Texas Death Row Continues to Shrink As No Death Sentences Imposed in First Half of 2015

Death row in Texas has shrunk from 460 men and women at its peak in 1999 to 260 today. The main rea­son for that drop, accord­ing to an arti­cle in The Texas Tribune, is the dra­mat­ic decline in death sen­tences imposed in the state. In 1999 alone, Texas sen­tenced 48 peo­ple to death. But in the first 6 months of 2015, no death sen­tences have been imposed in Texas. This devel­op­ment is unprece­dent­ed, accord­ing to the Texas Defender Service (TDS). ​“This is the longest we’ve gone in a cal­en­dar year in Texas with­out a new death sen­tence,” said Kathryn Kase, direc­tor of TDS. Kase said that a major fac­tor con­tribut­ing to the decline in death sen­tences is Texas’ adop­tion of life with­out parole in 2005. ​“Life with­out parole allows us to go back and reverse our mis­takes,” Kase said. ​“We can be real­ly safe in these cas­es.” In the decade since life with­out parole became a sen­tenc­ing option, Texas has aver­aged about 10 death sen­tences per year. In the pri­or decade, an aver­age of 34 peo­ple were sent to death row each year. The Tribune reports that ​“Between 2007 and 2014, the num­ber of life-with­out-parole sen­tences jumped from 37 to 96.” Three death penal­ty cas­es have been tried in Texas so far this year, and all three result­ed in sen­tences of life without parole.