Tonight, March 14, 2017, the State of Texas is scheduled to execute James Bigby for the 1987 murders of Michael R. Trekell and Jayson Kehler in Tarrant County. According to his attorney, John Stickels, Bigby has no appeals pending. In 2005, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Bigby’s death sentence after finding that the jury […]
Category: mental illness
*Update* The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Adam Ward’s appeal for a stay of execution based on evidence of his severe mental illness. Tonight, the State of Texas is scheduled to execute Adam Ward for killing Commerce Code Enforcement Officer Michael “Pee Wee” Walker in 2005 in Hunt County. Ward was 22 years old at […]
Attorneys for Scott Panetti, a man with severe mental illness who has spent nearly 20 years on death row in Texas, are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to consider once again whether he is incompetent to be executed.
On July 11, 2013, an Austin County jury determined that Maron Thomas should spend the rest of his life in prison for the 2010 capital murders of his brother and sister, Cedric Thomas and Kiana Phearse, in Buckhorn. The District Attorney’s office had sought the death penalty for Thomas, but the jury decided that there […]
Learn more about Amplify Austin and how it applies to all TCADP supporters across the state and beyond; the upcoming Lobby Day and ways you can be involved; and news out of Maryland regarding appeal of the death penalty. Lots of important and exciting updates for the month of March are available in this alert.
The Houston Chronicle (August 1, 2012) has published a letter to the editor from the Executive Director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Mike Fitzpatrick, and the Policy Coordinator for NAMI-Texas, Greg Hansch, regarding the case of Marcus Druery and his petition for a full and fair competency hearing to determine his mental health […]
Earlier today, July 24, 2012, Brazos County District Court Judge J.D. Langley denied a motion to hold a full hearing on Marcus Druery’s execution competency claim. Druery is scheduled to be executed next Wednesday, August 1, despite diagnoses from the State’s own mental health professionals that he is severely psychotic. He was sentenced to death […]
Update as of 5:00 PM on May 14: We just learned that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has granted a stay of execution to Steven Staley. The court did not provide a reason for the reprieve, saying only that “it had determined the execution should be halted “‘pending further order by this court.'”