A new report from Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project identifies America’s five deadliest head prosecutors out of the thousands that have held that office in the last 40 years. It specifically names Johnny Holmes, who served as the District Attorney of Harris County, Texas from 1979 to 2000; during his tenure, his office secured at least 200 death sentences. Since 2008, by contrast, Harris County juries have sent an average of one person to death row each year.
Category: Harris County
Advocates and supporters from across Texas will gather on Saturday, February 20, 2016 at Unity of Houston for the 18th Annual Conference of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP). This event, At the Epicenter of the Death Penalty, will feature workshops, a keynote address, and a panel discussion about the shifting death penalty landscape in Texas and Harris County.
Yesterday, Alfred Dewayne Brown became the 13th person in Texas and the 154th nationwide to be released from death row due to evidence of his wrongful conviction. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office dismissed the capital murder charges against him after determining there was not enough evidence to re-try him for two murders that took place at a cash-checking business in Houston in 2003.
This evening, September 10th, the State of Texas executed Willie Trottie. A Harris County jury sentenced him to death for the 1993 murders of his former girlfriend Barbara Canada, and […]
On February 5, 2014, the State of Texas carried out its second execution of the year, putting Suzanne Basso to death for the 1998 murder of Louis “Buddy” Musso. Basso was convicted in 1999 in Harris County. Prosecutors accused her of luring Musso, an intellectually disabled man, to Texas after meeting Basso and her son, J.D. O’Malley in New Jersey. Five co-defendants, including O’Malley, were convicted of playing a role in the murder.
The State of Texas is scheduled to put Suzanne Basso to death on February 5, 2014. She was convicted in 1999 in Harris County of the 1998 murder of Louis “Buddy” Musso. You can help stop this execution by contacting the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Rick Perry.
The State of Texas is scheduled to execute Edgar Tamayo on January 22, 2014 for the 1994 murder of Officer Guy Gaddis of the Houston Police Department. Tamayo, who is […]
More than two dozen Evangelical Christian leaders in Texas and across the country are calling on Harris County District Attorney Devon Anderson to allow a new, fair sentencing hearing for Duane Buck and to refrain from setting a new execution date, in the wake of Wednesday’s decision by a splintered Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to dismiss Mr. Buck’s appeal..