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.]()
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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 Unit.]()
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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.]()
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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.]()
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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 two children.]()
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Judge recommends new trial for Texas death row inmate Rigoberto Avila
The state's highest criminal court will now weigh the recommendation. Full Story
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Texas puts Daniel Acker to death, the second execution in two days
Acker was convicted in the 2000 murder of his girlfriend in East Texas. Her body was found on the side of the road after neighbors said they saw him abduct her. Full Story
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![Daniel Acker is set for execution on Thursday, Sept. 27 for the 2000 death of his girlfriend in Hopkins County.]()
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Texas executes Troy Clark, the first of two scheduled executions in two days
Clark was convicted in the Tyler murder of Christina Muse, whose body was found stuffed in a cement-filled barrel months after her death. Death penalty opponents say his conviction rested too heavily on a co-defendant's testimony. Full Story
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![Troy Clark is set to be executed on Wednesday, Sept. 26 for the 1998 drowning death of a woman in Tyler.]()
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Will a Texas law that overturns convictions based on bad science save this death row inmate?
The 2013 law was credited with stopping Robert Roberson's execution two years ago, and his conviction is now under review in county court. Full Story
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![Robert Roberson in court for the review of his 2003 conviction in the death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in Palestine on August 14, 2018. His attorneys are asking for a new trial based on new scientific evidence.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune -
Families of Chris Young and the man he killed call for a halt to his execution
At a small rally in San Antonio's main plaza, faith leaders joined Chris Young's aunt and the son of the man he killed to call for a stop to Young's execution next week. Full Story
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![Valerie Harris, aunt and spiritual advisor of Christopher Young, speaks during a press conference for on Main Plaza in San Antonio on July 10, 2018. Young is scheduled for execution next week.]()
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Texas court upholds Bobby Moore’s death sentence, rejecting broadly supported claim of intellectual disability
After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Texas' method for determining intellectual disability in Moore's death penalty case last year, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals decided on Wednesday to change its standards but said Moore still didn't qualify. Full Story
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![The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case of Bobby Moore, a man who has been on death row since 1980, in March 2017.]()
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Texas must reveal where it got execution drugs, the Texas Supreme Court affirms
The move from the Texas Supreme Court comes more than a year after an Austin-based appeals court said the agency must reveal a 2014 supplier of lethal injection drugs. Full Story
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![Texas' execution chamber in Huntsville.]()
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Judge says Texas death row inmate's sentence should be reduced due to false evidence at trial
Paul Storey's case had been granted another review less than one week before he was scheduled to be executed. Full Story
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Exonerated man on Texas request for faster death penalty appeals: "I would have been executed"
Defense lawyers, legal groups and former federal judges also point to cases of people taken off death row as they oppose the state's push for faster federal death penalty appeals. Full Story
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![Texas death row exoneree Anthony Graves speaks with reporters on Jan. 29, 2016.]()
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Texas executes Lubbock “suitcase killer”
Rosendo Rodriguez was executed Tuesday for killing a Lubbock prostitute and tossing her body in a dumpster in a suitcase. His final appeals questioned the medical examiner's testimony that she was sexually assaulted before her death. Full Story
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![Rosendo Rodriguez is on Texas' death row for the 2005 murder of 29-year-old Summer Baldwin and her unborn child.]()
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U.S. Supreme Court rejects challenge to Texas lethal injection drugs
Texas death row inmates lost at the U.S. Supreme Court when the high court denied their petition to challenge the state's execution protocol. Full Story
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![The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on June 7, 2017.]()
Credit: Shelby Knowles for The Texas Tribune