Death in Texas | Chicago Tribune

This nation has had a long and impassioned debate about the imposition of the death penalty, and that debate goes on. The Supreme Court revealed its own divisions Monday, upholding a Kansas law on capital punishment by a 5-4 vote.

Capital punishment is here and likely to be around for many years. One would hope as the debate goes on that those on either side of the divide could agree on this: As long as the government imposes the death penalty, it has an obligation to make every possible effort to protect the innocent from wrongful prosecution.

The Chicago Tribune concludes a series on Tuesday that raises new questions about whether we can have such certainty. The series lays out the possibility that Texas executed an innocent man 17 years ago.

In 1983, a convenience store clerk named Wanda Lopez was stabbed to death. Crime scene photos show blood splattered on the walls of the store, the cash register and the floor.

A man named Carlos De Luna was arrested 40 minutes after the murder. De Luna certainly acted suspiciously. He was found hiding under a vehicle. He had taken off his shirt and shoes. And he was not a choirboy, judging from his criminal record.

But he had not a drop of blood on his face or pants. And when his shirt and shoes were found, no blood was found on them either.

A witness who had passed the killer in the Corpus Christi gas station store told police the suspect wore a gray or a flannel shirt. De Luna's shirt, the one that was found, was white. Later, that witness said he wasn't sure De Luna was the right person.

De Luna said Wanda Lopez was killed by a man he knew named Carlos Hernandez. But prosecutors at trial dismissed Hernandez as a "phantom." He existed, though, and he was well-known for using knives in violent acts. The co-prosecutor in the case ignored his duty to reveal that information to the defense.

De Luna was convicted, largely on the testimony of two witnesses. But De Luna and Hernandez look remarkably similar, and no forensic evidence linked De Luna to the crime.

De Luna was executed in 1989. Hernandez died seven years ago.

Now, the Tribune reports, half a dozen friends and relatives of Hernandez said he bragged to them that he had killed Wanda Lopez. He bragged that another man had been put to death for his crime. He bragged that he had gotten away with murder.

That doesn't prove that Hernandez killed her. It doesn't prove that De Luna didn't. But it certainly raises enough doubt to wonder if Texas did, in fact, execute an innocent man.

The evaluation of evidence over the last two decades, particularly the rise of DNA technology, has given more certainty to many prosecutions--just as it has proved that in some cases innocent people have been sentenced to death. Illinois was home to several of those stunning cases--and it has led the way in efforts to improve its procedures in capital cases. It has imposed a moratorium on the death penalty to buy time to assess those practices.

Still, criminal justice relies on human judgment and integrity. A prosecutor in the De Luna case told a local TV news station that he was reasonably confident they had the right guy.

Reasonably confident? That can't be enough.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

- Do you support or oppose the death penalty? Does the case of Carlos De Luna change your thinking? E-mail us by 2 p.m. Tuesday at ctc-response@tribune.com with "death penalty" in the subject line. Include your name, hometown and contact information. Responses will be published online and in Wednesday's Voice of the People.