Texas Appears Set to Execute Accomplice

Death penalty opponents argue, however, that Texas has applied its law-of-parties statute too loosely.

A 1982 decision by the Supreme Court appears to support such a view. The court decided 5 to 4 in Enmund v. Florida that imposing the death penalty on a defendant when a murder was committed by others was a violation of the Eighth Amendment if the defendant "does not himself kill, attempt to kill, or intend that a killing take place, or lethal force will be employed."

But a second 5 to 4 decision by the court appears to support Texas. In Tison v. Arizona, a case in which family members broke their father out of prison and then killed a family of four that they flagged down to help repair their getaway car, the court said that the death penalty could apply if it could be shown that the defendant was a "major participant" in the felony and acted with "reckless indifference to human life."

"That's why I think this issue may come back to the Supreme Court," Dieter said. "This is an area that needs some clarification."

Texas, which has put more people to death since 1976 than any other state, executed three men as accomplices between 1985 and 1993.

Steven Hatch of Oklahoma was the last person executed as an accomplice for his role in the torture and shooting of a family and the slaying of the parents. Hatch died in 1996, but his accomplice, Glen Ake, who shot the family members, is serving a life sentence after cooperating with police and prosecutors.

In July, Dale Leo Bishop was put to death in Mississippi for the 1998 kidnapping and beating of Marcus Gentry. Bishop held the 22-year-old victim while another man, Jessie Johnson, bludgeoned him with a carpenter's hammer.

Dieter said the Bishop case was not included on his organization's list of accomplice executions "because we made a decision that this wasn't the same kind of thing."

"He held the man while another man killed him," Dieter said.