former Chair of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Calls for Reform

In a letter to the Dallas Morning News this past week, Charles Terrell urged that Texas "take pains to spare the innocent." In part, he writes, "We have killed innocent people and will do more.... I know this because I was there. All of us want a safer Texas, but not at the expense of innocent people."

You can read his complete letter here.

Here's an interesting detail from Terrell's online biography:

In January 1991, the Board of the Texas Criminal Justice System named a new 2,250-bed prison unit under construction in Livingston, Texas the Charles T. Terrell Unit, which opened in November 1993. The prison facility became Death Row in 1999; Terrell asked that his name be removed from it.