In this edition:
Scheduled executions: Texas could resume executions this week
TCADP 2025 Annual Conference: Join us on February 22, 2025, in Austin for a day of inspiration and advocacy
TCADP welcomes Spring 2025 Justice Fellow: Meet Justus Mendoza
Texas legislative updates: Urge your State Senator and State Representative to support death penalty repeal bills
In case you missed it: Federal death penalty developments in the final days of the Biden Administration and first day of the Trump Administration
Featured events: TCADP General Membership Meeting on February 11, 2025; next TCADP Book Group meeting in March
Quote of the month
“The most profound thing I learned about death row and the death penalty overall is that it doesn’t always offer the closure and justice that it promises, and that there’s victims on all sides.”
– Smriti Mundhra, the director of “I Am Ready, Warden,” which focuses on the final days of John Henry Ramirez before he was executed by the State of Texas in October 2022. The film has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Film category. Watch it on Paramount+.
The State of Texas could resume executions this week, after a four-month break. Two people are set to be put to death eight days apart, with two more executions scheduled in March and April.
Updates on Steven Nelson
The State of Texas is scheduled to execute Steven Nelson on February 5, 2025, despite the fact that no jury or court has considered significant evidence that he did not kill pastor Clinton Dobson, that he had a minor role in the offense as a lookout for two other men as they robbed NorthPointe Baptist Church in Arlington in 2011, and that there are profound mitigating circumstances, including a history of childhood abuse and trauma, that could have precluded a death sentence.
Last week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied Nelson’s appeal and motion for a stay of execution without reviewing the merits of the claims he raised. He has now filed a petition for a writ of certiorariand an application for a stay of execution with the Supreme Court of the United States. We are grateful to everyone who has contacted the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to urge clemency for Nelson and encourage you to continue to submit comments opposing the execution on Governor Abbott’s online opinion form: https://gov.texas.gov/contact/.
Support clemency for Richard Tabler
The State is set to put Richard Tabler to death on February 13, 2025, for killing two people—Mohamed-Amine Rahmouni and Haitham Zayed—in Bell County in 2004. Tabler has submitted an application for clemency to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Abbott in which he seeks the commutation of his death sentence to a lesser penalty. He raises two main reasons why clemency is warranted:
– His ongoing faith journey, which has intensified through his participation in the Faith-Based Program on death row, has led to a profound personal transformation. Tabler is deeply remorseful and has “worked relentlessly to confront his past, make amends, and seek redemption,” according to one of his teachers in the program. If allowed to serve a life sentence, he would continue to be a positive influence on others inside and outside of prison as a mentor and field minister.
– His ongoing development as a talented artist and writer and his close relationships with his family demonstrate that he is not a danger to anyone and is capable of being a positive friend, family member, and fellow inmate.
Please email the members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles this week at bpp_clemency@tdcj.texas.gov to urge them to recommend clemency for Tabler (include his TDCJ #999523 and DOB 02/05/1979 in your appeals). Share your concerns with Governor Greg Abbott.
Here’s a short sample message to use in your appeals:
Dear Members of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles,
I am writing in support of the clemency application submitted by Richard Tabler (TDCJ #999523 and DOB 02/05/1979), who is scheduled to be executed on February 13, 2025. Mr. Tabler has taken full responsibility for killing Mohamed Amine Rahmouni and Haitham Zayed and has worked to confront his past and make amends for his actions. As one of the first graduates of the Faith-Based Program on death row, he has experienced a profound personal transformation and now dedicates himself to being a positive influence on others.
Mr. Tabler is a talented artist and writer and has maintained close ties to his family despite his onerous conditions on death row. Executing him would not promote justice or advance public safety but rather harm another family. I urge you to recommend the commutation of his sentence to a lesser penalty. Thank you for your time and consideration.
***
To date this year, there has been one execution nationwide: South Carolina put Marion Bowman to death on January 31, 2025. Alabama and Florida also have scheduled executions in February.
The TCADP 2025 Annual Conference: Becoming Catalysts for Change
is less than three weeks away! Join us in Austin on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at the Thompson Conference Center on the campus of the University of Texas-Austin. Registration opens at 9:00 AM; the program will begin at 10:00 AM and run until 4:00 PM. If you have ever wanted to meet TCADP supporters from across the state or become more involved in our campaigns, this is your chance!
Among the many inspiring people you will hear from that day are State Representative Joe Moody, Gretchen Sween, and Rev. Brian Wharton. The conference also will feature a panel discussion with journalists who cover death penalty cases and workshop sessions on such topics as the clemency process in Texas, advocating with faith communities, and conservative perspectives on the death penalty.
Learn more about the conference and register here. (Note: Registration rates will increase after February 10, 2024.)
TCADP welcomes Spring 2025 Justice Fellow
TCADP is pleased to welcome Justus Mendoza as our Spring 2025 Justice Fellow! Justus is an honors senior student at The University of Texas at San Antonio studying Politics and Law. He has completed internships in government relations with Public Citizen and Save the Children. Justus was also a Fall 2023 Archer Fellow, during which he gained federal policy-making experience interning with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle’s lobbying firm, The Daschle Group.
Justus served on his university’s moot court team and was president of a student organization focused on professional networking in the legal field. He is passionate about justice and fairness under law. After graduation, Justus hopes to attend law school in the Fall of 2025.
The 89th Texas Legislature commenced on January 14, 2025, and will run through early June. On January 28, 2025, TCADP staff, Texas Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, and members of the TCADP Lobby Corps hand delivered copies of TCADP’s latest report on death penalty developmentsto every legislative office in the State Capitol.
Legislators already have filed thousands of bills, including two death penalty abolition bills in the House and one in the Senate: House Bills 454 by State Representative John Bucy (House District 136-Austin) and 651 by State Representative Joe Moody (House District 78-El Paso); and Senate Bill 343 by State Senator Sarah Eckhardt (Senate District 14-Austin). The bills are identical.
Read TCADP’s position papers on these bills and contact your State Representative and State Senator to urge their support for repealing the death penalty in Texas. Click here to identify your state lawmakers.
Department of Justice withdraws lethal injection protocol
In the last days of the Biden Administration, the Department of Justice (DOJ) rescinded its protocol for the use of pentobarbital in federal executions after a government review raised concerns over the potential for unnecessary pain and suffering. This comes after former President Biden commuted the death sentences of 37 individuals to life in prison. The DOJ report found that individuals executed with pentobarbital experienced flash pulmonary edema, which causes a sensation akin to being waterboarded. Pentobarbital may not adequately anesthetize the individual before they experience pulmonary edema. In his memorandum, former Attorney General Merrick Garland stated, “In the face of such uncertainty, the Department should err on the side of treating individuals humanely and avoiding unnecessary pain and suffering.”
New Executive Order on the Death Penalty does nothing to promote public safety
On his first day as President, Donald Trump signed an Executive Order titled “Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety.” The order requires the Attorney General to pursue the death penalty in “all crimes of a severity demanding its use.” The President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund, Janai Nelson, said “the selective enforcement of the death penalty will never provide justice and neither will its expansion.” Nelson emphasized the order is focused on the power of violence instead of rehabilitation or meaningful deterrence, while the Texas Tribune reports that the order clashes with some Texas lawmakers’ efforts to add guardrails to capital punishment.
TCADP General Membership Meeting
TCADP’s General Membership Meeting will take place on Zoom on Tuesday, February 11, 2025, from 6:30 to 7:30 PM Central Time. Attendees will hear a report on TCADP’s impact in 2024 and elect new board members. We’ll then break into small groups for discussions led by TCADP Board Members. If you have questions about your membership status, email Executive Director Kristin Cuellar at kristin@tcadp.org.
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 isThe Crying Tree by Naseem Rakha. We will discuss the novel on Wednesday, March 12, 2025, 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.)