The annu­al num­ber of death sen­tences in Texas has declined from 40 in fis­cal year 1996 to 14 in 2006, a drop of 65%, accord­ing to the State Office of Court Administration. Last year there were 15 new death sen­tences. This decrease is in line with the nation­al decline in death sen­tences, which dropped from about 300 per year in the 1990s to 125 in 2005.

The drop in Texas was par­tic­u­lar­ly marked in Harris County (Houston), which pro­duced the most death sen­tences of any coun­ty in Texas and the most cas­es lead­ing to exe­cu­tion of any coun­ty in the coun­try. There were 16 death sen­tences from Harris County in fis­cal 1996. This fis­cal year there were 3, the same num­ber as in 2005.

In Hunt County, District Attorney Duncan Thomas said that 14 peo­ple have been indict­ed for cap­i­tal mur­der since July 2003, but all result­ed in life sen­tences. In most of those cas­es, Thomas decid­ed not to seek the death penal­ty at the request of the vic­tims’ families.

“There may have been some of those cas­es where we might have obtained the death penal­ty, but the fam­i­lies want­ed the cer­tain­ty of a life sen­tence where there’s no appeal,” Thomas says.
(Texas Lawyer, Nov. 20, 2006). See Sentencing.

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