In the last scheduled execution in Texas this year, the State is set to put Alvin Braziel, Jr. to death tonight, December 11, 2018. Braziel was convicted of killing Doug White and raping his wife Lora in Mesquite in 1993. Doug and Lora were newlyweds. Braziel was 18 at the time of the crime.
Braziel was not linked to the crime until 2001, when a DNA match led police to him as the primary suspect in the rape of Lora White. His appellate attorneys raised claims of inadequate representation during his trial, after his original lawyers failed to present evidence of his abusive upbringing, family history of mental illness, and a childhood head injury as possible mitigating factors in his sentencing. The courts rejected his appeal in September.
The State of Texas has executed 12 people this year, accounting for more than half of all U.S. executions.
Read coverage of the case in the Texas Tribune and Houston Chronicle.