In this edition: Scheduled executions: No executions set for Texas until March 2022 In case you missed it: U.S. Supreme Court considers whether individuals have the right to spoken prayers and physical comfort in the execution chamber; Gallup poll measures declining support for the death penalty; former Bexar County District Attorney calls for DNA testing […]
Category: San Antonio Express News
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 […]
An editorial in the San Antonio Express-News, “Justice is the Real Death Row Issue,” (September 28, 2011), addresses a recent decision by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to no longer provide “last meals” to those facing imminent execution. The change came at the request of Texas State Senator John Whitmire, the chair of the […]
On Wednesday, March 3, 2010 Joe Estrada, Jr. was spared a death sentence and instead sentenced to life in prison without parole. Estrada, convicted in the murder of a San Antonio restaurateur, was only 18 years old when he killed Viola Barrios in 2008. The defense argued to the jury that Estrada was born with […]
On February 14, 2010, the San Antonio Express News ran the following statement by Debra Medina, in which the GOP gubernatorial candidate for Texas called for a moratorium on the death penalty. “Medina: Hold off on executions” Debra Medina met with the Houston Chronicle editorial board Friday. Amiddiscussion of a range of topics large and […]