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Future Dangerousness racial bias

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.

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execution

Trial court postpones execution date for Billy Joe Wardlow

Today, April 6, 2020, the trial court granted the state’s motion to move Billy Joe Wardlow’s execution date from April 29 to July 8; it denied defense’s motion to withdraw […]

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execution

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.

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execution

State of Texas executes Billie Wayne Coble

Last night, February 28, 2019, the State of Texas executed Billie Wayne Coble. At 70 years of age, he was the oldest person put to death here since Texas resumed executions in 1982. He spent nearly 30 years on death row.