Last night, January 27, the State of Texas executed James Freeman for the murder of Game Warden Justin Hurst after a police chase in 2007 in Wharton County. His 2008 trial was the first death penalty case in Wharton since 1979 and he was the first person from the county to be executed.
Freeman’s lawyers argued that their client did not have a history of violence and did not pose a “future danger”, the first issue jurors in Texas capital murder trials must answer when considering whether to impose the death penalty.
According to the Texas Tribune, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case on January 11 and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles rejected his petition for clemency earlier in the week.
Freeman was the second person to be executed in Texas this year. A total of four executions have taken place in the United States in 2016.
At this time, there are eight executions scheduled to take place in Texas through July 2016.