On Monday, September 23, 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) stopped the execution of Stephen Barbee in response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in McCoy v. Louisiana (2018). […]
Author: Kristin
Kristin Houlé Cuellar is the Executive Director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP).
State of Texas executes Mark Soliz
Last night, September 10, the State of Texas carried out its sixth execution of the year, putting Mark Anthony Soliz to death for the murder of Nancy Weatherly during a crime spree in Johnson and Tarrant Counties in 2010. During his last words, he apologized to the Weatherly family.
More than 100 Jewish attorneys, the American Jewish Committee, and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism have filed an amicus brief with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in support of a new trial for Randy Halprin. Halprin is scheduled to be executed on October 10, 2019, despite the fact that no court has considered the impact of the judge’s anti-Semitic prejudice against him during his 2003 trial.
The State of Texas executed Billy Crutsinger on September 4, 2019 after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal and motion for a stay. He was the 5th person […]
In this edition of our monthly newsletter, you’ll find information about the three executions scheduled by the State of Texas in September, as well as important news related to the death penalty out of Dallas and Houston.
The State of Texas executed Larry Swearingen this evening after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. He is the 4th person put to death in Texas in 2019 and the 12th nationwide. The Death Penalty Information Center will add him to the informal list of persons executed in the United States with substantial doubts as to their guilt.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has granted a stay of execution to Dexter Johnson, less than 24 hours before he was scheduled to be put to death, based on evidence of his intellectual disability. It is the second time in five months a federal court has intervened in this case and stopped Johnson’s execution.
In this edition of our monthly newsletter, you’ll find information about two executions scheduled to occur this month , as well as updates on other death penalty cases. We also remember former U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, who came to oppose the death penalty, and provide details on a recent interfaith statement delivered to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.