In this edition:
Scheduled executions: Texas sets two execution dates in 2026
Updates on Robert Roberson: Quest for justice hits another roadblock
TCADP 2026 Annual Conference: Meet our esteemed panelists
In case you missed it: Profile of Nan Tolson, director of Texas Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty; new reports on veterans and the death penalty and the causes of wrongful convictions; portrait of a “death row survivor”
Open staff position: Apply to be TCADP’s new Harris County Field Organizer
Featured events: Reflecting on the death penalty in Dallas; TCADP Book Group on Zoom; film screenings in Austin in late January
Scheduled executions
Texas executed five men in 2025, and two men have already received dates for 2026: Charles Thompson (January 28) and Cedric Ricks (March 11). The counties in which these men were convicted – Harris and Tarrant – are the only jurisdictions where juries imposed new death sentences this year. The geographic isolation of the death penalty and other trends will be documented in a forthcoming report from TCADP.
To date in 2025, 44 people have been executed nationwide by 11 states. Florida alone accounts for more than one-third of the executions this year and is scheduled to execute two people in December. Tennessee also has scheduled an execution this month.
When the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) granted a stay of execution to Robert Roberson on October 9, 2025, it sent his case back to the trial court to determine whether he should receive relief based on the CCA’s ruling in another case involving a diagnosis of “Shaken Baby Syndrome” (SBS). In Ex Parte Roark, the CCA overturned the conviction of Andrew Roark in October 2024 after finding the SBS hypothesis used against him had been discredited. Robert likewise seeks a new trial that would reflect the changes in scientific understanding with respect to SBS since his 2003 conviction.
Robert’s attorney asked the trial court judge to promptly schedule a status conference to discuss next steps, including an evidentiary hearing with live testimony. “This matter should not languish for months; it is in the interest of both parties to move with alacrity,” she wrote in the motion. Attorneys with the Texas Attorney General’s Office pushed back, however, and asked the court for more time, further delaying justice for Robert, who has now spent 22 years on death row for a crime that never occurred. The trial court judge has yet to decide about a status conference or any next steps.
Meanwhile, on November 20, 2025, the New Jersey Supreme Court determined that a SBS diagnosis is not generally accepted within the biomechanical community and is therefore not “sufficiently reliable” for admission at two upcoming trials. It is the first high court in the nation to prohibit expert testimony diagnosing the syndrome. Robert’s attorney has brought this landmark ruling to the attention of the trial court.
Thanks to everyone who provided a message of support to Robert last month; your encouraging words were hand delivered to him on his birthday and much appreciated.
Registration is open for the TCADP 2026 Annual Conference: Overcoming Legacies; Reimagining Justice, which will take place in Houston, Texas at the United Way Community Resource Center from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM on Saturday, March 7, 2026.
Last month, we announced our keynote speaker and award recipients. We are now excited to share the names of our esteemed panelists, who will address the legacy of criminal justice practices and the use of the death penalty in Harris County:
- Anthony Graves, criminal justice reform advocate and founder of the Peer Navigator Project
- Daphine Jack, Founder and CEO of Prevention Zone Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to criminal justice reform
- Jay Jenkins, Texas Principal at the Wren Collective and co-founder and President of the Convict Leasing and Labor Project
- Kathryn M. Kase, Legal Counsel to Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and former Executive Director of Texas Defender Service
The conference also will feature workshop sessions on restorative justice, ineffective assistance of counsel, and the families left behind by executions. Join us in Houston next spring for an inspiring day of advocacy.
In case you missed it
Nan Tolson profiled in the Texas Observer
The November/December issue of the Texas Observer includes a wonderful profile of Nan Tolson, the Director of Texas Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty (Texas CCATDP). In her interview with Michelle Pitcher, Nan discusses her opposition to the death penalty and the work of Texas CCATDP.
New reports focus on veterans, wrongful convictions
In conjunction with Veterans Day last month, the Death Penalty Information Center released Forgotten Service, Lasting Wounds: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty, an important new report revealing that approximately 200
military veterans currently await execution on death rows across the U.S.—roughly 10% of the death row population. One in seven people executed since 1977 has been a military veteran (at least 226 total). Many of the juries that sentenced these men and women to death never heard about their honorable military service, their physical and psychological wounds, or their struggles after returning home from combat.
On November 19, 2025, the American Civil Liberties Union released Fatal Flaws: Innocence, Race and Wrongful Convictions, which exposes how racism, human error, and systemic failures have made wrongful convictions—particularly the wrongful conviction of Black men—an inevitable consequence of the death penalty system. Read coverage of the report from the Texas Observer.
“Death row survivor” Pam Perillo
Describing herself as a “death row survivor,” Pam Perillo speaks candidly about her life before and after spending 20 years on Texas’s death row: “She’d spent years running from any form of community that could help turn around her life—only to find one among the women that Texas had deemed unfit to live.” Perillo’s sentence was later changed, and she was paroled in 2019. Read this poignant profile piece in the Texas Observer.
TCADP Harris County Field Organizer
TCADP is still accepting applications for our new staff position. We seek a motivated and experienced Field Organizer to advance our efforts in Harris County. This is an excellent opportunity for someone with a background in organizing, public policy, campaign work, or issue-based advocacy in Texas.
The deadline to apply is Wednesday, December 17, 2025. Read the job description, qualifications, and application instructions here.
The Arc of Justice: Reflecting on the Texas Death Penalty
Join Nan Tolson with Texas CCATDP and Dr. Rick Halperin, director of the Southern Methodist University Human Rights Program, for an afternoon of reflection on the Texas death penalty. During “The Arc of Justice,” on Sunday, December 7, 2025, they will discuss the latest death penalty developments and progress made to reduce the use of capital punishment. Sponsored by Human Rights Dallas, this event will take place at 1:30 PM at the Dallas Public Library (1515 Young Street, Dallas TX 75201). It is free and open to the public.
TCADP Book Group
The TCADP Book Group meets every six to eight weeks on Zoom and reads a mix of fiction, non-fiction, and memoirs. Our next selection is Bad Law: Ten Popular Laws That Are Ruining America by Elie Mystal. We will meet on Zoom to discuss this book on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, at 7:00 PM CT. Register here. (Note: If you have signed up for previous book group meetings, you do not need to register again.)
Film screenings in Austin
César Fierro spent four decades on Texas’s death row before his sentence was reduced in late 2019. He was paroled in 2020 during the pandemic and deported to Mexico. Throughout his ordeal, he maintained his innocence of the crime for which he was convicted in El Paso in 1980. Two documentary films by award-winning director Santiago Esteinou will bring Fierro’s extraordinary story to Austin in January 2026.
The first film, Los Años de Fierro (2014), will be screened at the University of Texas School of Law on Tuesday, January 27, 2026, at 6:00 PM.
The second film, La Libertad de Fierro, will be shown on Wednesday, January 28, 2026, at the Austin Film Society (AFS) Cinema, 6406 North IH35, from 7:00 – 9:30 PM, followed by a panel discussion with director Santiago Esteinou, in person; César Fierro, by Zoom from Mexico City; Richard Burr, one of Fierro’s lawyers; and moderator Michelle Pitcher, who has written extensively about the death penalty for the Texas Observer.
Thank you for standing with us in the relentless pursuit of justice in Texas!