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.
Tag: U.S. Supreme Court
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.
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. […]
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.
Bobby Moore was removed from death row in December 2019 after years of legal wrangling and two reversals by the U.S. Supreme Court related to his intellectual disability, which made […]
This edition of our monthly newsletter addresses the continued impact of COVID-19 on use of the death penalty and prison conditions in Texas. It also includes updates on cases involving intellectual disability claims, federal executions, and use of the death penalty worldwide.
In this edition of our monthly newsletter, you’ll find information about the 22nd state to abolish the death penalty, as well as updates on significant Texas death penalty cases and coverage of the TCADP 2020 Annual Conference. We also have an issued an action alert for John Hummel, who is scheduled to be executed on March 18, 2020.
Last night, the State of Texas executed Abel Ochoa after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to consider his petition and rejected his motion for a stay. He was the second person put to death in Texas this year and the third nationwide. Seven more executions are scheduled through May.