--- title: Texas description: 'New death sentences in Texas have been in decline for more than twenty-five years, from a high of 48 in 1999, to an average of less than four a year for…' canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/state-and-federal-info/state-by-state/texas' section: statePages date: '2017-10-12T13:55:00-04:00' updated: '2026-10-02T19:32:46-04:00' source: 'Death Penalty Information Center' --- Overview -------- New death sentences in Texas have been in decline for more than twenty-five years, from a high of 48 in 1999, to an average of less than four a year for the last 10 years. People of color comprise more than half of all individuals sentenced to death in the state. Texas has executed more individuals than any other state since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1973. As of 2025, one Texas county—Harris—was responsible for more executions than any other *state* (136) except Texas itself. Texas was the first state to carry out an execution by lethal injection, executing Charles Brooks on December 7, 1982. The state has [come under scrutiny](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-documents-reveal-texas-has-spent-more-than-775-000-on-lethal-injection-drugs-since-october-2024-but-many-other-details-remain-secret) for the secrecy it exercises around execution drug procurement. Texas executed thirteen juveniles before the Supreme Court ruled their execution unconstitutional in *Roper v. Simmons* (2005). Texas had 41% of the country’s death-sentenced juveniles (29) on its death row at the time of the Court’s decision. Eighteen wrongfully convicted people have been [exonerated](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/policy/innocence) from death row in Texas, and another nine individuals [who had credible claims of innocence](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/policy/innocence/executed-but-possibly-innocent) were also executed. Texas also has one of the smallest number of [clemency grants](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/data/death-penalty-census/sentences?jurisdiction=Texas&sentence-outcome=Sentence+Commuted&case-status=Sentence+Commuted) of any state for capitally-sentenced individuals (4). 136 The number of executions carried out by Harris County, Texas, more than any other state except Texas itself. 59% The portion of death sentenced individuals in Texas who are people of color. [ $775k The amount Texas officials spent on the execution drug pentobarbital from October 2024 to October 2025. ](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/new-documents-reveal-texas-has-spent-more-than-775-000-on-lethal-injection-drugs-since-october-2024-but-many-other-details-remain-secret) 1,000 The number of vials of sodium thiopental illegally imported by Texas officials and seized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2017. ![Texas Death Sentences By Year (Line chart)](https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/BYuYe/full.png) - Overview - 1924 - 1974 - 1982 - 1995 - 2005 - 2005 - 2007 - 2011 - 2013 - 2013 - 2013 - 2017 - 2017 - 2018 - 2021 - 2021 - 2022 - 2022 Texas' Death Penalty Timeline Overview View Texas' long and controversial history with the death penalty. **This timeline details some of its most consequential moments. Swipe to learn more.** Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 1924 Texas carries out its first execution by electric chair with the execution of Charles Reynolds in Red River County. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 1974 Texas legislature reinstates the death penalty following *Furman v. Georgia*. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 1982 Texas becomes the first state to carry out an execution by lethal injection with the execution of Charles Brooks, Jr. (aka Ahmad Adbul-Rahim). Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 1995 Texas executes Mario Marquez, a prisoner who experts say had an IQ of 65 and the adaptive skills of a 7‑year-old. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2005 Texas implements life without parole (LWOP) sentencing in capital cases, becoming the 37th state to adopt this option. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2005 The Supreme Court, in its ruling in *Miller-El v. Dretke*, grants habeas relief to a Black prisoner after finding that Texas prosecutors unconstitutionally excluded Black people from serving on his capital jury. The Court found broader patterns of practice, including a training manual that instructed prosecutors how to use preemptive strikes to remove Black jurors and avoid detection, supporting a conclusion of intentional racial discrimination. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2007 The U.S. Supreme Court, in its ruling in *Panetti v. Quarterman*, established that for death-sentenced prisoner Scott Panetti to be found competent to be executed, it was not enough for him to be merely “aware” of his pending execution, but rather that he must have a “rational understanding” of his execution and the reason for it. In 2023, Mr. Panetti was[ found incompetent to be executed](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/scott-panetti-prisoner-in-landmark-competency-case-dies-on-texas-death-row-of-natural-causes) by a federal court. He died of natural causes on death row in Texas in 2025. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2011 The U.S. Supreme Court decides *Skinner v. Switzer*, establishing that death-sentenced prisoner Hank Skinner may use a 42 U.S.C. §1983 civil rights lawsuit to request post-conviction DNA testing of crime-scene evidence. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 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. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2013 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in *Trevino v. Thaler* that when a state’s procedural framework, by reason of its design and operation, makes it highly unlikely that a defendant will have a meaningful opportunity to raise on direct appeal a claim that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance, the good cause exception excusing procedural default recognized in [*Martinez v. Ryan*](http://www2.bloomberglaw.com/public/document/Martinez_v_Ryan_No_101001_2012_BL_66019_US_Mar_20_2012_Court_Opin) applies. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2013 [SB 1292](https://capitol.texas.gov/tlodocs/83R/billtext/html/SB01292F.htm) is signed into law requiring DNA testing of evidence that can reasonably be used to either establish the identity of the person who may have committed the crime or exclude someone as having committed the crime, before seeking the death penalty. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2017 The U.S. Supreme Court, in *Buck v. Davis*, orders a new trial for Duane Buck, a Texas death-sentenced prisoner , after his own lawyer presented testimony from a psychologist who told the jury Mr. Buck was more likely to commit future acts of violence because he is Black. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts stated that “\[o\]ur law punishes people for what they do, not who they are". Mr. Buck was subsequently resentenced to life in prison. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2017 The Supreme Court, in *Moore v. Texas*, directs Texas courts to reconsider the standard for determining intellectual disability in capital cases, asserting that the state’s unscientific approach creates an “unacceptable risk that persons with intellectual disability will be executed.” After Texas courts refused to overturn his death sentence, in 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Bobby James Moore is a person with intellectual disabilities and may not be executed. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2018 An investigative news report reveals that, for three-and-a-half-years, Texas has been purchasing execution drugs from a Houston-based compounding pharmacy with health and safety violations. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2021 After years of litigation, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was forced to allowed spiritual advisors [chosen by the death-sentenced individual](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/texas-revises-execution-protocol-to-permit-spiritual-advisers-in-death-chamber) to accompany them in the death chamber. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2021 The nation’s longest serving death row prisoner, Raymond Riles, is resentenced to life. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2022 The Supreme Court, in *Ramirez v. Collier*, rules that Texas likely violates the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) and the First Amendment by not allowing Henry Ramirez’s pastor to touch and pray over him during his lethal injection execution. Texas' Death Penalty Timeline 2022 43 pages of emails, text messages, and statements from prison staff released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice in response to a public records request about the 2021 execution of Quinton Jones under the Texas Public Information Act reveal “confusion and lack of training,” leaving Texas “woefully unprepared to carry out and execution,” [according to the American Civil Liberties Union](https://www.aclutx.org/news/documents-reveal-confusion-and-lack-training-texas-execution/). - Overview - Anthony Graves - Randall Dale Adams - Karla Faye Tucker - Cameron Todd Willingham - Rodney Reed Notable Cases from Texas Overview Notable Cases Swipe to see some of Texas’ most notable death penalty cases. Notable Cases from Texas Anthony Graves **Anthony Graves** spent 18 and a half years in prison, 12 of them in solitary confinement on death row, before being released in 2010. He was convicted based on the testimony of Robert Carter, who said Mr. Graves was his accomplice. Before his own execution,Mr. Carter confessed that he lied about Mr. Graves’s involvement in the crime. Mr. Graves’ conviction was overturned in 2006 due to prosecutorial misconduct. 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.” Notable Cases from Texas Randall Dale Adams **Randall Dale Adams** was convicted in 1977 of killing a Dallas police officer. Another suspect, David Harris, claimed Mr. Adams was the killer. Dr. [James Grigson](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Grigson), a psychiatrist known in Texas as "Dr. Death," testified at trial with "100 percent certainty" that Mr. Adam’s posed a future danger, a requirement for his death sentence. Other key witnesses in the case were never cross-examined because they disappeared after testifying. After Mr. Adams’ conviction and death sentence were overturned in 1989, prosecutors did not seek a new trial in the face of evidence of Mr. Adams’ innocence. This case is the subject of the movie The Thin Blue Line. Notable Cases from Texas Karla Faye Tucker **Karla Faye Tucker** (November 18, 1959 – February 3, 1998) was convicted of murder in Texas in 1984 and executed in 1998. Despite evidence that she had become a devout Christian, and despite international pleas for mercy and clemency, she became was the first woman to be executed in the United States since 1984, and the first in Texas since 1863. Notable Cases from Texas Cameron Todd Willingham **Cameron Todd Willingham** was convicted in 1992 for a 1991 house fire that killed his three daughters. His conviction was based largely on forensic evidence of arson that both prosecutors and defense attorneys now agree was seriously flawed. The arson experts who testified at trial said the fire was intentionally set. Their testimony has since been [debunked,](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/innocence-trial-fire-did-texas-execute-innocent-man) and modern science and investigation methods now suggest that the fire was accidental. Mr. Willingham was executed on February 17, 2004. Notable Cases from Texas Rodney Reed Texas prosecutors sentenced [**Rodney Reed**](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/tag/rodney-reed) to death in 1998 for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, whom they argued was strangled with her own leather belt. Mr. Reed has maintained his innocence and requested DNA testing of the belt to exonerate him, taking his cases twice to the U.S. Supreme Court. The first Supreme Court decision, in 2023, rebuked Texas’ refusal to conduct testing—but did not ultimately result in any testing. On appeal again in 2026, the Supreme Court denied certiorari. Dissenting from the denial, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson called Texas’ refusal to permit DNA testing “inexplicable.” - Overview - 2011 - 2013 - 2014 - 2017 - 2018 - April 2019 - May 2019 - 2021 - 2025 Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs Overview Over the past 15 years, as lethal injection drugs have become more difficult to obtain from mainstream manufacturers, Texas has gone to great lengths to find alternative sources, at times operating on the edge of the law and safety regulations. This timeline recounts major milestones in this still evolving story. Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs 2011 Danish pharmaceutical company and sole manufacturer of pentobarbital for sale in the United States, [Lundbeck Inc.](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions/methods-of-execution/lethal-injection/statements-from-drug-manufacturers-and-medical-professionals), [demands their products stop being used in executions](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/sole-provider-of-new-drug-for-u-s-executions-faces-ethical-dilemma) and prohibits their sale to prisons. Texas had already switched to pentobarbital from sodium thiopental after the European Union forbade the export of certain anesthetics, such as sodium thiopental and pentobarbital, which are used in lethal injections to the United States. Even after manufacturing rights for pentobarbital were transferred to the U.S.-based Akorn, Inc., the restrictions on sales to prisons remained in place. Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs 2013 Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) officials announce its remaining supply of pentobarbital would expire before the end of the year. Unable to lawfully purchase the drug from a drug manufacturer, Texas begins buying pentobarbital from a [compounding pharmacy](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/compounding-pharmacies). [Multiple lawsuits](https://ktar.com/national-news/apnewsbreak-texas-reveals-execution-drugs-origin/119577/) are filed in response. Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs 2014 Attorney General Greg Abbott [issues an order](https://apnews.com/article/98cde791922b4ab89555f600094298ec) to protect the identity of compounding pharmacies that supply the state with lethal injection drugs, citing threats to the suppliers. A 2016 [*BuzzFeed* investigation](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chrismcdaniel/fbi-documents-dont-back-up-claimed-threat-to-execution-drug) found “few concrete examples” of any of the harassment, intimidation, and physical threats states claim have been made against drug suppliers, and that “the states’ marquee example — in which the FBI allegedly investigated a serious bomb threat sent to a drug supplier — is contradicted by internal FBI documents.” Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs 2017 The Texas Department of Criminal Justice [files suit](https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/2017-texas-suit-against-the-FDA-over-drug-confiscation.pdf) against the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) after the [FDA’s refusal to release](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/fda-issues-final-order-refusing-to-release-illegally-imported-lethal-injection-drugs-to-states) 1,000 vials of sodium Thiopental, illegally imported from India and destined for use in executions in Texas. The FDA said the shipment violated federal law and that sodium thiopental had no “legal uses” in the United States. Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs 2018 [An investigative report](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chrismcdaniel/inmates-said-the-drug-burned-as-they-died-this-is-how-texas?__twitter_impression=true) into the source of lethal injection drugs used in executions between 2015 and 2018 reveals Texas purchased its supplies from Houston-based Greenpark Compounding Pharmacy— which had been“cited for scores of safety violations.” A number of prisoners executed by Texas in 2018 reported experiencing burning sensations after being injected with pentobarbital made by the pharmacy. The drug is promoted as painless, but Dr. David Waisel, an anesthesiologist and Harvard Medical School professor, noted in [a 2016 affidavit](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/investigation-reveals-texas-obtained-possibly-tainted-execution-drugs-from-pharmacy-with-tainted-safety-record), “\[i\]mproper compounding and testing procedures may leave fine particles . . . or larger particles \[in the solution\] that . . . can cause great irritation to the vein, resulting in extraordinary pain.” Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs April 2019 The Texas Supreme Court reverses an earlier decision that would have publicly disclosed the source of lethal njection drugs used to carry out executions in Texas in 2014. [The Court reasoned](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/veil-of-execution-secrecy-expands-in-several-southern-death-penalty-states) that public disclosure “would create a substantial threat of physical harm to the source’s employees and others” despite no evidence of actual threats. Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs May 2019 The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) [issues an advi](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/department-of-justice-asserts-that-food-and-drug-administration-lacks-jurisdiction-over-lethal-injection-drugs)sory memorandum declaring that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) “lacks jurisdiction” to regulate execution drugs, including enforcing federal laws that prohibit the import of drugs from other countries. [The mem](https://www.justice.gov/olc/opinion/file/1162686/download)orandum conflicts with a [2012 fed](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/federal-court-overturns-fdas-approval-foreign-shipments-lethal-injection-drugs)eral district court order requiring the FDA to enforce federal laws barring the importation of unapproved or misbranded drugs or drugs that come from unregistered facilities. Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs 2021 Quintin Jones is put to death in Texas [with no media witnesses](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/citing-inexperience-and-miscommunication-texas-conducts-execution-without-media-witnesses) present to witness the execution, the first such instance in the 571 executions conducted by Texas since 1982. Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) said inexperienced execution team members failed to notify prison officials to bring media witnesses into the viewing area. Texas’ Quest for Lethal Injection Drugs 2025 Internal agency documents reviewed by *NBC News* in response to a public records request reveal that since October 2024 [Texas has spent more than $775,000 to acquire pen](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/npr-investigation-reveals-supplier-of-texas-execution-drugs-has-multiple-drug-enforcement-agency-violations-questions-remain-regarding-drug-acquisition-in-other-states)tobarbital, the drug used in the state’s lethal injection execution protocol. During the same time frame, the state carried out [6 exe](https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/data/executions?state=Texas&start-date=10/01/2024&end-date=10/31/2025&federal=No)cutions. ! **Other Interesting Facts** --------------------------- - 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. - 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." Resources --------- - Adriano Martins, "[The Declining Use of the Death Penalty in the State of Texas](https://files.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/pdf/2025-06-23-Death-penalty-in-texas-AM-article.pdf)," June 23, 2025. - [Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty](https://tcadp.org/) (TCADP) - [American Bar Association Texas Death Penalty Assessment Report](https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/projects/death_penalty_due_process_review_project/state_death_penalty_assessments/texas.html) - [TCADP 2017 Annual Report](https://tcadp.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Texas-Death-Penalty-Developments-in-2017-Year-in-Review.pdf) - [Texas Defender Service](http://texasdefender.org/) - [Department of Criminal Justice](https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/) - [State Prosecuting Attorney](http://www.spa.state.tx.us/) - [Task Force on Indigent Defense](http://www.tidc.texas.gov/) - [Victims' services](https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/divisions/vs/index.html) - [The StandDown Texas Project](http://www.standdown.org/) - [Death Penalty News & Updates](http://p2.smu.edu/rhalperi/) from Professor Rick Halperin of Southern Methodist University - [Timothy Cole Advisory Panel on Wrongful Convictions](http://www.tidc.texas.gov/innocence/innocence-program-overview/tcap/) - [Texas Court of Criminal Appeals](http://www.txcourts.gov/cca/) - [Texas Criminal Justice Integrity Unit](http://www.txcourts.gov/cca/texas-criminal-justice-integrity-unit/) - [Texas Death Row Information](https://www.tdcj.texas.gov/death_row/index.html) from the Dept. of Criminal Justice - [ExecutionWatch](http://executionwatch.org/), a radio show with live coverage of every Texas execution - [Texas After Violence Project](http://texasafterviolence.org/) - [List of current Texas death row prisoners](https://www.texastribune.org/library/data/texas-prisons/death-row/), from the Texas Tribune - [Faces on death row](https://apps.texastribune.org/death-row/), a project of the Texas Tribune, featuring photographs and demographic data for Texas' death row prisoners