The State of Texas executed Lisa Coleman this evening, September 17, 2014, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected her request for a stay. She was convicted a decade ago in Tarrant […]
Tag: execution
*Update as of 5:15 PM on September 17, 2014* The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of Lisa Coleman, allowing her execution to proceed. Read more from the Washington […]
This evening, September 10th, the State of Texas executed Willie Trottie. A Harris County jury sentenced him to death for the 1993 murders of his former girlfriend Barbara Canada, and […]
The State of Texas is scheduled to resume executions this Wednesday, September 10th, after an unusual four-month hiatus. It if proceeds, the execution of Willie Trottie will be the first […]
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.
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.
Today, attorneys for Robert James Campbell asked Texas Governor Rick Perry to issue a 30-day reprieve of execution to allow time for the Board of Pardons and Paroles to thoughtfully consider his application for commutation of his death sentence to life without parole on the ground that he is intellectually disabled and therefore constitutionally exempt from execution.
The Arc, which advocates for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, has called upon Texas Governor Perry to stop the scheduled execution of Robert Campbell and commute his sentence to life without possibility of parole, based on evidence of his intellectual disability.