We assume the government is us. It is ours. Its decisions, made by the representatives we elect and the people they appoint, are our decisions. That isn't how the executive clemency process works now. The 18 members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles receive clemency applications and supporting information via fax or mail.
Members vote by fax, never meeting to deliberate.
Several attorneys had filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of condemned prisoners charging that the board's clemency process violates the Texas Open Meetings Act and the state Constitution. The law appears to be on their side. The plaintiffs won a temporary restraining order in a Travis County state district court, but the Texas Supreme Court stayed the order Tuesday. The board can continue to deliberate in private while the state high civil court examines the issue. The board argues that another section of the code exempts them from open meetings rules.