Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Releases its 2023 Year in Review Report

A new report released by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty high­lights Texas’ con­tin­u­ing out­lier prac­tices in the admin­is­tra­tion of the death penal­ty. As one of just five states car­ry­ing out exe­cu­tions this year, Texas is respon­si­ble for a third of the 24 exe­cu­tions in 2023. Of the eight men exe­cut­ed, six dis­played sig­nif­i­cant intel­lec­tu­al or men­tal health impair­ments, includ­ing brain dam­age, intel­lec­tu­al dis­abil­i­ty, and a range of men­tal ill­ness­es. ​“The vast major­i­ty of indi­vid­u­als exe­cut­ed by Texas in 2023 had sig­nif­i­cant men­tal impair­ments. What is even more appalling is that most of their jurors nev­er heard about these impair­ments, or the trau­mat­ic life sto­ries of the men they sen­tenced to death,” said Kristin Houlé Cuellar, TCADP Executive Director. Several jurors from the tri­als of those exe­cut­ed expressed new doubts when they learned about mit­i­ga­tion evi­dence that was not pre­sent­ed at tri­al, indi­cat­ing that they would have changed their ver­dict or at least sup­port stays of exe­cu­tion. ​“It is obvi­ous that many of these exe­cut­ed indi­vid­u­als nev­er would have received a death sen­tence if they were tried today,” said Ms. Cuellar.

TCADP’s report also high­lights the geo­graph­ic arbi­trari­ness of the Texas death penal­ty. More than half of the exe­cu­tions sched­uled in 2023 came from just three coun­ties: Bowie (2), Dallas (3), and Harris (2). Since 2019, juries in just 11 of 254 Texas coun­ties imposed death sen­tences. Only Harris and Smith Counties sen­tenced more than one per­son to death in the same time frame. In 2023, three peo­ple were sen­tenced to death in Texas, but none of these sen­tences was secured in any of the top-sen­tenc­ing coun­ties (Bexar, Dallas, Harris, Tarrant).

While the num­ber of new death sen­tences in Texas has fall­en from its peak of near­ly 50 in 1998, when they are imposed, there is a dis­pro­por­tion­ate impact on peo­ple of col­or. Since 2018, more than 50% indi­vid­u­als sen­tenced to death in Texas are peo­ple of col­or. Two of the three new death sen­tences in 2023 were for peo­ple of col­or. Of the eight indi­vid­u­als exe­cut­ed in 2023, more than half were peo­ple of col­or (5). Since 1982, Texas has exe­cut­ed 586 peo­ple, 325 of whom are peo­ple of col­or (55.5%) Despite being about 12% of Texas’ res­i­dents, more than 40% of death sen­tences in the last five years have been imposed on Black people. 

The new report also notes that as of December 12, 2023, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice lists 180 peo­ple on death row, the small­est death row pop­u­la­tion in Texas since 1985, when 188 peo­ple were fac­ing sen­tences of death. Black indi­vid­u­als con­sti­tute 45.6 per­cent of death row inmates, Hispanics com­prise 27.8 per­cent of indi­vid­u­als on death row (39.3 per­cent of the pop­u­la­tion of Texas), and whites com­prise 25.0 per­cent (39.8 per­cent of the Texas pop­u­la­tion). ​“Texas’s use of the death penal­ty con­tin­ues to tar­nish our state’s rep­u­ta­tion as a strong­hold for life, lib­er­ty, and lim­it­ed gov­ern­ment,” said Nan Tolson, Director of Texas Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty. ​“Texans deserve bet­ter than the bro­ken, inef­fec­tive sys­tem of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. It’s time for the Lone Star State to invest in real solu­tions that will keep our com­mu­ni­ties safe and tru­ly uphold our values.”