Texas executes Billy Crutsinger in Fort Worth slayings of two elderly women
Crutsinger had pushed to stop his execution based on claims of bad lawyering during his trial and in the appellate process. Full Story
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![Billy Crutsinger.]()
Credit: Jenevieve Robbins -
Texas executed Larry Swearingen for a 1998 Texas slaying. His lawyer says bad science got him on death row.
Swearingen consistently maintained his innocence in the strangling death of 19-year-old Melissa Trotter. Texas prosecutors, however, had no doubt he was her killer. Full Story
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![Larry Swearingen.]()
Credit: TDCJ -
Texas House OKs bill to ban death penalty for those with severe mental illness
Under the measure, defendants who have active psychotic symptoms of certain mental illnesses at the time of the crime would be ineligible for capital punishment. The bill now heads to the more conservative Senate. Full Story
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![Interior of Death Chamber in Texas.]()
Credit: Jenevieve Robbins/Texas Department of Criminal Justice -
Execution stopped for Dexter Johnson, sentenced to death after Harris County rape and murder
Johnson was convicted in the 2007 murders of Maria Aparece and Huy Ngo in Harris County, a crime he committed at 18. He was set for execution Thursday before a court ruled that his new lawyer should have more time to look into federal appellate issues. Full Story
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![Dexter Darnell Johnson.]()
Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice -
Texas House offers a new way to determine whether a defendant has intellectual disabilities — and is ineligible for execution
The lower chamber gave initial approval to a bill creating a pretrial process to determine if a capital murder defendant is intellectually disabled — more than 15 years after the U.S. Supreme Court said executing such prisoners is cruel and unusual punishment. Full Story
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![State Rep. Senfronia Thomson, D-Houston, gives a seconding speech in favor of electing state Rep. Dennis Bonnen as the new H…]()
Credit: Bob Daemmrich for The Texas Tribune -
Texas executes John William King in racist dragging death of James Byrd Jr.
King and two other white men were convicted in the brutal East Texas murder of Byrd, who was black. King was the second man executed for the crime; another man is serving a life sentence. Full Story
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Credit: Illustration by Brandon Formby/The Texas Tribune -
Texas court stops execution of Mark Robertson after claims of racist jury selection
The court issued a stay of Thursday's execution after his lawyers argued that Robertson's original trial lawyer discriminated against potential jurors who were black. Full Story
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![Mark Robertson was sentenced to death for the 1989 murder of Edna Brau, along with life sentences for the murder of Sean Hil…]()
Credit: TDCJ -
Prosecutor declares freed Texas death row inmate Alfred Dewayne Brown innocent, paving way for state compensation
Brown was freed from nearly a decade on death row in 2015, but because he was never declared "actually innocent," he couldn't get compensation for wrongful imprisonment — until Friday. Full Story
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![Alfred Dewayne Brown hugs his sister Connie Brown on the day of his release, June 8, 2015.]()
Credit: Karen Warren/ Houston Chronicle -
Texas executes Billie Coble, the oldest man put to death in the state during modern era of the death penalty
As the state put the 70-year-old to death, his son banged on the death chamber window. After an altercation with law enforcement, Coble's son and another relative were removed from the witness room and arrested. Full Story
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![Billie Coble. Feb 27, 2019.]()
Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Texas still doesn't have a law on intellectual disability and the death penalty. Will that change this year?
Nearly two decades after the U.S. Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional to execute those with intellectual disabilities, Texas still has no process on determining the condition — leaving life-and-death decisions in the hands of courts with very different methods. Full Story
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![Interior of Death Chamber by Texas Department of Criminal Justice.]()
Credit: Photo Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Thirty years after the killing of a Houston police officer, Texas executes Robert Jennings
Jennings was put to death Wednesday for the 1988 murder of Elston Howard. The long sentence was complicated by constantly evolving death penalty laws. Full Story
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![Robert Jennings mug shot.]()
Credit: Illustration by Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The Texas Tribune -
Texas court stops first execution of 2019, citing changes in intellectual disability law and bite-mark science
Blaine Milam was convicted in the 2008 East Texas death of his girlfriend's 13-month-old baby. Full Story
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![Blaine Milam was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder of 13-month-old Amora Carson during an alleged exorcism.]()
Credit: TDCJ -
What does race have to do with the death penalty in Texas?
More than 72 percent of those on death row in Texas are people of color. Studies show race plays a role in the state's harshest punishment. 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 Un…]()
Credit: Texas Department of Criminal Justice -
Texas sees uptick in executions, death sentences in 2018
The state put to death 13 men this year. That's more than half the total number of people executed in the entire country: 25. Still, the death row population — both here and nationwide — is at a historic low. Full Story
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![The clock nears 6 p.m. at the "Walls" unit in Huntsville, where Texas executes its prisoners, on Jan. 26, 2017.]()
Credit: Jolie McCullough -
Convicted murderer Alvin Braziel executed for killing Mesquite man and raping his wife
Braziel's attorneys failed to secure a delay in the execution after last-minute argument that prosecutorial conduct tainted his trail. He was the 13th and final inmate Texas put to death this year. Full Story
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![Alvin Braziel was sentenced to death for the 1993 murder of Doug and Lora White on a Mesquite jogging trail.]()
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Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturns death sentence for inmate Kenneth Wayne Thomas
Thomas' conviction stands, but he is entitled to a new punishment hearing based on modern standards for assessing intellectual disabilities, the court ruled. Full Story
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![Exterior of the Texas Supreme court building in Austin on Oct. 17, 2018.]()
Credit: Rachel Zein for The Texas Tribune -
Report: Houston-based pharmacy is supplier of state's execution drugs
Greenpark Compounding Pharmacy has been selling Texas drugs for lethal injections for three and a half years, according to a BuzzFeed News report. Full Story
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Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rules against death row inmate Jeff Wood
The court denied relief on Wednesday to Wood, who never killed anyone, granting the state the opportunity to set another execution date for the 1996 murder of a store clerk in Kerrville. Full Story
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![Texas death row inmate, Jeffrey Lee Wood.]()
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Texas Court of Criminal Appeals grants new trial for death row inmate Albert James Turner
The court threw out Turner's conviction because his defense attorneys said at trial that he had committed murder, even though Turner wanted to maintain his innocence. Full Story
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Texas executes Robert Moreno Ramos, amid pleas for case review
Lawyers for Ramos had argued that he wasn’t aware of his rights under an international treaty, and therefore didn't receive proper legal counsel during his trial and sentencing. Full Story
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![Mexican national Robert Ramos is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 14, 2018, for the Feb. 1992 murder of his wife and their t…]()
Credit: TDCJ