In this edition of our monthly newsletter, you’ll find information about federal executions, mid-year analysis of use of the death penalty nationwide, and the spread of COVID-19 in Texas prisons, including the unit that houses the men on death row.
State of Texas executes Billy Wardlow
Update as of 7:40 PM, July 8, 2020: The State of Texas executed Billy Wardlow tonight, July 8, 2020, despite an outpouring of support from legislators, juvenile justice and neuroscience experts, and so many others. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider his appeals, and there was no word from Texas Governor Greg Abbott in […]
TCADP July 2020 Newsletter: “Future dangerousness” and the Texas death penalty
In this edition Reflections on race and “future dangerousness” in the Texas death penalty Scheduled executions: State of Texas seeks to execute Billy Joe Wardlow for a crime he committed 27 years ago at the age of 18; federal government sets four execution dates Case updates: Bobby Moore, who spent 40 years on death row, […]
Race and “future dangerousness” in the Texas death penalty
Many of Texas’s most troubling death penalty cases are rooted in a corrosive system of racism fostered by predictions of future dangerousness, a unique facet of our state’s capital punishment statute.
U.S. Supreme Court remands case of Terence Andrus based on woefully inadequate legal representation
On Monday, June 8, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court remanded the death penalty case of Terence Andrus to Texas for further review, finding that his trial attorney provided inadequate and deficient legal representation. Among his many failings were neglecting to investigate or present readily-available mitigating evidence of Andrus’s troubled upbringing, which could have persuaded the jury to spare his life.
U.S. Supreme Court stays the execution of Ruben Gutierrez
Just an hour before he was scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas, Ruben Gutierrez received a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. Gutierrez had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution in order to consider his request to allow a Christian chaplain in the execution chamber, a request that was […]
Ruben Gutierrez seeks 30-day stay from Governor Greg Abbott; appeal also pending with U.S. Supreme Court
Today, Ruben Gutierrez, who is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution in order to consider his request to allow a Christian chaplain in the execution chamber, a request that was routine in hundreds of Texas executions until April 2019, when the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) changed the rules. The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops filed an amicus brief in support of Gutierrez.
Fifth Circuit lifts stay of execution for Ruben Gutierrez
Late Friday night, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas’s stay of execution of Ruben Gutierrez, who seeks DNA testing of evidence pointing to his innocence. Gutierrez also is challenging Texas’s denial of a Christian chaplain’s presence during his execution, which is scheduled for Tuesday, […]
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