The Board of Directors of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP) is delighted to announce the following recipients of the TCADP 2026 Awards, which will be presented on March 7, 2026, during the TCADP 2026 Annual Conference in Houston, Texas.
Appreciation Award Recipient
Jacquie Benestante, Executive Director of the Autism Society of Texas, in recognition of her outstanding partnership in the campaign to save Robert Roberson from execution. Jacquie and her colleagues with the Autism Society of America have significantly amplified this important facet of Robert’s case.
Courage Award Recipients
Josh Burns, in recognition of his advocacy for Robert Roberson over the past year. TCADP is deeply grateful for Josh’s willingness to share his personal story of being wrongfully convicted under the discredited “Shaken Baby Syndrome” (SBS) hypothesis and for the time and effort he has devoted to Robert’s case through numerous events, legislative testimony, and media interviews.
Kerry Max Cook, in recognition of his longstanding efforts to seek full exoneration of his wrongful conviction in 1978, make the injustice to which he was subjected known, and hold the authorities in Texas accountable for the egregious police and prosecutorial misconduct perpetrated against him. On June 19, 2024, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declared Cook actually innocent in a monumental ruling in the 47-year-old death penalty case.
Media Award Recipients
Margaret Brown, for her work as the director of “The Yogurt Shop Murders” (HBO Max, 2025), a four-part docuseries that investigates the shocking murders of four teenage girls in Austin in 1991, a case that led to two wrongful convictions. Brown covers the devastating repercussions of this case with sensitivity and respect towards the victims and their families as she navigates the complexities of grief.
Smriti Mundhra, for her work as the director of “I Am Ready, Warden,” (MTV Documentary Films, 2024) which focuses on the final days of John Henry Ramirez before he was executed by the State of Texas in October 2022. The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Documentary Short Film category in 2025. “I Am Ready, Warden” represents a significant entry in death penalty discourse by shining a light on the toll executions take on everyone implicated in the process.
Founder’s Award Recipients
Paul Nugent, a longtime criminal defense attorney in Houston, in recognition of his pursuit of truth and justice and the key role he played in two of the eighteen death row exonerations in Texas: Clarence Brandley and Kerry Max Cook. Both cases are featured in Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham & Jim McCloskey.
Professor Ana M. Otero, the Eugene Harrington Professor of Law at Thurgood Marshall School of Law in Houston, in recognition of her many years of service to TCADP as an officer of the Board of Directors, her scholarship on the death penalty, and her efforts to engage law students on this issue and in the work of TCADP.
We look forward to sharing more about these extraordinary individuals in the coming weeks!
Registration for the conference is open, and sponsorship opportunities are available to facilitate the participation of our award recipients, speakers, and other special guests.