Attend Events

TCADP is pleased to offer virtual programs as well as in-person events such as our Annual Conference. See below for details on upcoming and past events, as well as events hosted by partner organizations.

Upcoming Events

Community & Coffee
Join TCADP supporters in DFW on Wednesday, November 20, 2024, from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, at Union Coffee (3705 Cedar Springs Rd, Dallas, TX 75219). Deputy Director Tiara Cooper will hold space for anyone interested in discussing recent death penalty developments and connecting with our efforts and upcoming events. To RSVP, email TCooper@TCADP.org.

TCADP Book Group
The TCADP Book Group meets every six to eight weeks on Zoom and reads a mix of fiction, non-fiction, and memoirs (see below for a list of everything we’ve read together). Our next selection is How to Read a Book by Monica Wood. We will discuss the book on Wednesday, December 11, 2024, at 7:00 PM CT. Ms. Hagerty will join us for part of the discussion! Register here.

TCADP 2025 Annual Conference
Save the date for our next statewide gathering! The TCADP 2025 Annual Conference will take place on Saturday, February 22, 2025, at the Thompson Conference Center in Austin, Texas. It will feature a panel discussion, a keynote address, and the presentation of awards. We will provide workshop sessions on a variety of topics featuring experts and voices of experience on death penalty issues. Stay tuned for details about this informative and inspirational day of advocacy!

Past Events

Shaken Baby Syndrome: Examining the Evidence in the Shadow of an Execution
On Wednesday, October 2, 2024, the Cato Institute hosted a virtual event about shaken baby syndrome, featuring a panel of medical and forensic science experts who examined the issue in depth. With the first-in-the-nation execution of Robert Roberson based on the SBS/AHT diagnosis scheduled for October 17, 2024, in Texas, the trustworthiness of the diagnosis is increasingly relevant. Watch the recording.

Noose to Needle: The legacy of race and the death penalty in Texas
On May 30, 2024, TCADP co-hosted an important conversation about the intersection of race and the death penalty, featuring TCADP Deputy Director Tiara Cooper, Estelle Hebron-Jones, Director of Special Projects for Texas Defender Service (TDS), and Furonda Brasfield, Director of the Noose to Needle Project.

Participants learned about persistent and ongoing racial disparities in Harris County’s use of the death penalty, as documented in a report published by TDS earlier this year and exemplified by the case of Duane Buck. The panelists also explored the historical connections between lynching, racial terror, and the modern death penalty and shared their perspectives on intersectionality. Watch a recording of the webinar on YouTube.

Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction: The Case of Charles Don Flores
Did you know someone can be convicted and sentenced to death without any evidence linking them to the crime scene? That’s what happened to Charles Don Flores, who has spent more than 20 years on death row for a crime he maintains he did not commit.

On June 8, 2023, TCADP, with support from local and national partners, hosted Anatomy of a Wrongful Conviction: The Case of Charles Don Flores in DeSoto, Texas. During the community forum, attendees heard from these speakers:

Christopher Scott, a Dallas County exoneree
Gretchen Sween, Flores’s appellate attorney
Dr. John Wixted, an expert on memory and eyewitness identification

You can watch the live stream of the event here: https://www.facebook.com/cdf999299/videos. (This was recorded by a friend of Charles Flores who traveled from Colorado to be there!)

Bilingual panel discussion: “The Years of Fierro”
On May 12, 2021, EPF Media, TCADP, and Witness to Innocence hosted a special panel discussion related to the documentary film, “The Years of Fierro,” and the case of César Fierro, who spent four decades on Texas’s death row before his sentence was reduced. He was paroled in 2020. Throughout his ordeal, César maintained his innocence of the crime for which he was convicted in El Paso in 1980. The panel was conducted in English and Spanish and featured the filmmaker, Santiago Esteinou, two of César’s attorneys, Sandra Babcock and Dick Burr, and César himself. Watch and share the recording.