What if you were held responsible for the actions of another? What if you spent the rest of your life behind bars because of a crime you didn’t commit? What if you were sentenced to death?

In Section 7.01 of the Texas Penal Code, constituents will find the Law of Parties, which states, “A person is criminally responsible as a party to an offense if the offense is committed by his own conduct, by the conduct of another for which he is criminally responsible, or by both,” and that “Each party to an offense may be charged with commission of the offense.”

This means that, for example, if you agree to drive the getaway car while your best friend robs a bank and they kill someone inside, you are then liable for their behavior and can now be tried for murder.

Of course, this applies to other felonies as well. Texas Penal Code section 7.02 states, “If, in the attempt to carry out a conspiracy to commit one felony, another felony is committed by one of the conspirators, all conspirators are guilty of the felony actually committed, though having no intent to commit it, if the offense was committed in furtherance of the unlawful purpose and was one that should have been anticipated as a result of the carrying out of the conspiracy. In this subsection, ‘conspiracy’ means an agreement between two or more persons to commit a felony.”

I believe that this law is unjust for a few reasons, one of them is that the very definition of murder is “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another,” yet, in the Law of Parties, it states that the conspirators have “no intent to commit [murder].”

There are also innocent individuals being convicted. Despite the person potentially being guilty of the crime they were committing, I don’t believe it is right to try them for the actions of another. At the end of the day, every individual made their own decisions.

Although I am strongly against the death penalty, my reasoning is not swayed due to this belief. The truth is that murder is simply what it is — killing someone. So, again, if the individual did not take someone’s life away, why charge them? Why take their life away? Especially when so many are charged with capital murder, which has the possibility of a death sentence.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Texas has had the highest number of executions in the nation since 1976, so the state won’t hesitate in utilizing its right to sentence people to death. Because of this, I think that there should be more thought put into which people they are charging with capital murder. In my eyes, that would be murder: executing someone that you know did not kill anyone.

Currently, there is a case that has been unfolding in Hays County for almost a decade that relates to this law — the murder of Joel Espino, 21. According to the San Marcos Police Department, Espino was shot in the head by his roommate after seven other individuals allegedly barged in to rob them. Police know that the roommate pulled the trigger (in self-defense) and yet, seven men faced capital murder charges. These charges are in line with Section 7.02 of the Texas Penal Code, which states, “Acting with the kind of culpability required for the offense, he causes or aids an innocent or nonresponsible person to engage in conduct prohibited by the definition of the offense.”

This occurred in 2015 and now, eight years later, the last defendant, Joey Vargas — who sat in jail for almost the entirety of those eight years — is still awaiting trial. The other six either took plea deals or had their cases dismissed after years of sitting in jail.

The truth is that Espino and his family deserve justice; nevertheless, charging these individuals with capital murder is not the justice that people believe it is. I’m not going to pretend that I know what would ease their pain — I’m not sure anything could — but I don’t think taking seven more children away from their parents makes anyone sleep better at night.

These unwarranted charges are not only filling already overflowing jails with complex cases involving murders (Hays County does not have the best history with speedy trials), but the state is also potentially sentencing people to death who have not committed the crime to “warrant” it.

House Bill 1736, sponsored by District 67 Rep. Jeff Leach, would limit the application of the death penalty to those charged with capital murder in Law of Parties cases. It was approved by the House of Representatives, but unfortunately died in the Senate earlier this year. It’s unclear if the bill will be brought in front of the 89th Legislature. Although this means that as of now, there will be no amendments to current law, it does provide slight peace of mind that there could be change in the future.

Kelley is a reporter for the Hays Free Press/News-Dispatch. She can be reached at brittanyk@haysfreepress.com.