So far in 2015, no one has been sen­tenced to death in Texas. The death row pop­u­la­tion has dropped to 257, down from 460 at its peak in 1999. In that year, Texas sen­tenced 48 peo­ple to death, the most in any year since the death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed. Among the rea­sons for the decline in death sen­tences has been the adop­tion of the alter­na­tive sen­tence of life with­out parole (adopt­ed in 2005), and a change in the polit­i­cal cli­mate that had led politi­cians to com­pete in try­ing to appear ​“tough on crime.” The Austin American-Statesman recent­ly exam­ined the cas­es of the 48 defen­dants sen­tenced to death in 1999. Harris County (Houston) hand­ed down more of the sen­tences (11) than any oth­er coun­ty, even though the num­ber of mur­ders there had been declin­ing. Of those sen­tenced to death in 1999, half have been exe­cut­ed. One, Michael Toney, was exon­er­at­ed in 2009. Two died of nat­ur­al caus­es. Six had their sen­tences reduced when the Supreme Court banned the exe­cu­tion of juve­niles in 2005 — all six were 17 at the time of their crimes. The rest remain on death row.

Kathryn Kase, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Texas Defender Service, said coun­ty-lev­el deci­sions to seek the death penal­ty are often deter­mined by bud­getary con­cerns: “[W]hat it has always boiled down to is which coun­ties have the mon­ey to put peo­ple on death row and keep them there.…Who is going to be exe­cut­ed and who is going to be left alive can be like a lightning strike.”

(E. Dexheimer, ​“Where is the Texas death row class of 1999 now?,” Austin American-Statesman, September 5, 2015). See Arbitrariness and Sentencing.

Citation Guide