A new study of 100 people executed in 2012 and 2013 shows that the death penalty system has failed to identify and execute “the worst of the worst.” According to researchers, the overwhelming majority of those executed had deficits of at least one kind, such as intellectual disability, severe mental illness, or severe childhood trauma.
Tag: Death Penalty
TCADP’s August 2014 Alert provides information on scheduled executions and the ongoing lethal injection debacle. It also takes a closer look at investigations into the cases of Cameron Todd Willingham and Carlos DeLuna, both of which bolster evidence that the State of Texas has executed innocent people.
Today’s execution of Joseph Wood in Arizona took nearly two hours as he repeatedly gasped and snorted, according to witnesses. Some reports say that Wood gasped more than 600 times during […]
On July 21, 2014, eight retired federal and state judges petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to accept an appeal from Rodney Reed, who is scheduled to be executed on January 14, 2015. Among them are Royal Ferguson of Texas, a retired federal judge appointed by President Bill Clinton, and Judge Charles Baird, who served eight years on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and four years as a state district judge in Austin.
The Chief Disciplinary Counsel of the State Bar of Texas has made a “just cause” determination with respect to allegations of prosecutorial misconduct against former Burleson County District Attorney Charles J. Sebesta, Jr. in his prosecution of Anthony Graves in 1994. As a result of Sebesta’s misconduct, Graves spent 18½ years of his life in prison, more than 12½ years of that on death row, for a crime he did not commit and of which he was later completely exonerated by honest prosecutors.
Today marks 38 years since the United States Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty and paved the way for the resumption of executions. The Court’s decision in Gregg vs. Georgia on July 2, 1976 found that the new death penalty laws of several states (including Texas) “promised” to make the process fairer and less arbitrary.
Rev. Jeff Hood will conclude his 200-mile pilgrimage from Texas’ death row to the State Capitol in Austin today. Please join us at the Capitol at 5 PM for a […]
Moved to pilgrimage in prayer for the abolition of the death penalty, TCADP Board Member Rev. Jeff Hood will conduct “A Pilgrimage to Abolish the Death Penalty from Livingston to Austin” from Friday, June 13, 2014 to Thursday, June 19, 2014. The approximately 200-mile walk will begin at noon on June 13, 2014 with a brief statement and prayer outside of the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, where individuals on death row are incarcerated, and conclude on the steps of the State Capitol in Austin.