HOUSTON (AP) - Defense attorneys say experts on eyewitness
identification, confessions and forensic evidence are among those
they expect to call to testify at an unusual hearing on the
constitutionality of the death penalty that starts Monday in Texas.

Lawyers for John Edward Green Jr. say they will try to show that
the way death penalty cases are handled in Texas creates a risk
that innocent people will be executed. Green is charged with
fatally shooting a Houston woman and wounding her sister during a
June 2008 robbery. He faces the death penalty if convicted.

The hearing was called by Harris County Judge Kevin Fine, who
surprised many Texans when he granted a defense motion and declared
the state's death penalty statute unconstitutional. Fine later took
back the ruling and ordered the hearing.

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