Today, Monday, April 29, 2013, the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee will hold a public hearing on House Bill (HB) 1703, which calls for the repeal of the death penalty in Texas. HB 1703 is authored by State Representative Jessica Farrar (District 148 – Houston), State Representatives Alma Allen (District 131 – Houston) and Lon Burnam (District 90 – Fort Worth).
abolition
Maryland Senate Passes Abolition Legislation
Earlier today, the Maryland Senate passed SB 276, a bill to replace the death penalty with life without parole, by a vote of 27-20. The vote occurred after three days of debate. It was the first time in decades that the full Senate considered repeal legislation, as previous efforts in that body had been blocked by […]
Texas Carries Out Its First Execution of the Year; Maryland Committee Passes Repeal
Last night, February 21, 2013, the State of Texas executed Carl Blue for the 1994 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Carmen Richards-Sanders, in Bryan. It was the first execution to take place in Texas this year and the third nationwide. The State of Georgia also carried out an execution last night, putting Andrew Allen Cook to death for the […]
Slim Majority Votes to Keep California’s Death Penalty
TCADP would like to thank everyone who supported the Yes on 34/SAFE Campaign to replace California’s death penalty by calling voters, reaching out to friends, and posting information on social media. It was an amazing collective effort for our movement! This morning, with 98.5% of the precincts partially reporting, it appears that a small majority has […]
Houston Chronicle Editorial: Death penalty perils
This week, the Houston Chronicle affirmed its call for the abolition of the death penalty in an editorial focused on the wrongful execution of Carlos DeLuna (“Death penalty perils,” May 24, 2012). Here are excerpts: We have noted before, as have other observers, that the death penalty in Texas is all too often plagued by […]
Two New Op-Eds Call for Abolition of Death Penalty
This week, two major Texas newspapers featured op-eds calling for the abolition of the death penalty. In the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (“‘Myth of violence’ drives capital punishment,” May 1, 2012), Reverend Bernard Kern (a new member of the TCADP Board of Directors), describes support for the death penalty as part of the “myth of redemptive […]
Death Penalty Repeal Becomes Law in Connecticut
Today, April 25, 2012, Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy signed into law legislation that ends the use of the death penalty in his state. Connecticut joins four other states that have abandoned the death penalty in recent years and is the 17th non-death penalty state in the United States. In the statement released by his office, […]
What does Connecticut Repeal mean for Texas?
Last week in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, (“Time to End the Death Penalty in Texas,” April 10, 2012), columnist Bob Ray Sanders called on the abolition movement to “gather steam [and] wage an all-out legal assault and awareness campaign to change these barbaric laws one state legislature at a time.” This call has already been […]