In a rare joint statement, the district attorney and the defense agreed that prosecutors withheld evidence that could point to a Rio Grande Valley woman’s innocence in the death of her toddler.
Texas death row
Posted in
Criminal Justice
Texas criminal appeals court takes man off death row over intellectual disability
Since Randall Mays was sentenced to death in 2008 for the murder of two sheriff’s deputies, his lawyers have argued his intellectual disability exempts him from execution.
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Criminal Justice
Texas executes Ivan Cantu for Dallas murders despite doubts of his guilt
Faith leaders and jurors from the original trial launched a public campaign to reconsider recanted testimony in Cantu’s case. Texas courts declined.
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Criminal Justice
Despite mounting doubts about his guilt, Ivan Cantu running out of time to avoid Texas’ death chamber
Convicted of killing his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée, the death row inmate hopes recanted testimony and other new details spur a review of his case.
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Criminal Justice
Texas executes David Renteria for 2001 murder of El Paso girl
Renteria’s attorneys unsuccessfully argued that the El Paso District Attorney’s Office violated his constitutional rights by not releasing all documents in his case. He was the eight person executed in Texas in 2023.
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Criminal Justice
Texas inmate Syed Rabbani taken off death row after original appeal was left pending for decades
A prosecutor called delays in Rabbani’s long-standing appeal “a due process disaster.”
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Criminal Justice
Texas’ top criminal court halts William Speer’s execution hours before he was scheduled to die
Speer has been on death row for decades after strangling another inmate at a Texas prison. The victim’s sister and faith leaders have both called on the parole board to halt the execution.
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Criminal Justice
Convicted murderer Scott Panetti isn’t sane enough to be executed, federal judge rules
Panetti murdered his in-laws in 1992. The U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 set new court precedent with his case, raising the bar on the constitutional restriction against executing the insane.
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Criminal Justice
Texas courts struggle to resolve criminal appeals that got lost in Harris County for decades
Overlooked in the churn of one of the country’s busiest courthouses, the forgotten appeals included two death penalty cases, and one from a man who’s already finished his 20-year sentence.
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Criminal Justice
Texas’ highest criminal court emphatically rejects death row inmate Rodney Reed’s claim of innocence
Reed, a Black man on death row for more than 25 years, has gained international support for his claims that he did not kill 19-year-old Stacey Stites, a white woman. Another appeal over DNA testing of evidence is still pending.
