In a case that reflects the wan­ing use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, even in the some of the coun­ties that have car­ried out the most exe­cu­tions in mod­ern times, Rick Rhoades on September 28, 2021 became the first per­son con­vict­ed in Harris County (Houston), Texas to be exe­cut­ed in two years. 

Rhoades was sen­tenced to death in Harris County in 1992. With 130 exe­cu­tions since the 1970s, the coun­ty is respon­si­ble for putting more pris­on­ers to death than any oth­er coun­ty in the nation, and for more exe­cu­tions than any state but Texas dur­ing that time. 

Yet Harris County has wit­nessed a sharp decline in new death sen­tences and exe­cu­tions. Just five peo­ple con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal mur­der in the coun­ty have been exe­cut­ed since 2016, and just three have been sen­tenced to death. In November 2016, the coun­ty elect­ed Kim Ogg as District Attorney, who pledged to reduce the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and address wrong­ful con­vic­tions, racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, and oth­er unfair prac­tices. Ogg was part of a wave of pros­e­cu­tors billing them­selves as reform­ers who were elect­ed in coun­ties his­tor­i­cal­ly known for their heavy use of the death penalty.

Rhoades was con­vict­ed at a time in which both Texas and the U.S. were approach­ing peak use of the death penal­ty. Texas sen­tenced 31 peo­ple to death in 1992, among the 283 sen­tenced across the coun­try. By com­par­i­son, in 2019 (the last year in which death sen­tenc­ing was unaf­fect­ed by the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic), just four peo­ple were sen­tenced to death in Texas, and 34 nation­wide. A 2020 sur­vey by Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research found that a record-low 20% of Houstonians now sup­port the death penal­ty over life-sen­tenc­ing alter­na­tives, a decline of more than half since the turn of the 21st century.

Rhoades, like many peo­ple on death row, expe­ri­enced severe child­hood trau­ma. At his tri­al, defense attor­neys pre­sent­ed evi­dence of the abuse he suf­fered, as well as Rhoades’ impaired judg­ment and impulse con­trol result­ing from brain dam­age. During Rhoades’ appeals, his lawyers sought infor­ma­tion about jurors who served on his case, sus­pect­ing that jurors of col­or may have been uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly exclud­ed on the basis of race. Harris County Judge Ana Martinez dis­missed Rhoades’ request for a stay of exe­cu­tion to pro­vide him time to obtain the juror infor­ma­tion, say­ing she did not have juris­dic­tion, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed her rul­ing on July 14, 2021. Rhoades then filed a civ­il rights com­plaint in fed­er­al court seek­ing a stay of exe­cu­tion and pro­duc­tion of the juror records.

The dis­trict court dis­missed his com­plaint and denied a stay of exe­cu­tion, and on September 27, 2021 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit also denied Rhoades a stay. Rhoades filed an appli­ca­tion for stay of exe­cu­tion in the U.S. Supreme Court on September 27, pend­ing the fil­ing, con­sid­er­a­tion, and dis­po­si­tion of a peti­tion for writ of cer­tio­rari on the jury dis­crim­i­na­tion claim, which the Court denied September 28.

No state oth­er than Texas has car­ried out an exe­cu­tion since May 2020. Texas had con­duct­ed three in that peri­od. Rhoades’ exe­cu­tion was the first in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear John Henry Ramirez’s chal­lenge to the state’s exe­cu­tion poli­cies, argu­ing that the state is vio­lat­ing his reli­gious lib­er­ty by bar­ring his pas­tor from lay­ing hands on him or pray­ing aloud dur­ing his exe­cu­tion. Rhoades did not seek a stay on reli­gious lib­er­ty grounds, pro­vid­ing a coun­ter­point to pros­e­cu­tors’ con­tentions that death-row pris­on­ers were sim­ply fil­ing such claims for ​“strate­gic delay.” 

A Houston Chronicle inter­view with fam­i­ly mem­bers of Rhoades’ vic­tims, Charles and Bradley Allen, showed the family’s ambiva­lence about Rhoades’ exe­cu­tion. The Allen broth­ers were killed thir­ty years ago, and their sis­ter, Janice Andrews, said the decades of appeals and case devel­op­ments were dif­fi­cult for her fam­i­ly. ​“I will be hap­py for the day when there are no more appeals,” Andrews said. ​“We just want it over.” Andrews said she is per­son­al­ly uncer­tain about sup­port­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment but was more com­fort­able with Rhoades’ exe­cu­tion because he had con­fessed to the crime. ​“I’ve seen so many wrong­ful­ly con­vict­ed peo­ple go to death row,” she said. ​“That’s not the situation here.”

[Updated 9/​28/​2021 to reflect that the Supreme Court denied Rhoades’ appli­ca­tion for stay of exe­cu­tion and that he was executed.]

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Samantha Ketterer, Man who stabbed 2 Pasadena broth­ers to death set to be Harris County’s first exe­cu­tion in 2 years, Houston Chronicle, September 27, 2021.