Editorial: Santa Fe families deserve to see mass-shooting evidence
Steve Perkins, whose wife Ann Perkins was killed during the Santa Fe High School shooting, speaks during a press conference Monday, April 8, 2019, in Santa Fe. Several families members of the victims and surviors of the Santa Fe High School shooting gathered to discuss federal charges being bought against Dimitrios Pagourtzis, who already is charged with capital murder in the Santa Fe High School shooting. Ten people were killed in the May 18, 2018 shooting.
The problem, though, is that Pagourtzis won’t be tried for at least another year, if ever. He remains committed to a state mental institution, where he’s been since 2019. A judge has determined that he’s incompetent to stand trial. State Sen. Mayes Middleton, the Galveston Republican who represents Santa Fe, has introduced a bill that would allow prosecutors to share medical examiners’ reports and video evidence with deceased crime victims’ parents or children without making that information available to the general public. The proposed law,, would pertain to"evidence of a crime that resulted in the death of a person and that occurred in the prosecutor's jurisdiction.
Middleton’s bill has Roady’s support."Under the current law, crime victims and their families don't have the ability to access this information prior to trial," the district attorney said in a statement released by his office."This has been especially heartbreaking for the victims' families in the Santa Fe High School shooting, since the trial in that case has been delayed while we wait for the defendant to be restored to competency.
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