Delma Banks Jr., one of Texas death row's longest residents, on Wednesday agreed to a life sentence for the 1980 murder of Richard Whitehead. He will be eligible for parole in 12 years.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today stayed the Aug. 1 execution of Marcus Druery, whose lawyers say he is too mentally ill to understand his punishment.

For Yokamon Hearn's scheduled execution on July 18, officials plan to administer a lethal dose of pentobarbital instead of the three-drug cocktail that has been used since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1982.

Kerry Max Cook is battling with prosecutors to clear his name of a 1978 murder conviction, and says his mission is doomed if he must fight in Smith County. That's where a court ruled misconduct had “tainted this entire matter from the outset.”

Our primary night scoreboard and liveblog, Aguilar on runoff strategy, Root and Batheja on Round two of Dewhurst vs. Cruz, M. Smith on how public education candidates fared, Ramshaw on what surprised pundits and pollsters, Galbraith on concerns over our electric grid, Aaronson on which government entities have access to your personal info, Grissom with the latest on the Hank Skinner case, Ramsey on Hispanic Republicans and part three of Tan's family planning series: The best of our best content from May 28 to June 1, 2012.

Texans favor the death penalty, even with the alternative of life without parole. They are also nominally in favor of abortion rights and are more likely than not to favor medically assisted suicide for terminal patients.

The Columbia University law professor on the in-depth investigation his team conducted that they believe revealed that Carlos DeLuna did not commit the murder for which he was executed in 1989.

An administrative judge has again denied Kerry Max Cook's request to move his case out of Smith County, a decision the former death row inmate worries will doom his fight to legally prove his innocence.

Defense lawyers argue that judges in Harris County — ordered to review a psychologist's work in two death penalty cases — are simply rubber-stamping the conclusions of the psychologist, who was reprimanded last year.

The latest installment in death row inmate Hank Skinner's quest for DNA testing comes today as his lawyers argue to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that a change in state law should allow for testing in his case.

UPDATED: Former Smith County District Attorney A.D. Clark III denies allegations by Kerry Max Cook's lawyers that Clark had kept the knife linked to Linda Jo Edwards' fatal stabbing at his home. 

A judge today granted Kerry Max Cook's request for more DNA testing in the 1977 murder of Linda Jo Edwards, but the former death row inmate will have to fight to prove his innocence in the same place where he was twice sentenced to death.

Kerry Max Cook was released from death row in 1997 but has never officially been declared an exoneree. Michael Hall of Texas Monthly reports on Cook's complex case and his challenging fight to move on with his life.

A Tuesday U.S. Supreme Court ruling could open the door for claims from at least two Texas death row inmates who argue that their lawyers did shoddy work.

A federal judge said in a recent ruling that he has serious concerns about whether Rob Will committed the murder he was sent to death row for, but the law prevented him from doing anything about it.

At the national level, voters are concerned about pocketbook issues, while at home immigration is the top problem.

Ross, Reeve, Brandi and Thanh look ahead to the South Carolina primary, look back on the history of the death penalty in Texas, and discuss the current state of women's health clinics in the state.

Thirty-five years ago today, the state of Utah restarted the death penalty in the United States when Gary Gilmore was executed. Texas followed suit in 1982 and since then has executed 477 men and women, more than any other state.