, noting that a 17-year-old who is tried on a capital charge could
get a life sentence and be required to serve 40 years.

Someone who commits an offense on his 17th birthday can face capital
punishment. But the day before, the individual wouldn't be eligible for a
death sentence, the defense lawyer said.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 1989 ruling in Stanford v. Kentucky, upheld
the constitutionality of Kentucky and Missouri laws applying the death
penalty to offenders who are 16 and 17. Both states have "transfer
statutes" that require a hearing before a juvenile is certified for
trial as an adult. The requirement that hearings be held to examine the
offender's maturity is the reason those laws passed muster with the
court, Schneider said.

He wants such hearings required in Texas to consider, among other
factors, how the offenders' home environment has affected them.

"I'm asking this court to protect our children," Schneider said.

Cameron said she doesn't believe the Supreme Court's ruling in Stanford
requires pre-trial hearings for 17-year-old offenders. She said age and
maturity are looked at when a jury considers special issues -- such as the
future dangerousness of the offender and mitigating factors such as
childhood abuse -- during the punishment phase of a trial.

"That renders it [the law] constitutional," Cameron said.

Cameron told the court that Lopez had a long record of criminal offenses,
beginning with an allegation that at age 11 he engaged in shoplifting.
When he was 15, Lopez was accused of being involved in an aggravated
robbery at his grandparents' home that resulted in the shooting of one
person. Cameron said Lopez wasn't identified as the shooter.

"Even if we had this hearing, your client is a mean little guy," Court of
Criminal Appeals Judge Tom Price told Schneider.

Schneider had described Lopez as "a clinically depressed boy."

Although the judges asked a number of questions, the court gave no
indication how it might rule on Lopez's appeal.

(source: The Texas Lawyer)

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