In this edition Reflections on race and “future dangerousness” in the Texas death penalty Scheduled executions: State of Texas seeks to execute Billy Joe Wardlow for a crime he committed 27 years ago at the age of 18; federal government sets four execution dates Case updates: Bobby Moore, who spent 40 years on death row, […]
Death Penalty
Race and “future dangerousness” in the Texas death penalty
Many of Texas’s most troubling death penalty cases are rooted in a corrosive system of racism fostered by predictions of future dangerousness, a unique facet of our state’s capital punishment statute.
U.S. Supreme Court remands case of Terence Andrus based on woefully inadequate legal representation
On Monday, June 8, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court remanded the death penalty case of Terence Andrus to Texas for further review, finding that his trial attorney provided inadequate and deficient legal representation. Among his many failings were neglecting to investigate or present readily-available mitigating evidence of Andrus’s troubled upbringing, which could have persuaded the jury to spare his life.
U.S. Supreme Court stays the execution of Ruben Gutierrez
Just an hour before he was scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas, Ruben Gutierrez received a stay from the U.S. Supreme Court. Gutierrez had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution in order to consider his request to allow a Christian chaplain in the execution chamber, a request that was […]
Ruben Gutierrez seeks 30-day stay from Governor Greg Abbott; appeal also pending with U.S. Supreme Court
Today, Ruben Gutierrez, who is scheduled to be executed by the State of Texas on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT, asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay his execution in order to consider his request to allow a Christian chaplain in the execution chamber, a request that was routine in hundreds of Texas executions until April 2019, when the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) changed the rules. The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops filed an amicus brief in support of Gutierrez.
Fifth Circuit lifts stay of execution for Ruben Gutierrez
Late Friday night, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas’s stay of execution of Ruben Gutierrez, who seeks DNA testing of evidence pointing to his innocence. Gutierrez also is challenging Texas’s denial of a Christian chaplain’s presence during his execution, which is scheduled for Tuesday, […]
Texas Bishops support 1st Amendment Rights of Ruben Gutierrez; case pending at the Fifth Circuit
Today, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops (TCCB) filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in support of death row prisoner Ruben Gutierrez. The brief calls on the Fifth Circuit to affirm the district court’s stay of execution and argues the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) must […]
Federal judge grants stay of execution to Ruben Gutierrez
Update: The Texas Attorney General has appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to overturn the stay. Check back for new developments. Earlier today, a federal district court judge stayed the execution of Ruben Gutierrez, which is scheduled for next Tuesday, June 16. Gutierrez seeks testing of DNA evidence collected at […]
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