The latest death penalty news from The Texas Tribune.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles won't recommend a reprieve for convicted killer Scott Panetti, leaving it up to Gov. Rick Perry to decide if he will delay Wednesday's scheduled execution of the schizophrenic death row inmate. Full Story
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A Republican judge on Texas’ highest criminal court says he now opposes the death penalty. Full Story
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UPDATED: Texas’ highest criminal court has again refused to halt schizophrenic death row inmate Scott Panetti’s looming execution. Full Story
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The fact that Scott Panetti is facing lethal injection on Dec. 3 despite a 30-year history of documented mental illness demonstrates that the ambiguities of the legal standard of “competency” he helped to define are far from resolved. Full Story
UPDATED: A 38-year-old Arlington woman was executed Wednesday for the starvation death of her girlfriend’s son. Lisa Ann Coleman is the sixth woman to be executed in the state since 1982. Full Story
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UPDATED: Texas death row inmate Willie Tyrone Trottie was executed by lethal injection Wednesday evening in Huntsville for the 1993 murders of his ex-girlfriend and her brother. Full Story
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The latest battle over the efficacy of lethal injection drugs made by compounding pharmacies surfaced on Tuesday in an eleventh-hour appeal filed on behalf of a Texas inmate scheduled to be put to death on Wednesday. Full Story
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The former Burleson district attorney who sent Anthony Graves to death row in 1994 will now face a formal hearing on allegations prosecutorial misconduct by the State Bar of Texas. Full Story
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Texas voters believe men make more than women for equal work, and they support three exceptions to abortion bans, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll. But the overall numbers hide gender differences. Full Story
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Lawyers for the state and for death row inmate Henry Skinner on Friday filed proposed findings to a Pampa judge who is considering whether DNA tests on crime scene evidence should preclude his execution. Full Story
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As public scrutiny of the state's execution process is increasing, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is more strictly implementing a media viewing policy that means fewer witnesses to the controversial procedure. Full Story
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Reversing his stance in three previous rulings, Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott on Thursday ruled that the state prison system can withhold information about the suppliers of drugs used in lethal injections. Full Story
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A federal appeals court halted the Texas execution of Robert James Campbell just hours before he was to be put to death Tuesday based on questions about whether the 41-year-old inmate is mentally disabled. Full Story
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Defense lawyers say that information about the drug Texas uses in executions – pentobarbital — is shrouded in secrecy. And they worry a dearth of information could lead to cruel and unusual executions. Full Story
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Texas Department of Criminal Justice is storing dozens of vials of the drug used in Tuesday’s botched execution in Oklahoma, raising concerns about the state’s secretive lethal injection process. Full Story
UPDATED: The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has voted not to recommend a posthumous full pardon for Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed a decade ago after being convicted of setting a fire that killed his daughters. Full Story
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Amid national debate over disclosure of information about execution drugs, Texas Department of Criminal Justice officials said they will appeal a judge’s order to reveal the supplier of its execution drugs. Full Story
UPDATED: The State Bar has begun an investigation of a complaint filed against the prosecutor of former death row inmate Anthony Graves, who who spent 18 years behind bars before being exonerated. Full Story
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During a two-day DNA hearing that ended Tuesday, prosecutors argued tests confirmed Hank Skinner’s guilt in a 20-year-old triple murder, but his lawyers said the results raised too many questions to allow him to be executed. Full Story
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After more than a decade of fighting for DNA tests and two years of analysis on decades-old evidence, a court in Pampa will hear evidence that death row inmate Hank Skinner says should stop his execution. Full Story
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