The latest death penalty news from The Texas Tribune.
After a five-day sentencing trial, David Risner, a former police officer, was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the shooting death of Little River-Academy Police Chief Lee Dixon. Full Story
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A man who sexually assaulted and fatally stabbed a 68-year-old woman during a 1995 burglary in Hidalgo County will no longer face execution after he has been determined to be intellectually disabled. Full Story
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The cases of death row inmates Duane Buck and Bobby James Moore will be heard next term. Full Story
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Criminal justice experts say that determining mental health can be hard for anyone, including judges, defense attorneys, prosecutors and jurors. They say the issues revealed in three cases are key in furthering the discussion in how mental health is gauged when weighing the death penalty for killers. Full Story
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The execution of a man whose original trial included a hypnotized eyewitness was stopped by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Friday evening. Full Story
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Revealing Texas' supplier of execution drugs could have a harmful effect on the provider and as a result leave the state empty-handed, a lawyer for the state suggested Wednesday during an appeals court hearing. Full Story
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Freed after a decade on Texas death row for a murder he says he didn't commit, Alfred Dewayne Brown thinks he's entitled to compensation from the state, but Comptroller Glenn Hegar is saying no. Full Story
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A Webb County jury Thursday gave Demond Bluntson a death sentence for the 2012 shooting death of his 21-month-old son and his girlfriend's six-year-old boy. It was the county's first death sentence in almost 25 years. Full Story
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Our Faces of Death Row app has some new features. Now, you can search for inmates by the county where the crime was committed and see who has an execution date scheduled. Full Story
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Pablo Lucio Vasquez, who admitted to slitting the throat of a 12-year-old boy and beating him to death before stealing a ring and necklace from the body 18 years ago, was executed Wednesday evening. Full Story
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A federal appeals court on Wednesday stayed the execution of a Dallas accountant who shot and killed his two daughters in 2001. John Battaglia's lawyers argue he is not mentally competent enough to be put to death. Full Story
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Adam Kelly Ward, whom appeals courts recognized as mentally ill, was executed Tuesday evening for the 2005 shooting death of a code enforcement officer. Full Story
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More than 18 years after killing five people with five shots from a hunting rifle, Coy Wayne Wesbrook, 58, was executed Wednesday evening. Full Story
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After 24 years on death row, a re-sentencing trial and an escape attempt, Gustavo Julian Garcia, 43, was executed Tuesday evening. Full Story
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The Texas Board of Disciplinary Appeals Monday upheld the disbarment of former Burleson County District Attorney Charles Sebesta Jr. for professional misconduct in the capital murder case of Anthony Graves. Full Story
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Mark Anthony Gonzalez arrived on death row last week after being convicted in the shooting death of Bexar County Sheriff Sgt. Kenneth Vann. With his arrival and the executions of Richard Masterson and James Freeman in January, there are now 252 people in Texas living with a death sentence. Full Story
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James Garrett Freeman shot and killed Justin Hurst, a game warden, following a high-speed chase in 2007. He was executed Wednesday evening, the second execution in Texas this year. Full Story
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Richard Masterson, who was convicted and sentenced to death for a 2001 strangulation and murder in Harris County, was executed Wednesday night. Full Story
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Death row inmate Randall Mays' case will return to a Henderson County courtroom to determine whether he is competent enough to be executed after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals continued his stay of execution Wednesday. Full Story
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Texas juries imposed new death sentences only twice in 2015 — the fewest since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide almost 40 years ago. Full Story
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