Entries tagged with “Charles Flores

Mar 24, 2026

Amici Supporting Texas Prisoner Charles Flores Urge U.S. Supreme Court to Hear His Innocence Claims, Including Those Based on Discredited Investigative Hypnosis’ Evidence

On March 12, 2026, a diverse group of voic­es filed *ami­cus curi­ae* briefs in sup­port of Charles Flores (pic­tured), a Texas death-sen­­tenced pris­on­er, urg­ing the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case. Mr. Flores has spent more than 25 years on death row for a mur­der he main­tains he did not com­mit. His con­vic­tion relied on the tes­ti­mo­ny of a neigh­bor who iden­ti­fied him — for the first time, at tri­al — only after being hyp­no­tized by police. The briefs were filed by a…

Executions

Mar 16, 2026

The New York Times Editorial Board Condemns Secrecy, Arbitrariness of U.S. Death Penalty

The New York Times edi­to­r­i­al board pub­lished an arti­cle on March 13, 2026, con­demn­ing use of the death penal­ty in the coun­try as secre­tive, arbi­trary, and unjust. Relying heav­i­ly on research and data main­tained by the Death Penalty Information Center, the board describes the events of 2025, with its sharp increase in exe­cu­tions, as a​“dark new peri­od” in the nation’s his­to­ry. The board attrib­ut­es much of the surge to Florida, which alone car­ried out 19 executions in…

Feb 09, 2026

Football, Death Row, and Hypnotized Witness Testimony: The Case of Charles Flores

Among the more than 100 mil­lion Americans watch­ing the Super Bowl on Sunday, Charles Flores (pic­tured) watched from a 9‑by-12-foot cell in Livingston, Texas, mark­ing his 27th Super Bowl on death row for a crime he has main­tained he did not com­mit. In a pod­cast inter­view with Pablo Torre, a jour­nal­ist and sports­writer, Mr. Flores sat down at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston to dis­cuss his love of the Dallas Cowboys, watch­ing the Super Bowl on death row, the intri­ca­cies of his…

Issues

May 13, 2020

Texas Appeals Court Declines to Apply Junk-Science Law to Review Death Sentence Based Upon Hypnotically Assisted Identification Testimony

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) has upheld the rul­ing of a Dallas tri­al court that denied a new tri­al to death-row pris­on­er Charles Flores (pic­tured), whose con­vic­tion and death sen­tence were the prod­uct of hyp­not­i­cal­ly assist­ed tes­ti­mo­ny. The TCCA said its deci­sion was “[b]ased upon the tri­al court’s find­ings and con­clu­sions,” which the appeals court acknowl­edged had sim­ply​“adopt­ed the State’s pro­posed findings of…

Issues

May 07, 2020

Capital Case Roundup — Death Penalty Court Decisions the Week of May 42020

NEWS (5/​7/​20) — Florida: The Florida Supreme Court has upheld the death sen­tence imposed on Leonardo Franqui, deny­ing post-con­vic­­tion chal­lenges to his death sen­tence based upon claims that he is inel­i­gi­ble for the death penal­ty because of intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty and that his death sen­tence was uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly imposed after some mem­bers of his jury…

Issues

Victims' Families

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Apr 10, 2017

Texas Court Stays Execution of Paul Storey Based on False Argument About Wishes of Victim’s Family

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has issued an order stay­ing the sched­uled April 12 exe­cu­tion of Paul Storey. The unpub­lished April 7 order sends Storey’s case back to the tri­al court to con­sid­er whether the pros­e­cu­tion know­ing­ly pre­sent­ed false evi­dence about the vic­tim’s fam­i­ly’s views on the…