The number of new death sentences and executions declined in 2019, according to a new report from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP). Texas juries rejected the death penalty in 50% of the cases presented to them this year. The cases that were scheduled for execution this year underscored persistent concerns about the fairness and accuracy of Texas’s death penalty system.
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State of Texas executes Travis Runnels
The State of Texas carried out the final execution of the year last night, putting Travis Runnels to death after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider his final appeal regarding false testimony by one of the state’s witnesses at his trial. It was the ninth execution in Texas in 2019.
The State of Texas executed Robert Sparks on September 25 after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. Although Justice Sonia Sotomayor agreed with the decision to deny a stay of execution, she noted she found it “deeply troubling” that a bailiff was allowed to wear a tie depicting a syringe during Sparks’ trial. […]
The State of Texas is scheduled to execute Juan Castillo on Wednesday, May 16, 2018, despite the fact that significant evidence of false testimony has never been considered by the courts. It is the fourth execution date he has faced over the last year. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against […]
REPOST of Press Release from the Innocence Project: Newly Discovered Evidence Points to Possible False Testimony at Willingham’s Trial and Possible Prosecutorial Misconduct that May Have Contributed to His Wrongful Execution (Austin, TX; September 27, 2013) – Relatives for Cameron Todd Willingham were joined by exoneree Michael Morton at a press conference at the Texas capitol […]