Forty years after Gregg v. Georgia ush­ered in the mod­ern era of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the United States, the death penal­ty is in decline across the coun­try and in Texas. The Lone Star State con­tin­ues to lead the nation in exe­cu­tions — with near­ly half of all exe­cu­tions in the U.S. this year — but the Amarillo Globe-News reports that few­er Texas pros­e­cu­tors are seek­ing death sen­tences and few­er juries are impos­ing them. According to the Globe-News, 26 peo­ple have been sen­tenced to death since 1976 in the Amarillo-area coun­ties of Potter (17 death sen­tences) and Randall (9 death sen­tences). As of January 1, 2013, Potter County ranked 11th in the coun­try in exe­cu­tions, but with its last exe­cu­tion in 2008, it has fall­en to 16th, and no Amarillo-area pris­on­er is on death row for an offense com­mit­ted after 2003. The two Potter County death row pris­on­ers, John Balentine and Travis Runnels, are chal­leng­ing their death sen­tences in fed­er­al court on the grounds that the lawyers the coun­ty appoint­ed for them at tri­al and in state appel­late pro­ceed­ings pro­vid­ed inef­fec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion, inad­e­quate­ly inves­ti­gat­ing and fail­ing to present mit­i­gat­ing evi­dence that might have per­suad­ed the jury to spare their lives. A third Amarillo-area pris­on­er, Brittany Holberg, has been on death row for 18 years, and Randall County crim­i­nal dis­trict attor­ney James Farren esti­mates her case has already cost tax­pay­ers $2 mil­lion — $3 mil­lion. Farren believes the prac­ti­cal costs of the death penal­ty are con­tribut­ing to pros­e­cu­tors’ deci­sions not to seek death in new cas­es. ​“The process has become so oner­ous, time-drain­ing and resource-drain­ing that the local pros­e­cu­tors who choose to seek the death penal­ty in most cas­es are going to opt not to,” he said. ​“It’s sim­ply unfair to the tax­pay­ers to bank­rupt the coun­ty pur­su­ing that result in a sin­gle case.” Farren also says that leg­is­la­tion cre­at­ing a life with­out parole sen­tenc­ing option has changed jurors’ views: ​“It’s dif­fi­cult to find 12 peo­ple who all agree that even though this per­son may die in prison to vote for the death penal­ty.” This reflects pub­lic opin­ion polls, which find that a major­i­ty of the pub­lic prefers life with­out parole to the death penal­ty. A recent poll by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research indi­cates that only 27% of Houstonians think the death penal­ty is a more appro­pri­ate pun­ish­ment for mur­der than life with­out parole. Houston is in Harris County, Texas, which has exe­cut­ed more pris­on­ers than any oth­er coun­ty in the nation.

(A. Davis, ​“Is death knell near for the death penal­ty in Texas?,” Amarillo Globe-News, July 2, 2016.) See Costs and Public Opinion. For dates of Texas death row offens­es, see Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Offenders on Death Row.

Citation Guide