---
title: 'Texas Police Chief Calls for Halt to Executions in Wake of Scandal'
description: 'In the wake of a scandal that has called into question the reliability of the police crime lab’s testing and handling of evidence in Harris County, Texas…'
canonical: 'https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/texas-police-chief-calls-for-halt-to-executions-in-wake-of-scandal'
section: news
date: '2004-10-01T16:09:00-04:00'
updated: '2025-03-14T14:23:40-04:00'
source: 'Death Penalty Information Center'
---

In the wake of a scandal that has called into question the reliability of the police crime lab's testing and handling of evidence in Harris County, Texas, **Police Chief Harold Hurtt has said that executions of inmates from the county should not be scheduled until all relevant evidence has been reexamined to assure accuracy.** He went on to note that the executions of nine individuals convicted in Harris County that are scheduled to take place before March 2005 should not be allowed to go forward. **"I think it would be very prudent for us as a criminal justice system to delay further executions until we have had time to review the evidence,"** Hurtt said. Harris County investigators are about a quarter of the way through their review of hundreds of boxes of evidence that had been forgotten in a storage room and may impact thousands of crimnal cases. (Houston Chronicle, September 30, 2004). See [Innocence.](/innocence-and-death-penalty?did=412&scid=6)