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State And Federal Info

Texas

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.)

  • Cameron Todd Willingham
  • Gary Graham
  • Carlos De Luna
  • Ruben Cantu
  • Frances Newton

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.

Graphic by The Texas Tribune based upon data as of June 24, 2015.
Graphic by The Texas Tribune based upon data as of June 24, 2015.

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


Arbitrariness

Feb 17, 2021

Divided Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Death Sentence for Texas Mother of Child Who May Have Died in Accidental Fall

Continuing an unpar­al­leled pat­tern of rul­ings adverse to Texas death-row pris­on­ers, a divid­ed U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has rein­stat­ed the con­vic­tion and death sen­tence of a moth­er con­vict­ed of killing her two-ye…

Divided Federal Appeals Court Reinstates Death Sentence for Texas Mother of Child Who May Have Died in Accidental Fall

Feb 16, 2021

BOOKS: "Let The Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty"

In his new book, Let the Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty, jour­nal­ist Maurice Chammah presages the death of America’s cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment sys­tem. Chammah expert­ly weaves togeth­er sys­temic issues with …

BOOKS: "Let The Lord Sort Them: The Rise and Fall of the Death Penalty"

Innocence

Feb 15, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of February 8, 2021

NEWS (2/​11/​21) — Alabama: In a splin­tered vote with three con­ser­v­a­tive jus­tices not­ing their dis­sents, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the Alabama Attorney General’s appli­ca­tion to vacate a …

Mental Illness

Feb 08, 2021

Harris County DA Seeks to Vacate Sentence for Nation’s Longest-Serving Death-Row Prisoner

The Harris County District Attorney’s office has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to over­turn the death sen­tence imposed on Raymond Riles (pic­tured), the nation’s longest-serv­ing death-ro…

Harris County DA Seeks to Vacate Sentence for Nation’s Longest-Serving Death-Row Prisoner

Intellectual Disability

Jan 25, 2021

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of January 18, 2021

NEWS (1/​22/​21) — Texas: The Kaufman County District Attorney’s office has con­ced­ed that Texas death-row pris­on­er Charles Brownlow is intel­lec­tu­al­ly dis­abled and can­not be resen­tenced to death. The coun­ty pros­e­cu­tors’ deci­sion come…

Innocence

Dec 22, 2020

Texas Supreme Court Orders Compensation for Death-Row Exoneree Alfred Dewayne Brown

The Texas Supreme Court has unan­i­mous­ly ruled that the state’s comp­trol­ler had no author­i­ty to deny death-row exoneree Alfred Dewayne Brown’s appli­ca­tion for com­pen­sa­tion after a tri­al court had declared him ​“actu…

Texas Supreme Court Orders Compensation for Death-Row Exoneree Alfred Dewayne Brown

Innocence

Dec 21, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of December 14, 2020

NEWS (12/​18/​20) — Texas: The Texas Supreme Court has over­turned a rul­ing by the state’s comp­trol­ler that had denied death-row exoneree Alfred Dew…

Intellectual Disability

Dec 14, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of December 7, 2020

NEWS (12/​11/​20) — Texas: The U.S. Army Court of Criminal Appeals has upheld the con­vic­tions and death sen­tences imposed on 

Intellectual Disability

Dec 07, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of November 30, 2020

NEWS (12/​4/​20) — Nevada: The Nevada Supreme Court has over­turned the death sen­tence imposed on Mexican for­eign nation­al Carlos Gutierrez

Race

Nov 17, 2020

Lawyers for Orlando Hall Seek to Stay His Execution Based Upon Systemic and Case-Specific Evidence of Racial Discrimination

Lawyers for fed­er­al death-row pris­on­er Orlando Hall (pic­tured), who is sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed on November 19, 2020, have filed a motion to stay his exe­cu­tion based upon evi­dence that his death sen­tence was a prod­uct of pervasive…

Lawyers for Orlando Hall Seek to Stay His Execution Based Upon Systemic and Case-Specific Evidence of Racial Discrimination
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View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 570
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include federal and military executions): 755
  • Current Death Row Population: 210
  • Women on Death Row: 6
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 16
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 3
  • Date of Reinstatement (following Furman v. Georgia): January 1, 1974
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1982
  • Location of Death Row (Men): Polunsky Unit, Livingston
  • Location of Death Row (Women): Mountain View Unit (DR), Gatesville
  • Location of Execution: Walls Unit, Huntsville
  • Capital: Austin
  • Region: South
  • Population: 25,145,561
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 5.0
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Can a defendant get death for a felony in which s/he was not responsible for the murder?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: Injection
  • How is Sentence Determined?: Jury
  • Clemency Process: Governor must have the Board of Pardons and Paroles' recommendation for clemency.
  • Governor: Greg Abbott

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