The latest Texas death row news from The Texas Tribune.
Before prison officials administer the lethal cocktail of drugs used to carry out executions, the condemned may say their final piece. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice keeps a record of these last statements. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/LastWords.png)
Texas officials have enough execution drugs to carry out the death sentences of two inmates scheduled for lethal injection in February. But they will have to find another sodium thiopental supplier or a different drug to use after March. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/needles_lethalinjection.jpg)
Watch the Innocence Project livestream of the Texas Forensic Science Commission, which gathers today in Austin to question arson experts on the evidence used to hand Cameron Todd Willingham the death penalty in 1992. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TX-Forensic-Protester002-TP.jpg)
Judge Charlie Baird abused his discretion when he didn't recuse himself from considering a motion challenging his authority to conduct a court of inquiry in the Cameron Todd Willingham case, according to a ruling issued today. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Willingham_Baird.jpg)
Texas juries sentenced just eight people to death in 2010, the smallest number since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment here in 1976, according to a report published today by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/103109-terrhaute-gurney-.jpg)
Harris County District Judge Kevin Fine is set to hold a hearing Monday in the case of John Edward Green, who is charged with fatally shooting a Houston woman during a robbery in June 2008. Green’s attorneys and capital punishment opponents want Fine to find that prosecutors can’t seek the death penalty because the way we administer it in Texas is unconstitutional. “The current system is profoundly and fundamentally flawed from top to bottom,” says Andrea Keilen, executive director of the Texas Defender Service. Prosecutors counter that the ruling should be made by higher courts, not a trial judge. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/DeathPenaltyCases.jpg)
Two’s company, but three’s a crowd. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/paxton.jpg)
The 11th annual March to Abolish the Death Penalty will begin Saturday at 2 p.m. on the south steps of the Capitol in Austin. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/IMG_0273_1.JPG)
The State Commission on Judicial Conduct isn't giving up on its attempt to reprimand Sharon Keller — in an unexpected move today, it appealed a court's dismissal of its sanction against Keller, the presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Keller_Sharon.jpg)
The soft-spoken and — until now — media-shy presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals sat down with The Texas Tribune last week to talk about capital punishment in Texas, what she was doing on the afternoon she closed her office at 5 p.m. to a last-minute death row appeal, the flaws in the way the state sanctions judges, what it's like to be known as Sharon “Killer” Keller and the "ridiculous" idea that she doesn't care about defendants or indigent defense. Full Story
The soft-spoken and — until now — media-shy presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals sat down with The Texas Tribune last week to talk about capital punishment in Texas, what she was doing on the afternoon she closed her office at 5 p.m. to a last-minute death row appeal, the flaws in the way the state sanctions judges, what it's like to be known as Sharon “Killer” Keller and the "ridiculous" idea that she doesn't care about defendants or indigent defense. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/videos/Screen_shot_2010-10-25_at_1.37.34_PM.png)
Two weeks before the gubernatorial election, the season premiere of Frontline features a timely topic: the Cameron Todd Willingham case. All PBS stations in Texas will air it, despite initial hesitation over running the episode — portions of which question the actions of Gov. Rick Perry — so close to Election Day. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/Screen_shot_2010-10-19_at_12.30.08_PM.png)
Listen to the oral arguments in the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday in the Texas death penalty case of Hank Skinner. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/012710_hankskinner001.jpg)
U.S. Supreme Court oral argument in Skinner v Switzer. Full Story
As former Gov. Mark White ended his argument before the Willingham court of inquiry calling for a change in the way the state carries out the death penalty, an appellate court issued an order demanding that Judge Charlie Baird stop the hearing. Full Story
The U.S. Supreme Court heard testimony Wednesday in a case that could have far-reaching ramifications for criminal justice nationally. Lawyers for Henry “Hank” Skinner maintain that the Texas death row inmate has a civil right to access DNA evidence that could exonerate him in the 1993 murders of his live-in girlfriend and her two sons. Lawyers for the state argue that Skinner exhausted his opportunity to analyze potentially exculpatory evidence when his defense team declined to request testing at his original trial, fearing that the results might be incriminating. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/HankSkinner002_CBM.jpg)
Judge Charlie Baird will decide today whether to recuse himself from an investigation into the innocence of Cameron Todd Willingham, the Corsicana man executed in 2004 for the arson deaths of his three young daughters. But with or without Baird, a bigger question is in play: Is a court of inquiry the appropriate venue to consider Willingham’s guilt or innocence? Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/BradleyBaird.jpg)
A specially appointed court of review vacated the State Commission on Judicial Conduct's sanction of Sharon Keller today, saying the state board acted unconstitutionally in reprimanding the presiding judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals. Full Story
Navarro County prosecutor R. Lowell Thompson's request that Judge Charlie Baird recuse himself from the Cameron Todd Willingham court of inquiry hearing wasn't decided today. Full Story
Under the leadership of Williamson County DA John Bradley, the Texas Forensic Science Commission has waged a masterful war of attrition in the Cameron Todd Willingham case: Stall long enough, and public interest in the internationally controversial capital punishment case — along with political liability for any missteps — will fade away. But the commission’s latest delay, while pushing the resolution of the Willingham investigation securely after the general election, comes against Bradley’s wishes and could represent a sea change on the board that until now has resisted making any broader inquiries into the state’s arson convictions. Full Story
/https://static.texastribune.org/media/images/TX-Forensic-JohnBradley004-TP.jpg)