Texas Conducts First Execution of the Year
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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![Richard Masterson]()
Credit: TDCJ -
Texas Appeals Court Maintains Execution Stay
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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![A Henderson County court will determine whether death row inmate Randall Mays has the competency to be executed.]()
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New Death Sentences in Texas Drop To 40-Year Low
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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Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice -
High Court: Texas Death Row Inmate Can't Add Another Lawyer
The Supreme Court on Monday denied Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson III's petition to add another attorney to his team. Roberson has one more shot at delaying his execution with a petition arguing his rights were violated. Full Story
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![Robert Roberson III is a Texas death row inmate.]()
Credit: Todd Wiseman -
Faces of Death Row App Gets an Update
William Mason was again sentenced to death in Harris County last month after being granted a new punishment trial. He was originally sent to death row in 1992 for the kidnapping and murder of his wife. There are now 253 people in Texas living with a death sentence. See our updated database of these men and women. Full Story
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Lawyers Fight For, and Over, Death Row Inmate
Two sets of attorneys who believe their client doesn't belong on death row are fighting not only the state of Texas but also each other as his case arrives at the U.S. Supreme Court. Full Story
![Robert Roberson III is a Texas death row inmate.]()
Credit: Todd Wiseman -
Report: Veteran Mental Health Ignored in Capital Cases
Veterans sentenced to death in Texas murder cases — and nationwide — might have escaped the punishment if juries had been told about their military service and any ensuing mental health problems, says a report released Tuesday. Full Story
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Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice -
Commission Begins Study of Wrongful Convictions
The Timothy Cole Exoneration Review Commission Thursday paid tribute to its namesake – who was wrongfully convicted in a 1985 rape case – and began setting a vision for its role in prevent further wrongful convictions in Texas. Full Story
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![Timothy Cole]()
Credit: Illustration by Courtesy of the Cole family -
Faces of Death Row App Updated
Gabriel Hall and James Calvert have joined the 251 other inmates living with death sentences in Texas. See our updated database of these men and women, which you can filter by age, race, sex and length of stay on death row. Full Story
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![Gabriel Hall and James Calvert were the first inmates received on Texas' death row in 2015.]()
Credit: Graphic by Emily Albracht/TDCJ -
Roundup: Planned Parenthood, Cruz-Bush, Death Row
In the Roundup: Planned Parenthood gets the boot from Texas Medicaid, tensions between George W. Bush and Ted Cruz emerge in news reports, and the state is on track to see a lower number of death sentences handed down in 2015 than it has in decades. Full Story
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Texas Poised to See a New Low in Death Sentences
Texas is on track to see fewer death sentences handed down in 2015 than in any other year since the state’s death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Full Story
![Gabriel Hall and James Calvert were the first inmates received on Texas' death row in 2015.]()
Credit: Graphic by Emily Albracht/TDCJ -
Panetti Case Highlights Cracks in Execution Law
The complex and protracted path Scott Panetti's death row case has traveled illustrates how few safeguards Texas has to protect mentally ill killers from being executed. Full Story
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![Death row inmate Scott Panetti.]()
Credit: TDCJ -
Texas Appeals Court Stays Julius Murphy Execution
East Texas inmate Julius Murphy's execution is off the November calendar – for now. The Texas Criminal Court of Appeals on Monday stayed the 36-year-old's execution, after his legal team presented claims of prosecutorial misconduct in his 1998 capital murder trial. Full Story
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![Julius Murphy was sentenced to death row in 1998.]()
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Death Row Inmate Claims Witnesses Coerced
Attorneys for East Texas inmate Julius Jerome Murphy, scheduled for execution in early November for killing a stranded motorist, claimed in court papers filed Friday that prosecutors threatened and coerced witnesses to unjustly convict him. Full Story
![Julius Murphy was sentenced to death row in 1998.]()
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God & Governing: Life
Check out "God & Life" — part 3 of our "God & Governing" documentary-style series — to see how lawmakers' personal faith guides the abortion fight in the Texas Legislature. Full Story
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Credit: Todd Wiseman -
Texas Prisons Deny Making Execution Drugs
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice on Friday shot down allegations that it is manufacturing its own hard-to-find execution drugs after federal defense attorneys in an Oklahoma death row case accused the Texas prison system of doing exactly that. Full Story
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![The view of Texas' execution chamber from a witness viewing room.]()
Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice -
Panetti Lawyers Want His Competence Evaluated
Lawyers for death row inmate Scott Panetti will get a chance Wednesday to argue that their client's ongoing mental illness — and the state's failure to evaluate his mental state — should forestall his execution for two 1992 killings. Full Story
![Death row inmate Scott Panetti.]()
Credit: TDCJ -
New Crime Lab Protocol Leads to Reviews of "Mixed DNA" Evidence
A new standard, used by crime labs in Texas and nationwide when analyzing multiple sets of DNA taken from evidence, has prompted questions and a review of court cases dating back to 1999. Full Story
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Updated: Faces of Death Row in Texas
Ten inmates have been executed in Texas this year; 253 others are living with a death sentence. Revisit our database of these men and women, filterable by age, race, sex and the length of their stay on death row. Full Story
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Jailhouse Snitch Claims Secret Deal in Death Case
A second jailhouse informant claims he was offered a secret deal to testify in a death penalty case by former Navarro County prosecutor John Jackson, who has been accused of similar misconduct in the conviction and execution of Cameron Todd Willingham. Full Story
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![The execution chamber seen from one of two witness viewing rooms at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Huntsville Unit.]()
Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice