Thanks for the articles.
I read both of them in their entirety. Neither one mentions anyting about a retarded inmate, the dessert story, or Rickey Ray Rector.
I can't say I blame the guy for wanting it renamed. I would not want my name on it either.
Thanks again. Always appreciative of someone backing me up.
Here is the Full article of the first (7/14) story. (the 7/21 story has nothing to add)
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Uneasy about death row, Terrell wants name off unit - Prison expected to be renamed
Writer: Ed Timms
Published: 07-14-2001
Page Number: 1A
Dallas insurance executive Charles Terrell was honored when a
new state prison was named for him in 1993.
But it just wasn't the same after that unit later became the new
home for death-row inmates. He wanted his name off, and the
state's prison board may accommodate him next week.
"We name prisons after a lot of people, and if I'm just another
name ... that's fine," the former chairman of the Texas Board of
Criminal Justice said Friday. "There's a lot of difference between
having your name on a regular prison, and on death row."
Next week, the prison board is expected to approve a new name
for the Charles T. Terrell Unit in East Texas, where 446 men
sentenced to death are incarcerated. Mr. Terrell asked for the
change - an unprecedented request, according to prison officials
- several months ago.
Another prison, the Ramsey III unit in Brazoria County, probably
will be renamed for Mr. Terrell. The board is scheduled to meet in
a regular session on Friday. "Renaming of the Terrell Unit and the
Ramsey III Unit" is on the agenda.
Another former prison board chairman, San Antonio lawyer Allan
B. Polunsky, is expected to have his name on the Terrell Unit.
Prison Board member Mary Bacon, a retired Harris County district
judge, said Mr. Polunsky was called and asked if would be willing
to have the unit named for him. "Apparently, he agreed," she
said.
Larry Todd, a prison spokesman, said that honoring former board
chairmen and members by naming units for them is a
long-standing tradition.
At first glance, Mr. Terrell might seem an unlikely person to have
qualms about having his name associated with a facility that is
often the last address for Texas' condemned. He acquired a
reputation for being tough on crime. In addition to his service on
the prison board, Mr. Terrell also served as the chairman of the
Greater Dallas Crime Commission and the Texas Criminal Justice
Task Force.
Over the years, he's become increasingly uneasy with how the
death penalty is administered. But those concerns, he said
Friday, were not his primary reason for wanting a name change
for the Terrell Unit.
"Every time something happens on death row, it's the 'Terrell
Unit' - and it's just really something I don't want to read about,"
Mr. Terrell said.
Some family members, too, weren't too happy. "It upset my
mother," he said.
When the Terrell Unit was first built and named, condemned men
were kept at the Ellis Unit, northeast of Huntsville. An escape
attempt in 1998 by seven condemned inmates was a factor in
the prison system's decision to move death row to the newer
Terrell Unit in 1999.
Mr. Terrell, who stepped down as chairman of the state prison
board in 1990, said Friday that ambivalence best describes his
attitude toward the death penalty.
Deterrence, he said, is the only justification for the death
penalty, and he questions whether it serves that purpose.
"If I thought it was truly the deterrent that I felt the electric
chair was, maybe I wouldn't be so ambivalent," he said, adding
that he didn't think that lethal injection "put the fear of God in
anybody like the thought of the electric chair did."
He also has some concerns about how the death penalty is
applied, but he praised the Texas Legislature for addressing
some issues, such as making DNA testing available to convicts
and trying to ensure that defendants have competent lawers.
Bill Robinson, an ex-offender and board chairman of Corrections
Concepts Inc., a nonprofit organization that helps inmates and
their families, knew Mr. Terrell when he was on the prison board
and has worked with him since.
Mr. Robinson said that the death penalty is an issue that Mr.
Terrell takes very seriously and has given a great deal of
thought.
"Everybody ... wants you to take an all or nothing position, and
if you don't, they accuse you of waffling," Mr. Robinson said.
While he does have issues with the death penalty, Mr. Terrell
said, his main concerns are prison staffing and security.
"We're willing to build all that brick and mortar and then shove all
the bad guys in there - and not adequately pay or train the
people who are supposed to keep watch over them," he said.
"That's the big issue." Mr. Terrell said he is happy that his name
will be on another prison unit. |
