For more trends and analysis of the current death penalty landscape, read Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2024: The Year in Review.
For more information, read Facts about the Death Penalty.
Executions
The State of Texas has executed 594 people since 1982, more than any other state by far. Of these executions, 279 occurred during the administration of Texas Governor Rick Perry (2001-2014), more than any other governor in U.S. history.
To date in 2025, Texas has executed three men: Steven Nelson, Richard Tabler, and Moises Mendoza. David Wood, who was scheduled to be put to death on March 13, 2025, received a stay from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
There currently is one execution scheduled in the remainder of 2025.
Texas executed five men in 2024. Three other individuals received stays of execution. On October 17, 2024, the Texas Supreme Court halted the scheduled execution of Robert Roberson, an innocent man convicted of a crime that did not occur, after lawmakers issued an subpoena for his testimony.
Harris County alone accounts for 135 executions, which represents more executions than any state except Texas. Dallas County accounts for 65 executions, Bexar County for 46, and Tarrant County for 46.
Death Sentences
To date this year, jurors have imposed one new death sentence and rejected the death penalty in another case. These cases were tried in Harris and Tarrant counties, which currently are the state’s most aggressive death penalty jurisdictions:
- On April 17, 2025, a jury in Harris County imposed the first new death sentence of the year, condemning Xavier Davis for the murders of three people – Gregory Carhee, Donyavia Lagway, and their six-year-old daughter, Harmony Carhee – at their home in Houston in 2021. Davis pled guilty to the charges on the opening day of his trial.
- On May 1, 2025, a jury in Tarrant County rejected the death penalty for Lamont Cousins and instead sentenced him to life in prison without parole after determining he did not present a continuing threat to society. Cousins was convicted of killing three people in 2020. It is the second time since 2022 that a Tarrant County jury has rejected the death penalty.
In 2024, Texas juries imposed six new death sentences; three of these sentences came out of Tarrant County.
Texas has the third-largest death row population in the nation (172), after California* (589) and Florida (273).
*On March 13, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared a moratorium on executions.
Death Sentences by Race and Gender
Race
As death sentences in Texas decline, they continue to be applied disproportionately to people of color. Over the last five years, nearly 70 percent of death sentences have been imposed on people of color; more than 40 percent were imposed on Black defendants. In 2024, five of the six men sentenced to death are people of color: three are Black; one is Hispanic; and one is Native American.
To learn more…
Watch “What does race have to do with the death penalty in Texas?”
Read Arbitrary and Capricious: Examining Racial Disparities in Harris County’s Pursuit of Death Sentences
Read “Race and ‘future dangerousness’ in the Texas death penalty”
Read “Enduring Injustice: the Persistence of Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Death Penalty”
Gender
According to TDCJ, there are currently 172 people on Texas’s death row, including 7 women. This is the smallest Texas death row population since 1985, when 188 people awaited execution, according to research by TCADP.
Death Sentences by County
As displayed in this interactive map, jurors in just two counties— Harris and Tarrant—have imposed more than one death sentence since 2020.
Three counties account for more than half of the current death row population: Harris (64); Dallas (13); and Tarrant (13). No other county has more than eight individuals on death row at this time.
Less than 20% of the 254 counties in Texas account for the current population of death row.
Learn more about the death penalty at the county level here.
- 3 Death Sentences
- 2 Death Sentences
- 1 Death Sentence
Wrongful Convictions and Executions
Since 1973, 200 individuals who spent time on death row have been exonerated, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. This includes 18 people convicted and sentenced to death in Texas.
There also is strong evidence that the State of Texas has executed innocent people, including Carlos DeLuna, Ruben Cantu, Cameron Todd Willingham, Gary Graham (Shaka Sankofa), Larry Swearingen, and Ivan Cantu.
Learn more about wrongful executions in Texas at TCADP’s Wrongful Execution page and DPIC Special Report: The Innocence Epidemic.
Cost of the Death Penalty
See TCADP’s fact sheet on the cost of the death penalty for details. For additional information, read “Experts discuss cost of the death penalty amid era of growing decline,” Community Impact Newspaper (Richardson edition), March 18, 2020.
National and International Abolition
Eleven states – Colorado, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, New Mexico, Illinois, Connecticut, Washington, Maryland, New Hampshire, and, most recently, Virginia – have abandoned the death penalty in recent years through legislative or judicial action. A total of 23 states and the District of Columbia do not allow the death penalty.
Governors in four other states (Arizona, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and California) have imposed a moratorium on executions, bringing the total number of states that have either ended the death penalty or have a moratorium to 27.
113 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. According to Amnesty International, just 15 countries carried out executions in 2024. The five countries with the highest number of executions in 2024 were China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Yemen. The United States ranked seventh. Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia accounted for 91% of recorded executions. It remains difficult to determine the exact number of executions in some countries.