State & Federal
Texas
Timeline
1924 - Texas carries out its first execution by electrocution in the execution of Charles Reynolds in Red River County.
1974 - Texas reinstates the death penalty following Furman v. Georgia.
1982 - Texas becomes the first state to carry out an execution by lethal injection.
1995 - Mario Marquez, a prisoner with an IQ of 65 and the adaptive skills of a 7-year-old, is executed. Mr. Marquez’s trial counsel testifies that no evidence was presented of his intellectual disability because of a legal flaw in the Texas death penalty statute.
2005 - Texas implements life without parole sentencing in capital cases.
2011 - A group of former Texas judges, prosecutors, and law enforcement officers request DNA tests for death row inmate Hank Skinner.
2012 - A Texas county judge declines to order a psychiatric evaluation to determine whether Marcus Druery is competent to be executed. His attorneys argue that he is hearing voices, believes he is being poisoned, and lacks the understanding of his legal situation.
2012 - The Texas Attorney General’s Office releases partial results of DNA testing long requested by the attorneys for death row prisoner Hank Skinner.
2013 - Death row prisoner Andre Thomas is diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and auditory hallucinations, driving him to gouge out both of his eyes. Prosecutors still maintain that he should be executed.
2013 - Governor Rick Perry signs a bill known as the “Michael Morton Act” that requires prosecutors to open their files to defendants and keep records of the evidence they disclose. The act is named after Michael Morton, who was exonerated by DNA evidence 24 years after he was sentenced to life in prison in 1987.
2013 - The Supreme Court rules in Trevino v. Thaler that death row inmates in Texas can raise claims of ineffectiveness of counsel in federal court if they did not have a chance to raise the claim in state appeals.
2013 - A new law requires DNA testing for all biological evidence prior to seeking the death penalty.
2013 - The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules that a trial court illegally ordered the forcible medication of mentally ill death row prisoner Steven Staley, whose mental health began to deteriorate when he entered death row in 2006.
2014 - Texas withholds important information revealed in the course of an independent autopsy of Clayton Lockett, a death row prisoner who had undergone a botched lethal injection execution in the state of Oklahoma.
2014 - District Judge Darlene Byrne rules that the source of Texas’ lethal injection drugs is a matter of public record and the state should release the information, including the suppliers of drugs obtained for lethal injections.
2016 - The Supreme Court hears argument in Buck v. Davis, a Texas case in which Duane Buck was given the death penalty after his own lawyer presented expert testimony from a psychologist who asserted that he would likely commit more acts of violence because he is Black.
2017 - Texas sues the U.S. Federal Drug Administration over its continued seizure of drugs that Texas intends to use for lethal injection executions. The FDA asserts that these shipments violate federal law and that sodium thiopental has no legal use in the United States.
2017 - The Supreme Court grants relief to Duane Buck after hearing an oral argument in Buck v. Davis.
2017 - The Supreme Court overturns Texas’ standard for determining intellectual disability in capital cases, asserting that the state’s approach creates an “unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability will be executed.”
2017 - 1000 vials of the anesthetic sodium thiopental that Texas had attempted to illegally import into the United States for use in lethal injection executions expires.
2017 - Duane Buck is resentenced to life in prison.
2018 - Investigation reveals that Texas has purchased execution drugs from a Houston-based compounding pharmacy with a tainted safety record for three-and-a-half-years.
2019 - The U.S. Supreme Court overturns the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for the second time and rules that death row prisoner Bobby James Moore is intellectually disabled and may not be executed.
2021 - The Texas Department of Criminal Justice revises execution protocol to permit spiritual advisers in the death chamber.
2021 - The Texas House of Representatives pass a bill that, if approved in the Texas Senate, would end death penalty liability for felony accomplices who did not kill and were minor participants in the conduct that led to the death of the victim.
2021 - The nation’s longest serving death row prisoners, Raymond Riles, is resentenced to life.
2021 - The Supreme Court hears an argument to review death row prisoner John Henry Ramirez’s claim that Texas’ refusal to allow his pastor to “lay hands” on him or pray audibly during his execution violates the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and his First Amendment right to the free exercise of religion.
2022 - The Supreme Court rules that Texas must allow John Ramirez’s pastor to touch and pray over him during his lethal injection execution.
2023 - A Texas court in Grayson County withdraws Andre Thomas’ execution date to allow more time for his legal team to demonstrate that he is incompetent to be executed. While on death row, Mr. Thomas gouged out his own eyes and claimed divine direction for his crimes.
2023 - In Reed v. Goertz, the Supreme Court rules that Texas death row prisoner Rodney Reed can continue his pursuit of DNA testing that had been blocked by a lower court.
Famous Cases
Karla Faye Tucker (November 18, 1959 – February 3, 1998) was convicted of murder in Texas in 1984 and put to death in 1998. She was the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984, and the first in Texas since 1863.
Cameron Todd Willingham was executed in 2004 for arson in a 1991 house fire that killed his three daughters. The arson theories used as evidence in his case have since be repudiated by scientific advances, and arson experts now believe the fire may have been accidental.
Notable Cases
Anthony Graves spent 16 years in prison before being released on October 27, 2010. He was convicted based on the testimony of Robert Carter, who said Graves was his accomplice. Two weeks before Carter was scheduled to be executed in 2000, he provided a statement saying he lied about Graves’s involvement in the crime. He repeated that statement minutes before his execution. Graves’ conviction was overturned in 2006 due to prosecutorial misconduct, and the special prosecutor assigned to his new trial dropped the charges against him, saying “We found not one piece of credible evidence that links Anthony Graves to the commission of this capital murder…He is an innocent man”
Randall Dale Adams was convicted of killing a police officer. Another suspect, David Harris, was heard bragging about the murder, but said that Adams was the killer. The witnesses in Adams’ case were never cross-examined because they disappeared after testifying. After Adams’ conviction and death sentence were overturned, prosecutors did not seek a new trial due to evidence of Adams’ innocence. This case is the subject of the movie The Thin Blue Line.
Several death row inmates in Texas have been executed despite serious doubts about their guilt, but they have not been officially exonerated. (Names link to details of that case.)
Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement
In September 2005, Texas implemented life without parole sentencing in capital cases. Prior to that, juries had a choice between the death penalty and life in prison with a possibility of parole after 40 years.
Texas “Firsts”
Texas was the first U.S. state to carry out an execution by lethal injection, executing Charles Brooks on December 7, 1982.
Texas is first in the number of executions carried out in the United States since 1976.
Other Interesting Facts
One Texas county (Harris) accounts for 280+ death sentences and 127 executions since 1982.
The Texas Governor cannot impose a moratorium on executions, as this authority is not allowed in the Texas Constitution. To give the Governor this power would require a constitutional amendment approved by voters.
Clemency process: The governor has clemency authority on the advice of the Board of Pardons and Paroles and needs a favorable recommendation from the Board in order to be able to grant clemency. The governor is not obligated to follow the recommendation of the Board, however. The governor also has the power to grant a one-time 30 day reprieve. The governor appoints the members of the Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Of Texas’ 254 counties, 136 have never sent a single offender to death row (1976-present). See a map of death sentences in Texas by county.
Texas has the Law of Parties, which allows offenders to be sentenced to death if present while a capital crime is being committed based on the offender being “criminally responsible for the conduct of another.”
13 juveniles were executed in Texas before the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Roper v. Simmons. 29 juveniles awaiting execution were sentenced to Life In Prison and removed from death row in response to the decision.
Although the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited the application of the death penalty to persons with mental retardation in Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the Texas Legislature still has not enacted statutory provisions governing the standards and procedures to be followed in these cases.
Resources
- Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP)
- American Bar Association Texas Death Penalty Assessment Report
- TCADP 2017 Annual Report
- Texas Defender Service
- Department of Criminal Justice
- State Prosecuting Attorney
- Task Force on Indigent Defense
- Victims’ services
- The StandDown Texas Project
- Death Penalty News & Updates from Professor Rick Halperin of Southern Methodist University
- Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions
- Texas Court of Criminal Appeals
- Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit
- Texas Death Row Information from the Dept. of Criminal Justice
- ExecutionWatch, a radio show with live coverage of every Texas execution
- Texas After Violence Project
- List of current Texas death row prisoners, from the Texas Tribune
- Faces on death row, a project of the Texas Tribune, featuring photographs and demographic data for Texas’ death row prisoners
Texas Execution Totals Since 1976
News & Developments
News
Apr 17, 2024
Justices Sotomayor and Jackson Issue Dissents Over Supreme Court’s Refusal to Review Two Capital Misconduct Cases
On Monday, April 15, Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonia Sotomayor issued dissents over the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the petitions of two death-sentenced prisoners who alleged official misconduct in their cases. In the first case, Dillion Compton alleged that Texas prosecutors illegally used thirteen of their fifteen peremptory strikes to remove female prospective jurors because of their gender. In the second case, Kurt Michaels argued that California police officers unlawfully continued to question him after he invoked his Miranda rights, leading Mr. Michaels to eventually confess, and his confession…
Read MoreApr 16, 2024
Trial Judge Signs Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, Recommending Melissa Lucio’s Conviction and Death Sentence Be Overturned
On April 12, 2024, Judge Arturo Nelson signed an Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law submitted by the prosecution and defense stating that Melissa Lucio (pictured) was not given access to favorable information in the prosecution’s possession at the time of trial. The acknowledgement of this constitutional error resulted in Judge Nelson’s recommendation to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) that Ms. Lucio’s conviction and death sentence be overturned. The ruling marks the latest chapter in a saga that saw Ms. Lucio narrowly avoid an execution date…
Read MoreApr 11, 2024
Rare Agreement Between District Attorney and Defense Counsel Acknowledge Prosecutorial Misconduct and Need for New Trial for Melissa Lucio
On April 5, 2024, Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz and Innocence Project attorney Vanessa Potkin released a joint statement regarding Melissa Lucio’s case, which has been pending additional review for almost two years. On January 11, 2023, the parties submitted an Agreed Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law stating that the defense was not given access to favorable information in the prosecution’s possession at trial, an error that they agree should entitle Ms. Lucio to a new trial. “Under Texas procedure the trial court must make a recommendation…
Read MoreApr 01, 2024
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Removes Henderson County Man from Death Row Citing Intellectual Disability
On March 27, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) resentenced death row prisoner Randall Mays to life in prison without the possibility of parole after an expert for the state conceded that the evidence presented by Mr. Mays’ attorneys indicates he is intellectually disabled, and thus ineligible for the death penalty. Originally sentenced to death in 2008 for the murder of two Henderson County, Texas, sheriff’s deputies, Mr. Mays’ attorneys have long argued that he should be exempt from facing execution because of his disability. “The evidence of…
Read MoreMar 21, 2024
Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Retired Judge Elsa Alcala on the Death Penalty in Texas
In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Judge Elsa Alcala, who served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals from 2011 to 2018. In addition to serving as a judge at the appeals and trial level, she worked as a prosecutor, criminal defense attorney, and most recently as a justice-reform lobbyist during her three-decade career in criminal law. She shares how these experiences have informed her perspective on the death penalty and identifies recommendations for criminal legal reforms.
Read MoreFeb 28, 2024
New Report from Texas Defender Service Examines Ongoing Racial Disparities in Harris County Death Penalty Practices and Recommends Reforms
A new report from the Texas Defender Service (TDS) titled “Arbitrary and Capricious: Examining Racial Disparities in Harris County’s Pursuit of Death Sentences” was published on February 22, 2024 and is the latest in series of TDS reports on use of the death penalty in Texas. The report focuses on Harris County’s outlier death penalty practices, both within the state and nationally. While more than half of the 254 counties in Texas have never imposed a death sentence, Harris County is responsible for most of the state’s current death row…
Read MoreFeb 23, 2024
Black History Month Profile Series: Craig Watkins
This month, DPIC celebrates Black History Month with weekly profiles of notable Black Americans whose work affected the modern death penalty era. The third in this series is former Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins, who died on December 12, 2023.
Read MoreFeb 22, 2024
Texas Prisoner Faces Execution Despite Doubts About His Guilt and Refusal of Courts to Assess New Evidence
Ivan Cantu is scheduled to be executed on February 28, 2024, although Texas courts have refused to consider new evidence in his case that may prove he was wrongfully convicted. Mr. Cantu was sentenced to death in Collin County for the murder of his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée in November 2000. Texas scheduled an execution date for Mr. Cantu in April 2023, but a last-minute appeal describing new evidence of false witness testimony provided grounds for a stay of execution. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) overturned…
Read MoreJan 18, 2024
Discussions with DPIC Podcast: Life After Death Row with Anthony Graves
In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPIC, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with former death-sentenced prisoner Anthony Graves. Exonerated from Texas’ death row in 2010, Mr. Graves has since become an advocate for criminal justice reform, creating the Anthony Graves Foundation, working with the ACLU and Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and testifying before the U.S. Senate on prison conditions. Mr. Graves has also authored an autobiography titled Infinite Hope: How Wrongful Conviction, Solitary Confinement and 12 Years on Death Row Failed to Kill My Soul.
Read MoreDec 14, 2023
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Releases its 2023 Year in Review Report
A new report released by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty highlights Texas’ continuing outlier practices in the administration of the death penalty. As one of just five states carrying out executions this year, Texas is responsible for a third of the 24 executions in 2023. Of the eight men executed, six displayed significant intellectual or mental health impairments, including brain damage, intellectual disability, and a range of mental illnesses. “The vast majority of individuals executed by Texas in 2023 had significant mental impairments. What is even more appalling…
Read MoreNov 16, 2023
After “Due Process Disaster,” Texas Death Row Prisoner Whose Appeal Was Lost is Resentenced and Eligible for Parole
A death-sentenced prisoner whose appeal was lost for thirty years was resentenced to life with parole on November 14, 2023, when the Harris County, Texas District Attorney’s office said it is no longer pursuing the death penalty. Syed Rabbani, a Bangladeshi national, has been on death row since 1988 for a fatal Houston shooting. Mr. Rabbani filed his appeal in 1994, but it remained pending in the Harris County Court system until 2022, when the Harris County District Clerk’s Office rediscovered the filing among 100+ other ‘forgotten’ cases. Although severely…
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