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Execution Watch can be heard on KPFT 90.1 FM, in Galveston at 89.5, Livingston at 90.3, and in Huntsville at 89.7 as well as on the net here from 6:00 PM CT to 7:00 PM CT on any day Texas executes a prisoner. TDCJ's list of Scheduled Executions Past Executions and Programs Check the NEW News! Links 
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| Steven Nelson |
| Wednesday, February 5, 2025 at 6:00 pm |
| Execution |
 Given the death penalty in 2012 for the suffocation death of a preacher in Arlington, Texas, during a botched robbery. Defense attorneys asked jurors to spare Nelson's life, saying he was a neglected child who never received the help he needed.
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| Robert Roberson |
| Thursday, October 17, 2024 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in 2003 following his conviction in the alleged shaken-baby death of his 2-year-old daughter at their home in the East Texas town of Palestine. Roberson¿½¿½s attorneys objected when the Oct. 17, 2024, date was set, saying they planned to file a new request to overturn the conviction, due to questions about the cause of the girl€™s death. |
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| Garcia White |
| Tuesday, October 1, 2024 |
| Execution |
| Sentenced to death in the slayings of twin sisters. Appeals of White's sentence portrayed him as a "caring parent, devoted son and sibling" who fell into drug addiction after a knee injury derailed his college football prospects (and led to his departure from Lubbock Christian University). They note the brain damage White suffered after being hit by a baseball bat, and his below-average IQ, as well as the ways in which a detective used White's intellectual deficiency to circumvent his requests for a lawyer during the interrogation in which he confessed. |
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| Travis Mullis |
| Tuesday, September 24, 2024 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the 2008 slaying of his infant son in Galveston. The jury ordered that Mullins be put to death, despite pleas to spare his life from defense attorneys who related that an abusive family life had left him an €śemotional mental-health quadriplegic€ť.. |
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| Arthur Burton |
| Wednesday, August 7, 2024 |
| Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in 1998 following his conviction in the rape and slaying of a jogger in northwest Houston. His appeals have included claims that his trial lawyer fell short of the mark and that his Fifth Amendment rights were violated. An appellate attorney for Burton asked the judge who set his execution date for Aug. 7, 2024, to set it for later, to allow time for the filing of another appeal, but the judge rejected the request. Irregularities in paper work that authorized the execution led a state district judge to stay the execution pending the filing of new documents, but the stay was overturned by a higher court, reinstating the Aug. 7 death date. |
| Sentenced to death in 1998 |
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| Ruben Gutierrez |
| Tuesday, July 16, 2024 |
| Execution |
 Scheduled to die for the fatal stabbing of a woman in Brownsville in 1998 during a robbery in the home of the victim. His previous execution date, in June 2020, was stayed when the U.S. Supreme Court accepted the assertion by Gutierrez that his freedom of religion was being violated by Texas prison officials who, at the time, were barring all spiritual advisors from the death chamber. His execution date of July 16, 2024, was stayed by the U.S. Supreme Court. |
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| Ramiro Gonzales |
| Wednesday, June 26, 2024 |
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| Execution |
 Sentenced to death following his conviction in the 2001 murder of a woman in Bandera, Texas. The July 2024 date was nearly two years after a previous execution date was delayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. It ruled that Gonzales had made a convincing argument that an expert who testified in his sentencing hearing gave false information about how much of a future danger he might pose, a key part of the legal basis for a death sentence in Texas. |
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| James Harris Jr. |
| Wednesday, March 13, 2024 |
| Execution |
 Given the death penalty in connection with a fatal stabbing during a robbery in Angleton in 2012. His appeals included assertions that he is intellectually disabled and therefore ineligible for execution. He also argued that his legal counsel provided inadequate representation by failing to investigate his intellectual disability. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed his execution date of March 13, 2024, with three weeks to spare. The CCA ordered the original trial court to consider claims by Harris that the jury selection violated his constitutional rights. |
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| Ivan Cantu |
| Wednesday, February 28, 2024 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in October 2001 for two slayings in Dallas. On appeal, Cantu argued that his legal help at trial was ineffective and didn't present evidence that would have bolstered his claim of innocence.
A week before Cantu's execution date of April 26, 2023, a court put it on hold while new developments were considered, including recanted testimony and questions about evidence at the original trial. Four months later, the state's highest criminal court ruled that Cantu failed to merit a new hearing in his case. |
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| David Renteria |
| Thursday, November 16, 2023 |
| Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 The El Paso man was condemned following his conviction in the kidnapping and slaying of a girl in 2001. Renteria won a new sentencing in 2006 after an appeals court found that the "exclusion of evidence showing the defendant's remorse violated due process by preventing defendant from rebutting the State's case.¿½¿½ A new hearing was held, and the jury handed down a death sentence. |
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| Brent Brewer |
| Thursday, November 9, 2023 |
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| Execution |
 The Amarillo man was convicted a 1990 stabbing death and sentenced to death. His sentence was overturned in 2007 and reduced to life in prison. A retrial in 2009 resulted in another conviction and death sentence. In his appeals, Brewer claimed his legal counsel at the second trial failed him by not challenging properly the state expert€™s testimony on future dangerousness, neglecting to develop and present a mitigation defense, and failing to counter effectively the state€™s evidence of his prior bad acts. |
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| William Speer |
| Thursday, October 26, 2023 |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the 1997 slaying of a fellow inmate at the Telford state prison unit in New Boston. The East Texas man was already serving a life sentence for a Houston murder when he and another prisoner were found guilty in the death. On appeal, Speer said he received ineffective legal help at trial. He also accused prosecutors of failing to disclose to jurors the alleged deals other prisoners were offered in exchange for testifying against him. Hours before his Oct. 26, 2023, scheduled execution, Speer received a stay from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. |
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| Jedidiah Murphy |
| Tuesday, October 10, 2023 |
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| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in the slaying of a woman in Garland, Texas, in 2000. The Jewish death-row prisoner made international news when a rabbi celebrated his belated bar mitzvah with him in the visiting area. It marked the first time someone on Texas death row wrapped tefillin, Jewish ritual phylacteries tied onto the head and arm. In appealing his conviction, Murphy argued that the state denied him his rights when it, among other things, suppressed evidence by failing to disclose a pretrial conversation between a witness and the lead prosecutor. He also argued that his attorneys failed him in the sentencing hearing, where a convicted capital defendant may offer mitigating evidence to persuade the jury to spare their life. His 10/10/23 execution date was stayed by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
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| Henry “Hank” Skinner |
| Wednesday, September 13, 2023 |
| Execution |
 Death by illness has stayed the death sentence of Hank Skinner. He died in hospital Feb. 16, 2023, of complications from surgery.
The history of his previous execution date of Sept. 13, 2023: His latest execution date is one in a series of many over the years, marked by stays and wrangling over the testing of various pieces of crime-scene evidence for DNA. Skinner and his French wife insist he is innocent of the triple homicide for which he was convicted. His 2023 death date was set after a district court judge ruled against Skinner, saying it was “reasonably probable” he would have still been convicted of the murders even if recently conducted DNA evidence had been available at his 1995 trial.
Skinner was convicted of murdering his girlfriend, Twila Busby, and her two adult sons, Randy Busby and Elwin Caler, in 1993 at their Pampa home. |
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| Ivan Cantu |
| Wednesday, April 26, 2023 |
| Execution |
 convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death in October 2001 for two slayings in Dallas. On appeal, Cantu argued that his legal help at trial was ineffective and didn't present evidence that would have bolstered his claim of innocence. A week before Cantu’s execution date of April 26, 2023, a court put it on hold while new developments were considered, including recanted testimony and questions about evidence at the original trial. |
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| Andre Thomas |
| Wednesday, April 5, 2023 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to die following his conviction in the stabbing deaths of three family members while in the grip of psychosis. Prosecutors say the killings occurred on March 2004 in Grayson County, just north of Dallas. Thomas was found guilty of entering the home of his estranged wife, killing the victims, then walking home and stabbing himself three times in the chest. He later explained that God had told him to kill Jezebel, the Antichrist, and a related evil spirit. Thomas was the third generation of his family to suffer auditory hallucinations. He made the first of many suicide attempts at age 10. While in pre-trial detention, Thomas refused anti-psychotic medication. His devotion to the Bible would lead him to remove his right eye after reading in Matthew 5:29, “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.” Doctors declared him mentally competent to stand trial. After arriving at death row, he eventually slit his own throat and gouged out his other eye. The African-American Thomas faced an all-white jury, a white judge, and white attorneys on both sides. |
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| Anibal Canales, Jr. |
| Wednesday, March 29, 2023 |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the 1997 slaying of a fellow convict while serving a 15-year sentence. Canales was one of several men convicted in the strangling death of the inmate in his cell at the Telford Unit in Bowie County, Texas. Canales grew up in and around Chicago before coming to Texas to live with his father. He has spent most of his adult life in prison, much of it in solitary confinement. Among his claims on appeal were that attorneys representing him during the sentencing phase of his trial failed to develop and present mitigating evidence that might have persuaded the jury to spare his life. |
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| Arthur Brown Jr. |
| Thursday, March 9, 2023 |
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| Execution |
 Condemned in the 1992, slayings of four people in southwest Houston. The shootings happened during what police said was a drug purchase. Brown previously had a death date in 2013, but that was delayed to allow for the review of ballistics evidence in the case. In May 2022, a judge delayed signing the execution order so Brown could find a new attorney to investigate if he is intellectually disabled and thus ineligible for execution. |
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| Gary Green |
| Tuesday, March 7, 2023 |
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| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in a double homicide in Dallas in 2009. Issues raised in his appeals include claims of numerous points of error from his trial, including challenges to: the sufficiency of evidence against him, admissibility of his confession, and the way the jury was selected. In the punishment phase of Green’s trial, family members described mental sympoms that had plagued him since childhood. A psychologist testified that he suffers from a mental illness called schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type, and wrongly believes that people are trying to hurt him. |
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| John Balentine |
| Wednesday, February 8, 2023 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death following his conviction in the shooting deaths of three teenage boys. The 1998 slayings occurred in Amarillo, Texas. A previous execution date in 2012 was stayed at the 11th hour when the US Supreme Court ruled favorably on Balentine’s petition that he had inadequate representation at trial. Two stays had been issued previously. The one in 2013 came down less than an hour before he was set to be put to death. A Feb. 8, 2023, date was vacated after the state failed to give timely notice to his lawyers. |
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| Wesley Ruiz |
| Wednesday, February 1, 2023 |
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| Execution |
 Condemned in the 2007 shooting death of a Dallas police officer. Ruiz said he shot him in self defense. Ruiz has challenged his death sentence as based on inaccurate testimony given by an expert witness at his punishment hearing. A criminal investigator, portrayed as an expert on prisoner classification, testified that Ruiz would receive a moderately restrictive classification if sentenced to life without parole, but that after ten years he might be moved to a less restrictive situation, “depending on his behavior.” The information was untrue. Texas capital juries are asked to assess a person’s future dangerousness in determining whether to sentence them to death. |
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| Robert Fratta |
| Tuesday, January 10, 2023 |
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| Execution |
 Condemned in a murder-for-hire case in which his estranged wife was shot to death in 1994. He is a former police officer for the Houston suburb of Missouri City. Two other men convicted of carrying out the killing also received death sentences. Fratta has maintained his innocence, claiming that his father in law framed him. His conviction in 2009 was the second for Fratta. The first, in 1995, was tossed out on appeal. |
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| Stephen Barbee |
| Wednesday, November 16, 2022 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Barbee, From Tarrant County, arrived on Texas Death Row in February 2006 following his conviction in a double homicide in Fort Worth. He faced execution in 2020 but was granted a stay by the highest criminal court in Texas in response to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that “a defendant has the right to insist that counsel refrain from admitting guilt.” During his trial, Barbee’s lawyers unexpectedly conceded his guilt to the jury despite Barbee’s insistence on his innocence. In another issue, Barbee has a federal complaint about his assertion that he has the right to have his spiritual advisor in the execution chamber, praying aloud with him. The petition is still making its way through the courts. Barbee’s attorney has asked for a stay of execution based on a similar case, in which the Supreme Court granted a stay. |
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| Tracy Beatty |
| Wednesday, November 9, 2022 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Condemned for the 2003 murder of his mother in East Texas. Beatty has challenged his death sentence, saying the prosecution’s justification for elevating his murder charge to capital murder didn’t hold water and that his defense team dropped the ball during the punishment phase of trial when it failed to gather and present evidence designed to persuade the jury to spare his life. The Whitehouse, Texas, man previously received death dates, later stayed, in 2009, 2015 and 2020. |
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| John H. Ramirez |
| Wednesday, October 5, 2022 |
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| Execution |
 He had been set for execution on Sept. 8, 2021, but the U.S. Supreme Court blocked his execution and agreed to take up his case to address the role of spiritual advisers in the death chamber. In March 2022, the court ruled that states must accommodate the wishes of death row inmates who want to have their faith leaders pray and touch them during their executions. After the new execution date was issued, Ramirez’s lawyer said a Houston federal court was still considering a civil rights petition filed on his behalf and that he didn’t believe an execution could proceed until it was resolved. Ramirez was convicted in the stabbing death of a Corpus Christi convenience-store worker during a robbery in 2004. |
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| Kosoul Chanthakoummane |
| Wednesday, August 17, 2022 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to die in the stabbing death and robbery of a woman near Dallas in 2006. Formerly of Charlotte, NC, Chanthakoummane was originally scheduled to be executed in January 2021. That date was delayed in a series of court-ordered postponements of executions during the latter part of the pandemic. He has challenged his conviction, arguing on appeal that it was based on junk science, including bite-mark testimony, hypnotized witnesses and questionable DNA testimony. |
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| Ramiro Gonzales |
| Wednesday, July 13, 2022 |
| Execution |
 Ramiro Gonzales, who has been in prison his entire adult life, was condemned in the 2001 death of a woman on his family’s ranch in the Hill Country west of San Antonio. Gonzales’s attorneys said his confession was insufficiently corroborated by independent evidence; attacked a forensic psychiatrist’s testimony that he would be a continuing threat in prison, and challenged instructions the trial judge gave the jury. They also cited the impact on Gonzales of his childhood neglect, drugs and sexual abuse. A previous execution date in April 2021 was delayed following a hearing in the 38th District Court in Hondo. An appeals panel granted a stay of Gonzales’s July 13, 2022, date on evidence that testimony about his future dangerousness was false. |
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| Melissa Lucio |
| Wednesday, April 27, 2022 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in 2008 following her conviction in the 2007 slaying of her 2-year-old daughter. She was the first LatinX woman sent to death row in Texas. Prison officials set an execution date of April 27, 2022, after the US Supreme Court declined the previous October to consider her appeal. Lucio has long maintained that her daughter’s death stemmed from an accident inside their Lubbock home. In amicus briefs urging the high court to review her conviction, a coalition of advocates for victims of domestic and gender-based violence, former prosecutors, legal scholars, and innocence organizations said Lucio’s history as a victim of domestic abuse increased her susceptibility to making a false confession under pressure from law enforcement. Lucio’s April 27, 2022, execution date was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals with two days to spare. The panel ordered the trial court to consider the issues raised by Lucio’s appeal. |
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| Carl Buntion |
| Thursday, April 21, 2022 |
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| Execution |
 Condemned in 1991 for the fatal shooting of a Houston police officer during a traffic stop. Buntion had spent 30 years on Texas death row and was the oldest person there at 77 when a judge scheduled his latest execution date. The U.S. Supreme Court in October 2021 denied an appeal by Buntion, though Justice Stephen Breyer commented that his “lengthy confinement, and the confinement of others like him, calls into question the constitutionality of the death penalty." Coverage of Buntion’s execution will include a 25-minute interview videotaped with him on death row on March 16, 2022. |
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| Michael Gonzales |
| Tuesday, March 8, 2022 |
| Execution |
 Gonzales was sentenced to death in a 1994 double homicide in Odessa, Texas. He petitioned successfully for a new punishment hearing, but his death sentence was confirmed in 2009. He argued that errors during his original trial, including in jury selection and in the consideration of mitigating evidence during the punishment phase, tainted his conviction. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Gonzales a stay of a March 8, 2022, execution date, based on assertions of diminished capacity and the introduction of new evidence. |
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| Ramiro Gonzales |
| Wednesday, November 17, 2021 |
| Execution |
 Ramiro Gonzales, who has been in prison his entire adult life, was condemned in the 2001 death of a woman on his family’s ranch in the Hill Country west of San Antonio. Gonzales’s attorneys said his confession was insufficiently corroborated by independent evidence; attacked a forensic psychiatrist’s testimony that he would be a continuing threat in prison, and challenged instructions the trial judge gave the jury. They also cited the impact on Gonzales of his childhood neglect, drugs and sexual abuse. A previous execution date in April 2021 was delayed following a hearing in the 38th District Court in Hondo. |
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| Kosoul Chanthakoummane |
| Wednesday, November 10, 2021 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to die in the stabbing death and robbery of a woman near Dallas in 2006. Formerly of Charlotte, NC, Chanthakoummane was originally scheduled to be executed in January 2021. That date was delayed in a series of court-ordered postponements of executions during the latter part of the pandemic. He has challenged his conviction, arguing on appeal that it was based on junk science, including bite-mark testimony, hypnotized witnesses and questionable DNA testimony. |
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| Fabian Hernandez |
| Wednesday, November 3, 2021 |
| Execution |
 A delay prompted by the Covid pandemic was coming to an end with the El Paso man’s rescheduled execution date. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had ordered a delay of his April 23, 2021 date. Hernandez was condemned in a pair of shooting deaths in 2006. A Nov. 3, 2021, execution date was stayed by El Paso District Judge Patricia Baca on Sept. 30, 2021.
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| Ruben Gutierrez |
| Wednesday, October 27, 2021 |
| Execution |
 The Brownsville man has been struggling for years to compel authorities to test of DNA evidence he said would reverse his conviction in the 1999 murder of a woman in a home robbery. Gutierrez filed a motion in July 2021 seeking testing that, had the results “been presented to jurors, they would have found Mr. Gutiérrez did not kill” the victim, according to his filing. He asserted that his conviction was based solely on the testimony of an unreliable eyewitness and a false confession made in response to police threats against his family. The U.S.Supreme Court stayed an earlier execution date in June 2020 because Texas had violated his right to have clergy present in the death chamber. |
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| Stephen Barbee |
| Tuesday, October 12, 2021 |
| Execution |
 The Fort Worth man was condemned in a 2006 double murder. He won a delay of a 2019 execution date on his complaint that his Sixth Amendment rights were violated at trial. Barbee has long maintained his innocence, alleging that police obtained his confession through coercion. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals dismissed his appeal in February 2021. An execution date of Oct. 12, 2021, was stayed by a federal district judge, because prison officials would not allow Barbee to have a spiritual advisor present and in physical contact during his execution. |
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| Rick Rhoades |
| Tuesday, September 28, 2021 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Rhoades was convicted in the 1991 stabbing deaths of two Houston brothers. His attorneys argued on appeal that the judge who presided over his trial the following year shouldn’t have excluded from evidence photographs from Rhoades’ childhood, that jurors were inaccurately told he could be released on furlough if sentenced to life in prison, and that two potential jurors were illegally disqualified because they were black.
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| John Ramirez |
| Wednesday, September 8, 2021 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 The former Marine was sentenced to death in the slaying of a Corpus Christi convenience store clerk in 2004. During the penalty phase of his capital trial, John Ramirez instructed his lawyers to stop presenting witnesses, asking them, instead, to read a psalm from the Bible. Attorneys on appeal argued that his conviction was tainted by deficient legal help at trial, jurors were eliminated improperly when he was not present, the courtroom was closed to the public during jury selection, and Ramirez was improperly shackled during his trial. A motion for a stay was denied Sept. 6, 2021, by the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. Ramirez had claimed that Texas prison policies on spiritual advisers illegally prohibited him from having his pastor lay hands on him and pray aloud during the execution. The court said such an action could interfere with the effectiveness of the process for putting Ramirez to death.
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| Supremes stayed the execution to deal with challenges about having his pastor in the chamber to hold his hand at the end. |
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| John Hummel |
| Wednesday, June 30, 2021 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the 2009 slayings of three family members in Kennedale, southeast of Fort Worth. Attorneys for John Hummel said his conviction was improper, arguing that it was based on an illegally obtained confession, lacked sufficient evidence, and was decided by an improperly selected jury. |
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| Quintin Jones |
| Wednesday, May 19, 2021 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 The Fort Worth man, who suffers from dissociative identity disorder, was sentenced to death in the slaying of his great aunt. His lawyers argued during the trial that a life of horrific abuse contributed to the slaying. He was neglected by his parents through his childhood, they said, and repeatedly sexually abused by his stepbrother and brother. By age 12, he was using illegal drugs and had developed an alternate personality, a condition confirmed by a psychiatrist hired by the prosecution. Previously called split personality, dissociative identity disorder is often attributed to severe trauma during early childhood, usually extreme, repetitive physical, sexual or emotional abuse. |
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| Ramiro Gonzales |
| Tuesday, April 20, 2021 |
| Execution |
 Ramiro Gonzales, who has been in prison his entire adult life, was condemned in the 2001 death of a woman on his family’s ranch in the Hill Country west of San Antonio. Gonzales’s attorneys said his confession was insufficiently corroborated by independent evidence; attacked a forensic psychiatrist’s testimony that he would be a continuing threat in prison, and challenged instructions the trial judge gave the jury. They also cited the impact on Gonzales of his childhood neglect, drugs and sexual abuse. A previous execution date of April 20, 2021, was put off till Nov. 17 following a hearing in 38th District Court in Hondo. |
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| Ramiro Ibarra |
| Thursday, March 4, 2021 |
| Execution |
 Ibarra, a native of Chalchihuites, Zacatecas, was condemned in a 1987 rape and murder in Waco. His appellate attorneys have said that, despite being a citizen of Mexico, Ibarra was denied legal assistance from the Mexican Consulate after his arrest, in violation of international agreements. They also argued that he is not mentally fit for execution and alleged that his trial attorneys were ineffective. |
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| Blaine Milam |
| Thursday, January 21, 2021 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death after being convicted in the 2008 slaying in East Texas of his girlfriend’s baby in an alleged exorcism. The couple were both 18 at the time. Milam’s attorney argued that the state had no meaningful evidence of Milam’s guilt, just questionable bite-mark analysis, and that he is intellectually disabled. The mother, Jesseca Carson, was sentenced to life without parole. |
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| Carlos Trevino |
| Wednesday, September 30, 2020 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in the 1997 rape and stabbing death of a teenage girl in San Antonio. Trevino appealed, based on the trial attorneys’ failure to give jurors evidence of his mother’s drinking while she was pregnant with him, leaving him with fetal alcohol disorder. Attorneys argued the disorder could have contributed to his violent behavior and persuaded jurors to sentence him to life in prison rather than death. A June 6, 2020 execution date was delayed to Sept. 30 by a state district judge in San Antonio. That date was canceled, too, with a hearing slated March 5, 2021, to set yet another new date. |
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| John Ramirez |
| Wednesday, September 9, 2020 |
| Execution |
 Ramirez was sentenced to death for the July 2004 stabbing death of a convenience store employee in Corpus Christi. A 2017 execution date was stayed so a new lawyer could be appointed to seek clemency on his behalf with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. He requested the new attorney on the grounds that the previous one had failed to file a petition. A judge in Corpus Christi canceled the next execution date, Sept. 9, 2020, due to the dangers of the pandemic. |
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| Billy Wardlow |
| Wednesday, July 8, 2020 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the 1993 slaying of an elderly man in Cason, Texas. The US Supreme Court declined in October 2019 to hear Wardlow’s appeal, which included assertions that the prosecutor at the original trial interfered with the defense’s choice of a witness, and that the defense team failed to challenge the testimony of the medical examiner and neglected to conduct a thorough investigation of Wardlow’s mental health-related impairment.
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| Ruben Gutierrez |
| Tuesday, June 16, 2020 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of murder in 1999 in the robbery-slaying of a Brownsville woman who owned a trailer park. A court ruled in February 2020 that he was not entitled to the post-conviction testing of certain DNA evidence.
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| Randall Mays |
| Wednesday, May 13, 2020 |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the deaths of two deputies in Henderson County during a standoff stemming from a domestic call just east of Dallas. Previous death dates were stayed after appellate attorneys argued that he was too mentally incompetent to be executed. Mays has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and has said he believes he is to be executed because he has a renewable-energy design that threatens oil companies. The US Supreme Court has ruled unconstitutional the execution if anyone who does not know that they are to be put to death and why. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed his execution date of May 13, 2020, and ordered the original trial court to review his case. |
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| Edward Busby |
| Wednesday, May 6, 2020 |
| Execution |
 Condemned to death in the 2004 kidnap-murder in Fort Worth, Texas, of a retired professor from Texas Christian University. Busby, a native of the Texas Panhandle, appealed the trial outcome, claiming he was mentally impaired in a way that gave him legal protection from execution. He also complained about the quality of the assistance provided by his lawyers at the trial and in the early stages of his appeals. An execution date of May 6, 2020, was delayed for 60 days by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
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| Billy Wardlow |
| Wednesday, April 29, 2020 |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the 1993 slaying of an elderly man in Cason, Texas. The US Supreme Court declined in October 2019 to hear Wardlow’s appeal, which included assertions that the prosecutor at the original trial interfered with the defense’s choice of a witness, and that the defense team failed to challenge the testimony of the medical examiner and neglected to conduct a thorough investigation of Wardlow’s mental health-related impairment.
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| Fabian Hernandez |
| Thursday, April 23, 2020 |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the 2006 shooting deaths of his estranged wife and her male friend in El Paso. Hernandez’s appeals included complaints that the trial judge made several missteps in jury selection, including forbidding defense attorneys to ask about attitudes toward mitigating evidence. Hernandez also objected to the handling of tests, set up separately by the defense and prosecution, to determine the extent of his developmental disability. |
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| Tracy Beatty |
| Wednesday, March 25, 2020 |
| Execution |
 An East Texas man convicted of capital murder in the 2003 strangulation death of his mother. Beatty dodged death in 2015, when the state’s highest criminal court granted him a stay of execution. His appellate lawyers argued Beatty had deficient legal help, both at his 2004 trial and during early appeals, and that prosecutors used improper testimony at his trial. An appeals court delayed his execution date of March 25, 2020, for at least two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. |
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| John Hummel |
| Wednesday, March 18, 2020 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in the slayings of three family members in 2009 outside Fort Worth, Texas. A four-year veteran of the Marine Corps, he was honorably discharged several years before the slayings. Up until the crime, he had no record. A forensic psychologist examined Hummel and testified he had several personality disorders, due mostly to neglect and lack of affection in childhood. The psychologist theorized Hummel committed the slayings “in a flood of emotional rage” following 30 years of repressed emotions. Among Hummel’s complaints ion appeal were that his attorneys did not represent him adequately. A Texas court stayed an execution date of March 18, 2020, for at least 60 days due to coronavirus fears. |
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| Abel Ochoa |
| Thursday, February 6, 2020 |
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| Execution |
 Condemned in the 2002 shooting deaths of his wife, their two children, his wife’s father and one of her sisters. He was prosecuted for the slayings of the wife and older daughter. Ochoa said he was high on crack cocaine and began craving more during the relatives’ visit to his family’s home in South Dallas. An American citizen born in Mexico, Ochoa had been unemployed for several months at the time of the killings. Among his claims on appeal were that additional mitigating factors should have been introduced during the punishment phase of his trial. |
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| John Gardner |
| Wednesday, January 15, 2020 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted of shooting to death his estranged wife in 2005 after driving from Mississippi and entering her home in a rural area northeast of Dallas. Gardner’s appeals included assertions that his lawyers did a poor job, because they failed to present the theory of abandonment rage as a defense, and they did not develop mitigating evidence that might have persuaded the jury to spare his life during the punishment phase. |
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| Travis Runnels |
| Wednesday, December 11, 2019 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Sent to death row in 2005 after confessing to the murder of a prison supervisor of a shoe-making shop in Amarillo’s Clements unit. Runnell’s legal team has filed appeals criticizing his trial lawyer for failing to investigate mitigating factors that might have spared his life. Among the things they might have uncovered were the results of mental health testing and evidence of a chaotic and damaging childhood. |
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| Rodney Reed |
| Wednesday, November 20, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death following his conviction in 1998 for the murder of a woman in Bastrop County. During the more than two decades since he arrived on death row, Johnson has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence. He was previously scheduled to be executed in 2015 but received a stay. Reed has litigation pending. He and his supporters have said that too much of the old evidence in the case has since been called into question, and new evidence has yet to be considered. Further details about Reed’s claims are available on websites and social media accounts created by his supporters. |
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| Patrick Murphy |
| Wednesday, November 13, 2019 |
| Execution |
 His date with death comes after the US Supreme Court stayed a previously scheduled date, saying prison officials had failed to fulfill Murphy’s request that he be joined in the death chamber by his Buddhist religious advisor. Such requests were routinely fulfilled for Christian prisoners. The state opted to avoid the possibility of discrimination in future by banning all religious advisors from the death chamber in future. A judge issued a stay for Murphy’s subsequent execution date, too, Nov. 13, 2019. |
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| Justen Hall |
| Wednesday, November 6, 2019 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 A white-supremacy gang member from El Paso sentenced to die for strangling a woman to death in 2002. He and other members of the Aryan Circle heard the victim threaten to go to police to report an assault on her by a prospective member who had brought her with him. Fearing she would reveal the location of their meth housed, Hall allegedly strangled her to death. Attorneys for Hall persisted in trying to win a stay based on Hall’s mental incompetence. Members of his legal team said his mental state had begun to deteriorate noticeably after a suicide attempt in 2017. |
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| Ruben Gutierrez |
| Wednesday, October 30, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Convicted in the 1998 slaying of a mobile-park owner in Brownsville, where he and two other men stole cash. A federal court stayed Gutierrez’s execution date of Sept. 12, 2018, after his attorney withdrew from the case too late to brief his replacement counsel. Gutierrez has challenged his conviction and death sentence on a number of grounds, including problems with the evidence used to convict him. A previous execution date of Oct. 30, 2019, was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals due to errors in the way Gutierrez’s death warrant was issued. |
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| Randall Mays |
| Wednesday, October 16, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the shooting deaths of two Henderson County sheriff’s deputies. A judge set the execution date a week and a half after the Texas Court of criminal Appeals ruled in the spring that Mays was competent for execution, a visiting judge set his execution date for Oct. 16. Mays was found guilty of capital murder in 2008. He was initially scheduled to be executed in 2015. Less than a month before his execution, his attorneys filed a motion regarding competency to be executed. An execution date of Oct. 16, 2019, was called off due to continued concerns about Mays’ mental competence. |
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| Randy Halprin |
| Thursday, October 10, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death for a cop murder committed in 2000 by a group of prison escapees. Known as the Texas Seven, the group’s only member still alive, besides Halprin, was Patrick Murphy. News that an execution date had been set for Halprin stirred outrage internationally, because his accusations of anti-Semitic bias on the part of the trial judge had not been resolved. THE TIMES OF ISRAEL quoted Halprin’s lawyer Tivon Schardl as saying the accused judge referred to Halprin as a â€f****n’ Jew’ and a â€G*****n k**e.'” The judge’s ugly language led to a stay of Halprin’s previous execution date of Oct. 10, 2019.
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| Return to Top |
| Stephen Barbee |
| Wednesday, October 2, 2019 |
| Execution |
 The Fort Worth man was condemned in February 2006 following his conviction for murdering the woman he was having an affair with, along with her young son. Barbee’s appeals have included the assertion that his attorneys conceded his guilt to the jury even after he asked them not to. A previously set execution date of Oct. 2, 2019, was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. |
| Return to Top |
| Robert Sparks |
| Wednesday, September 25, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of killing his wife and two stepsons in 2007. Sparks said he did so because he became convinced that his wife was putting poison in his food, and the sons were helping her do it. His trial in Dallas was delayed when Sparks attempted suicide by swallowing 12 capsules of Trazadone, typically prescribed for depression. A typical dosage is 150 mg a day. Anything over 600 mg in 24 hours is considered an overdose. |
| Return to Top |
| Mark Soliz |
| Tuesday, September 10, 2019 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the June 2010, slaying of a woman during a robbery in her home near Godley, Texas. Earlier the same morning, Soliz fatally shot a delivery driver at a Fort Worth convenience store. Soliz’s 2012 trial marked the first death penalty case in Johnson County in more than a decade.
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| Return to Top |
| Billy Crutsinger |
| Wednesday, September 4, 2019 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Given the death penalty in the 2003 stabbing deaths of an elderly woman and her daughter in Fort Worth. He entered their home to talk about doing some work for for them. Crutsinger’s attorneys argued that his conviction is tainted, because he did not have effective legal representation during the original trial. |
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| Larry Swearingen |
| Wednesday, August 21, 2019 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the December 1998 slaying of a woman last seen on the campus of Montgomery Community College. The execution date is the sixth one Swearingen has received; the courts granted him stays of execution for the previous dates. He has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence and protested the lack of physical evidence linking him to the murder. Court-ordered DNA testing, some completed as late as 2019, has been inconclusive. Swearingen has challenged the use questionable science in evidence presented at trial. |
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| Dexter Johnson |
| Thursday, August 15, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to die for a 2006 carjacking in Houston that left a couple dead. For more than a decade, Johnson has lodged appeals based on allegations of brain damage and intellectual disability. His last execution date, May 2, 2019, was stayed by a judge due to the possibility that his lawyer provided ineffective counsel and may have had had conflicts of interest.
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| Return to Top |
| Dexter Johnson |
| Thursday, May 2, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the slaying of a couple in 2006 during a carjacking committed in Houston with four accomplices. Johnson has fought his conviction during his time on death row, filing appeals based on bad lawyering, racial bias, intellectual disability, brain damage, and his long history of schizophrenia and psychotic breaks. Two days before his last execution date of May 2, 2019, Johnson was granted a stay to allow completion of an investigation into his claims that his appellate attorney of the past decade provided ineffective counsel |
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| John King |
| Wednesday, April 24, 2019 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 One of three men convicted in the 1998 dragging death of James Byrd Jr., outside Jasper, Texas. A federal appeals court ruled that King could appeal one of his claims, that his attorneys didn't do an effective job of arguing for his innocence. But the US Supreme Court declined in 2018 to hear King’s appeal. Of the two others convicted in the case, one got life in prison, and the other was executed in 2011. |
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| Mark Robertson |
| Thursday, April 11, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Condemned for a 1989 double murder in North Dallas. His appellate attorney said the most recent date was set prematurely, because a federal appeals court recently bounced the case back to a lower court over claims Robertson was wrongfully denied funding to investigate factors that could have swayed a jury to vote for a life sentence. His attorney said other mitigating factors not presented before sentencing were a serious-but-treatable mental illness that distorted his thinking and impaired his judgment, as well as a history of severe abuse and neglect. He received a stay of execution on April 8, 2019 based on racism in setting a jury. |
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| Patrick Murphy |
| Thursday, March 28, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Murphy was convicted under the Texas law of parties, which allows prosecutors to charge a person linked with a murder as if they, too, had pulled the trigger. He was in a group of prisoners that in 2000 made the biggest prison escape in Texas history. They broke into a Dallas-area store on Christmas Eve to steal guns. An Irving police officer was shot to death when he responded to a silent alarm. The other escapees said Murphy was the lookout and had no part in the shooting. The only other group member still on death row was Randy Halprin. |
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| Billie Coble |
| Thursday, February 28, 2019 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 One of the oldest people on death row at 70, he was condemned in the 1989 murders of his estranged wife’s parents and brother in Axtell. The brother was a Waco police officer. On appeal, Coble asserted that his trial was tainted by perjured testimony, an unfair venue, and evidence generated with junk science. |
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| Robert Jennings |
| Wednesday, January 30, 2019 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in the 1988 shooting of a Houston Police vice officer at an adult bookstore in Houston. Jennings was on parole at the time of the killing. Witnesses said the vice officer was arresting a bookstore clerk for showing movies without a license. Just then, Jennings walked in with the intention of robbing the place, saw the officer and opened fire. Jennings' attorneys questioned, among other things, whether proper instructions were given to the jury during the punishment phase of the trial. |
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| Blaine Milam |
| Tuesday, January 15, 2019 |
| Execution |
 Was he in drug-induced psychosis when a child died during a so-called exorcism Milam was involved in? That’s what his lawyers say. But they have yet to convince a court that he shouldn’t be put to death, and that’s what the state intends to do. The appellate attorneys raised claims of prosecutorial misconduct, as well as bad lawyering. They said his trial attorneys failed to present evidence of Milam’s meth habit and his drug-altered state of mind at the time of the slaying. The information might have led to a lesser sentence. Milam’s girlfriend, the mother of the victim, was serving a sentence of life without parole. |
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| Alvin Braziel, Jr. |
| Tuesday, December 11, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 His attorneys said he received sub-par legal help at trial, reducing his chances of avoiding the death penalty. Braziel was condemned in the 1993 slaying of a man in Mesquite. Testing of DNA evidence in 2001 implicated Braziel. His appellate lawyers said trial attorneys failed to tell the jury about several mitigating factors during the punishment phase. If jurors had known about Braziel’s abuse as a child, family history of mental illness, and childhood head injury, they might have spared his life. |
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| Joseph Garcia |
| Tuesday, December 4, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the December 2000 shooting death of an Irving police officer. Garcia and six other men were on the run after escaping from the Connally Unit in Kenedy. The officer was killed as he responded to a call at a sporting goods store that was being burglarized by the escapees. |
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| Robert Ramos |
| Wednesday, November 14, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 The Mexican National, who suffers from mental illness, is to be executed a quarter-century after his conviction. He was found guilty of killing his wife and two youngest children in the Rio Grande Valley in 1992. His attorneys argued that Ramos is brain-damaged. They also said his execution would violate an international treaty requiring foreign nationals to be told at the time of arrest that they may contact their government for legal help. |
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| Kwame Rockwell |
| Wednesday, October 24, 2018 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of capital murder in the 2010 shooting deaths of a clerk and a delivery driver during the robbery of a gas station in Fort Worth. Rockwell and four other men allegedly demanded money from the store clerk. The delivery driver was at the wrong place at the wrong time. Rockwell received a stay of execution days before his most recent death date, Oct. 24, 2018. |
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| Juan Segundo |
| Wednesday, October 10, 2018 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to be put to death following his conviction in the rape and murder of a girl in Fort Worth. He was arrested nearly two decades after the crime when police linked him through DNA evidence. An execution date of Oct. 10, 2018, was stayed pending a review of Segundo’s claims of diminished capacity. |
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| Daniel Acker |
| Thursday, September 27, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the slaying of his girlfriend in 2000. The two, who rented a home together, spent an evening at the Bustin' Loose nightclub in Sulphur Springs. After returning home, the couple got into a fight, and the girlfriend allegedly left. Acker later took the couple's truck and went looking for her. The victim's body was found on the side of a county road. Acker said she died when she jumped from their truck and was accidentally hit. |
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| Troy Clark |
| Wednesday, September 26, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death after being convicted in the 1998 bathtub drowning death of a former roommate. Clark and a friend were using and selling methamphetamines in Tyler and were worried the woman would report them. Clark and his girlfriend allegedly hid the victim's body in a remote area, where it was found by police. The girlfriend cooperated with authorities and received a 20-year sentence. |
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| Ruben Gutierrez |
| Wednesday, September 12, 2018 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of killing the owner of a mobile home park in Brownsville in the course of a 1998 robbery. Gutierrez and two other men allegedly took at least $56,000 from the safe in the park office. A federal court stayed his execution date of Sept. 12, 2018. The Texas Attorney General’s office challenged the stay. |
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| Christopher Young |
| Tuesday, July 17, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in 2006 for the murder of a San Antonio convenience-store owner. His lawyers said religious discrimination occurred during jury selection when a black woman was ruled ineligible to serve, because she belongs to a church that has a prison ministry. The victim’s son has asked the state to spare Young’s life. Young’s attorneys urged Gov. Abbott to halt the execution to consider their allegations that race was a factor in the refusal to grant Young clemency. They said a white man with a situation similar to Young’s was recently spared. The Texas Boards of Pardons and Paroles turned down Young’s request for clemency. |
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| Danny Bible |
| Wednesday, June 27, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted and sentenced to death in the ice-pick slaying of a Houston woman in 1979. The crime went unsolved for 20 years. Bible’s appellate attorneys argued that executing Bible would serve no purpose, since he is no longer a threat to society. Bible has Parkinson’s and is confined to a wheelchair. A prison van taking him to death row in 2003 crashed, disabling him, killing a corrections officer and killing the driver of another vehicle. |
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| Clifton Williams |
| Thursday, June 21, 2018 |
| Execution |
 The East Texas man has been ordered executed in the murder of a Tyler woman during a 2005 robbery at her home. Williams’ appellate attorneys argued that he is mentally ill, which would make his Execution illegal. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed an execution date of June 21, 2018, ordering Williams’ case back to the trial court for a live hearing on his claim of intellectual disability. It is illegal in the U.S. to execute the intellectually disabled. |
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| Juan Castillo |
| Wednesday, May 16, 2018 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Sent to death row for his role in a 2003 lovers' lane slaying in San Antonio. A string of death dates were called off in 2017, for everything from Hurricane Harvey to a witness who recanted. |
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| Erick Davila |
| Wednesday, April 25, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Ordered put to death after being convicted in the 2008 slayings in Fort Worth of a girl and her grandmother who were shot when he opened fire at a rival gang member whose home was the scene of a children’s birthday party. Davila’s appeal was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. His attorneys objected to the trial judge’s instructions to the jury and argued that Davila did not intentionally kill the victims. |
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| Rosendo Rodriguez III |
| Tuesday, March 27, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the 2005 slaying of a woman in Lubbock. Before sentencing, Rodriguez’s mother and sister pleaded with the jury to spare his life. They described a childhood filled with physical and emotional abuse at the hands of his father. Rodriguez has alleged that his defense attorneys were inadequate at trial. He attended Texas Tech University and was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves. |
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| Thomas Whitaker |
| Thursday, February 22, 2018 |
| Execution |
 Condemned to death for conspiring with a friend in the fatal shootings of Whitaker’s brother and mother. His father, Kent Whitaker, was seriously wounded in the 2003 Houston-area attack. He forgave his son and has since lobbied prosecutors relentlessly to spare his son’s life. Thomas Whitaker had undiagnosed mental-health issues at the time of the attack, he said, and has proved to be a model prisoner on death row. While in prison, earned a bachelor’s degree by mail and was due to receive a master’s shortly after the Feb. 22 execution date. |
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| John Battaglia |
| Thursday, February 1, 2018 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Rescheduled for execution after a judge ruled him mentally competent to be executed in the shootings deaths of his two daughters in 2001. Psychologists testified that Battaglia is suffering from mental illness, including the delusion that he did not kill the girls. |
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| William Rayford |
| Tuesday, January 30, 2018 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in the murder of his ex-girlfriend in 1999. The slaying took place several months after she ordered him out of her hme. The Dallas man’s appellate attorneys said his life should be spared because of mitigating factors, including his lack of supervision as a child and his family’s multi-generational drug addiction. |
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| Anthony Shore |
| Thursday, January 18, 2018 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the murders of four females in the Houston area over a 9-year period. Shore was scheduled to be executed on October 18, 2017. However, his execution was stayed by a district court judge, to allow time to investigate claims that fellow death row inmate Larry Swearingen had tried to persuade Shore to confess to the crime for which Swearingen was sentenced to death. Swearingen, who was scheduled to be executed in November 2017, also received a stay. |
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| Juan Castillo |
| Thursday, December 14, 2017 |
| Execution |
 One of four people convicted in the 2003 fatal mugging of a man. Prosecutors presented evidence that the victim was lured to a San Antonio lovers' lane by Castillo's girlfriend. She pleaded guilty before Castillo's 2005 trial and testified against him. Late in his trial, Castillo fired his lawyers and represented himself. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review his case. Hurricane Harvey caused the delay of a Sept. 7, 2017, execution date. |
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| Larry Swearingen |
| Thursday, November 16, 2017 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of killing a Montgomery College coed in 1998 and dumping her body in the Sam Houston National Forest. He has long maintained his innocence. After years of appellate fights over post-conviction DNA testing, Swearingen filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the state in October 2016 claiming he should be entitled to the DNA testing. Swearingen sought testing on the victim's sexual assault collection kit; hairs recovered from her body, the gloves used to move her body and a hairbrush found on the ground near her body, among other evidence Swearingen's appellate attorneys believe contain biological evidence that has not been tested. |
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| Rubén Cárdenas |
| Wednesday, November 8, 2017 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 The Mexican national was convicted of murdering his cousin, a teenage girl from the border town of McAllen. Cardenas's conviction must be tossed, say Mexican authorities and his attorneys, because police violated an international treaty when they failed to notify him of his right to contact the Mexican embassy after his arrest. |
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| Clinton Young |
| Thursday, October 26, 2017 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in a pair of carjackings in the Midland area in 2001 that claimed the lives of two men. A co-defendant was sentenced to prison time. An execution date of Oct. 26, 2017, was withdrawn after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today issued an Order remanding Young’s case to the trial court to resolve a due-process violation when false and misleading testimony was introduced at his trial. |
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| Anthony Shore |
| Wednesday, October 18, 2017 |
| Execution |
| Sentenced to death following his conviction in one of four Harris County murders that he confessed to police. He requested the death penalty following his conviction, but his appellate attorneys continued to ask that his sentence be commuted to life in prison due to previously undetected brain damage. |
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| Robert Pruett |
| Thursday, October 12, 2017 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 He has steadfastly claimed that others framed him in the 2002 killing of a corrections officer who was stabbed to death at a prison near Corpus Christi. An execution date in August 2016 was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The October 2017 date was set after the appeals panel ruled that DNA testing would not have changed the outcome of his trial. |
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| Steven Long |
| Wednesday, August 30, 2017 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death for the 2005 sexual assault and strangulation of an 11-year-old Dallas girl, Long argued on appeal that he was intellectually disabled, making him inveligible for the death penalty. The courts denied his request for a hearing to challenge findings that he purposely did poorly on IQ tests as part of his appeal strategy, scoring in the low 60s. An execution date of Aug. 30, 2017, was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals about a week to spare. The panel said it wanted more time to review the assertion by Long's attorneys that he is too intellectually impaired to be eligible for execution. |
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| Taichin Preyor |
| Thursday, July 27, 2017 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 The San Antonio man was sent to death row in 2005 for killing a woman during a burglary attempt stemming from a drug transaction in the woman's apartment. |
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| Kosoul Chanthakoumman |
| Wednesday, July 19, 2017 |
| Execution |
 The native of Laos was convicted of the July 2006 murder of real estate agent Sarah Walker inside a model home in McKinney, near Dallas. His appeals attorneys argued that his legal representation at trial was inadequate. In June 2017, Chanthakoumman received a stay of execution from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which sent his case back to the Collin County trial court to review the possible use of discredited forensic sciences at trial. |
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| Tilon Carter |
| Tuesday, May 16, 2017 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death for the 2004 robbery and slaying of a Fort Worth man in his home. Money and a shotgun were taken. Evidenced showed that the victim, a retired Bell Helicopter worker, kept cash in containers scattered around his home. Carter's fall partner, Leketha Allen, was also convicted of the murder. Allen was sentenced to prison. A May 16, 2017, execution date was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, based on allegations that the prosecution used false testimony at trial. |
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| Paul Storey |
| Wednesday, April 12, 2017 |
| Execution |
 Sent to death row for the 2006 robbery-murder of an assistant manager at a miniature golf center in Hurst. Storey argued on appeal that his attorneys were deficient during sentencing in his 2008 capital murder trial in Fort Worth, because they did not pursue more evidence of his depression and low level of intellectual functioning. He also alleged a black juror was
improperly excluded due to race. Storey is African-American; his victim was Caucasian. Storey's execution date of April 12, 2017, was stayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. |
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| James Bigby |
| Tuesday, March 14, 2017 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 A north Texas auto mechanic convicted in the 1987 slayings of a man and his infant son. Bigby's lawyers didn't dispute his actions but noted he'd been treated three times for mental disorders before the killings. They argued he shouldn't be executed because his paranoid schizophrenia and frustrations about a workers' compensation claim led to the slayings. |
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| Rolando Ruiz |
| Tuesday, March 7, 2017 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death following his conviction as the shooter in a 1992 murder for hire. Attorneys for Ruiz say his trial and original appeals lawyers failed to investigate and present mitigating evidence for his punishment hearing. His attorneys also contend that execution two-and-half decades after his conviction would constitute cruel and unusual punishment. |
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| Tilon Carter |
| Tuesday, February 7, 2017 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death for the 2004 robbery and slaying of a Fort Worth man in his home. Money and a shotgun were taken. Evidenced showed that the victim, a retired Bell Helicopter worker, kept cash in containers scattered around his home. Carter's fall partner, Leketha Allen, was also convicted of the murder. Allen was sentenced to prison. |
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| John Ramirez |
| Thursday, February 2, 2017 |
| Execution |
 Sent to death row following his conviction in the murder of a convenience store clerk during a 2004 robbery in Corpus Christi. He was arrested after evading police for four years. Ramirez's trial attorneys said he should have been convicted of the lesser charge of murder because he killed Castro but didn't rob him.
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| Backpage on John Ramirez |
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| Terry Edwards |
| Thursday, January 26, 2017 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death following his conviction in a 2002 double homicide committed during the armed robbery of a sandwich shop from which he had been fired. His appellate attorneys argued that the Dallas County judge who presided over Edwards' trial gave improper instructions during jury selection, violating his right to an impartial panel. |
| Backpage on Terry Edwards |
| Return to Top |
| Kosoul Chanthakoumman |
| Wednesday, January 25, 2017 |
| Execution |
 The native of Laos was convicted of the July 2006 murder of real estate agent Sarah Walker inside a model home in McKinney, outside Dallas. |
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| Christopher Wilkins |
| Wednesday, January 11, 2017 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned after testifying that he had committed a string of crimes in 2005 in which he killed three men in two days. Wilkins, of Fort Worth, told the jury he didn’t care whether he lived or died.
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| Backpage on Christopher Wilkins |
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| John Battaglia |
| Wednesday, December 7, 2016 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of murdering two of his daughters, ages 6 and 9, in Dallas in 2001. A previous execution date of March 2016 was stayed so a hearing could be held to evaluate claims by defense attorneys that Battaglia is mentally incompetent. His latest date was set because the hearing could only go forward if an execution date was pending. |
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| Ramiro Gonzales |
| Wednesday, November 2, 2016 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in the 2001 kidnapping-slaying of his drug supplier's girlfriend at a ranch in northern Medina County. On appeal, Gonzales' court-appointed attorneys said his trial attorneys were ineffective because they failed to present evidence that he suffered from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. An execution date of Aug. 10, 2016, was withdrawn and replaced with a date of Nov. 2, 2016. |
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| Barney Fuller |
| Wednesday, October 5, 2016 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Fuller, from Lovelady, Texas, pleaded guilty to killing a couple who lived near him. At the time of the 2003 slayings, Fuller was awaiting trial on charges of making a terroristic threat against them. He was arrested at his home after a nearly nine-hour standoff with police. |
| Backpage on Barney Fuller |
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| Robert Jennings |
| Wednesday, September 14, 2016 |
| Execution |
 Condemned for the shooting death of a Houston vice officer during a robbery of an adult bookstore in 1998. The officer was arresting a store clerk for municipal violations. Jennings' fall partner received prison time. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, in a 5-4 ruling, stayed an execution date of Sept. 14, 2016, after Jennings filed a brief alleging improper jury insructions |
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| Rolando Ruiz |
| Wednesday, August 31, 2016 |
| Execution |
| Return to Top |
| Jeffrey Wood |
| Wednesday, August 24, 2016 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of murder after his robbery partner killed a store clerk in the Texas Hill Country.. Jeffrey Wood’s 2008 execution date was delayed when a federal judge ordered him evaluated for mental competence. Wood was convicted under the Texas law of parties, which makes the participant in a capital murder equally responsible for the crime. |
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| Robert Pruett |
| Tuesday, August 23, 2016 |
| Execution |
 He has steadfastly claimed that others framed him in the 2002 killing of a corrections officer who was stabbed to death at a prison near Corpus Christi. Pruett's execution date of Aug. 23, 2016, was stayed with two weeks to spare by order of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. A website maintained for Pruett may be found at, "http://www.robert-pruett.com" |
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| Ramiro Gonzales |
| Wednesday, August 10, 2016 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in the 2001 kidnapping-slaying of his drug supplier's girlfriend at a ranch in northern Medina County. On appeal, Gonzales' court-appointed attorneys said his trial attorneys were ineffective because they failed to present evidence that he suffered from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder. |
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| Perry Williams |
| Thursday, July 14, 2016 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the slaying in 2000 of a Houston medical student in a robbery-kidnapping. An execution date in September 2015 was put off so an attorney could be appointed to assist Williams in his appeals. His two fall partners were sentenced to prison time. A July 2016 date of execution was postponed indefinitely by a Houston district court judge pending test results for the drugs to be used in his execution. |
| Return to Top |
| Robert Roberson |
| Tuesday, June 21, 2016 |
| Execution |
 Convicted in the death of his 2-year-old daughter at their home in Palestine. Physicians refuted his contention that the girl died of a fall from a bed, saying there was no way her extensive injuries could have been caused by a fall. On appeal, Roberson asserted that his attorneys had performed ineffectively. On June 16, 2016, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted Roberson a stay of execution, previously scheduled June 21. The stay was based on advances in the understanding of shaken baby syndrome. |
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| Charles Flores |
| Thursday, June 2, 2016 |
| Execution |
 On death row for the 1998 shooting death of a Dallas-area woman during an attempted robbery at her home. His attorneys argued that an accomplice fired the fatal shot. Flores' death date of June 2, 2016, was stayed by The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals with six days to spare. The panel heard new evidence that the testimony of a key witness was tainted by a hypnosis session utilizing outdated science. |
| Return to Top |
| Pablo Vasquez |
| Wednesday, April 6, 2016 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted of the capital murder of a 12-year-old boy whose slaying in 1998 stirred up talk of Satanism along the Rio Grande. |
| Backpage on Pablo Vasquez |
| Return to Top |
| John Battaglia |
| Wednesday, March 30, 2016 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death for his conviction in the shooting deaths of his two daughters, 6 and 9, in Deep Ellum in 2009. Hours before his scheduled execution on March 30, 2016, Battaglia prevailed in an appeal to the Fifth US Circuit Court of Appeals. |
| Backpage on John Battaglia |
| Return to Top |
| Adam Ward |
| Tuesday, March 22, 2016 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 A Commerce man convicted in the 2005 shooting death of a city code enforcement officer as he tried to write up some violations at Ward's property. |
| Backpage on Adam Ward |
| Return to Top |
| Coy Wesbrook |
| Wednesday, March 9, 2016 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 A former security guard, condemned in a 1997 shooting spree in which his ex-wife and four others were killed at an apartment complex in Channelview, just east of Houston.
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| Backpage on Coy Wesbrook |
| Return to Top |
| Gustavo Garcia |
| Tuesday, February 16, 2016 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Convicted in the fatal shooting of a clerk during the robbery of a beverage store when he was 19. The Plano teen was sentenced to death in January 1992. Garcia's attorneys contend that his written confession should have been thrown out because it did not include language that he had "knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily" waived his right to remain silent. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated his conviction in 1994, then reinstated it in a follow-up hearing. Garcia gained notoriety in 1998 by joining six other inmates in a prison escape. Unlike the others, Garcia surrendered before making it off prison grounds. He received a new sentencing hearing in 2000 after a state psychologist testified that being Hispanic made him a threat. He was handed another death sentence the following year. In January 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal. |
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| James Freeman |
| Wednesday, January 27, 2016 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Given the death penalty following his conviction in the 2007 slaying of a game warden in El Campo during a chase by law-enforcement officials. |
| Backpage on James Freeman |
| Return to Top |
| Richard Masterson |
| Wednesday, January 20, 2016 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the 2001 choking death of a Houston female impersonator. A federal appeals court set in motion the assignment of an execution date when it refused to grant Masterson the permission he needed to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. His attorneys argued that his previous attorneys were deficient in representing him and that his confession to police was improper. |
| Backpage on Richard Masterson |
| Return to Top |
| Raphael Holiday |
| Wednesday, November 18, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of capital murder in a Madison County fire, later determined to be arson, that resulted in the deaths of his young daughter and her two half-sisters In 2000. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2014 refused claims by Holiday's attorneys that: testimony against him was allowed improperly at his trial in Huntsville in 2002, his indictment was flawed, and a juror was removed improperly during jury selection.
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| Backpage on Raphael Holiday |
| Return to Top |
| Gilmar Guevara |
| Tuesday, November 10, 2015 |
| Execution |
| Condemned in the fatal shooting of two store clerks during an attempted robbery in 2000. The Salvadoran national argued on appeal that the legal help at his Harris County trial in 2001 was deficient and that he has a mental impairment that would make his execution illegal. |
| Return to Top |
| Julius Murphy |
| Tuesday, November 3, 2015 |
| Execution |
 His latest execution date comes nine years after a previous date was put on hold by the state's highest criminal court, which ordered the original trial court to hear claims that included mental retardation. Murphy received the death penalty following his conviction in the 1997 fatal shooting of a man in Texarkana.
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| Return to Top |
| Christopher Wilkins |
| Wednesday, October 28, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death following his conviction in 2008 on capital murder charges in the deaths of two men in Fort Worth. His appellate attorney argued unsuccessfully that the court should delay setting an execution date, because she needed more time to file appeals. Wilkins' previous attorney did not investigate his case adequately, she asserted. |
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| Licho Escamilla |
| Wednesday, October 14, 2015 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted of killing a Dallas policeman outside a nightclub where the officer was working off-duty security on Thanksgiving weekend 2001. A fight broke out and spilled into the parking lot, where he was shot to death. |
| Backpage on Licho Escamilla |
| Return to Top |
| Juan Garcia |
| Tuesday, October 6, 2015 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death for a Houston murder-robbery committed when he was 18. In March 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court refused his appeal. Garcia's attorneys said he had poor legal help during his trial in 2000 and that he is mentally impaired, making him ineligible for the death penalty. Garcia's post on the blog, "Minutes Before Six: Letters to a Future Death Row Inmate," is at: http://minutesbeforesix.blogspot.com/2010/09/letters-to-future-death-row-inmate-part_7316.html |
| Backpage on Juan Garcia |
| Return to Top |
| Perry Williams |
| Tuesday, September 29, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Sent to death row in the abduction-slaying of a Houston man near the Texas Medical Center in 2000. His appellate lawyers argued in that he had deficient legal help at his trial. Williams contended the slaying was accidental. An earlier execution date of Sept. 29, 2015, was postponed so an appellate attorney could be appointed for Williams. He had been without one since firing his earlier in the year. |
| Return to Top |
| Joe Garza, Jr. |
| Wednesday, September 2, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Has been on death row since 2000 for the 1998 robbery-murder of a preacher. The Lubbock County man claimed on appeal that his lawyers failed to fully investigate prosecution evidence that he was a leader of a prison gang, and that they misled him into not testifying at a resentencing hearing. A judge stayed a previous execution date of Sept. 2, 2015, so additional tests could be done on evidence.
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| Return to Top |
| Bernardo Tercero |
| Wednesday, August 26, 2015 |
| Execution |
 The Nicaraguan national was convicted of shooting to death a man during the robbery of a Houston dry-cleaning shop in 1997. A website set up to win support for Tercero quotes him as saying the death was an accident: http://bernardoabantercero.weebly.com/. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has called for a stay, saying Tercero’s rights were violated when police did not tell him of his right to contact Nicaraguan consular officials. His execution date of Aug. 26, 2015, was canceled when he was granted a stay the day before by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. |
| Backpage on Bernardo Tercero |
| Return to Top |
| Tracy Beatty |
| Thursday, August 13, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Convicted in the 2003 strangling death of his mother in Smith County. Beatty had recently been paroled to her house. A federal court ruled that he was not entitled to pursue appeals that argued he had poor legal representation at trial.
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| Return to Top |
| Daniel Lopez |
| Wednesday, August 12, 2015 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 A volunteer, the term for a death-row prisoner who drops all appeals and, essentially, commits suicide by execution. In 2013, Lopez wrote to his original trial court to ask that he be put to death as soon as possible, setting in motion a process that ended in in May 2015, when his death warrant was delivered to the warden. Lopez was convicted in a 2009 automobile crash that claimed the life of a Corpus Christi Police lieutenant who was setting out spike strips in an attempt to stop Lopez during a high-speed chase. |
| Backpage on Daniel Lopez |
| Return to Top |
| Clifton Williams |
| Thursday, July 16, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the 2005 death of an elderly woman during a robbery in her home in Tyler, Texas. Appeals lawyers contended Williams had deficient legal help at his Smith County trial and that he is mentally impaired, making him ineligible for the death penalty.
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| Backpage on Clifton Williams |
| Return to Top |
| Gregory Russeau |
| Thursday, June 18, 2015 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 The Tyler man was sentenced to death for the 2001 murder-robbery of an auto mechanic. Russeau's initial death sentence was thrown out on appeal, but a second sentencing hearing produced the same result. In his appeals, he argued that, his trial attorneys gave inadequate assistance, trial prosecutors used planted evidence, and lawyers at his second punishment trial had a conflict because they also represented him at his first trial, rendering problematic a common basis for appeals in death-penalty cases, that the trial attorneys provided poor representation. |
| Backpage on Gregory Russeau |
| Return to Top |
| Lester Bower |
| Wednesday, June 3, 2015 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
| Bower may not be the longest-serving person on Texas death row, but he's close to it. The chemical salesman was convicted in the 1984 execution-style murders of four men at an airplane hangar on a ranch north of Dallas. Bower, who had no previous criminal history, has steadfastly maintained his innocence. No fingerprints put him at the scene. No witnesses saw him there. The murder weapon never was recovered. Pointing away from Bower is the allegation by an informant, whom police will not identify, that her ex-boyfriend and three accomplices committed the murders in the course of a drug deal.
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| Backpage on Lester Bower |
| Return to Top |
| Derrick Charles |
| Tuesday, May 12, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the slayings of three people at their Houston home in 2002. A Harris County jury in 2003 decided he should die for the deaths of his 15-year-old girlfriend, her 44-year-old mother and the girlfriend's 77-year-old grandfather. The U.S. Supreme Court declined Oct. 6, 2014, to hear Charles' appeal. The previous year, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected arguments that the Houston man had shoddy legal help at his trial. |
| Backpage on Derrick Charles |
| Return to Top |
| Robert Pruett |
| Tuesday, April 28, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the 1999 slaying of a prison guard at the McConnell Unit in Beeville, Texas. He had been slated for execution on May 21, 2014, but was granted a stay so he could appeal a judge's previous ruling. Pruett has steadfastly denied that he had any role in the guard's death.
Hours before Pruett's scheduled execution April 28, the original trial judge, Bert Richardson, granted a request by defense attorneys that the execution date be withdrawn so further DNA testing may be done on the evidence. |
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| Richard Vasquez |
| Thursday, April 23, 2015 |
| Execution |
 The Corpus Christi man was condemned in the 1998 fatal beating of his girlfriend's 4-year-old daughter. His death sentence survived years of appeals, even though a federal appeals court described his trial attorneys' performance at sentencing as "deficient," citing their failure to uncover Vasquez's own childhood abuse, which the court called "a frightening portrait of addiction and destruction." As a child, Vasquez was taught by his father to use and sell heroin. Vasquez was addicted by age 13. |
| Return to Top |
| Manuel Garza Jr. |
| Wednesday, April 15, 2015 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
| Convicted in the 2001 slaying of a San Antonio police officer after a foot chase in which the men struggled and Garza grabbed the officer's gun, then shot him, according to court documents. His trial attorneys said he acted in self defense. Appellate lawyers said his trial attorneys failed to properly question jurors about their opinions on the death penalty, didn't submit enough mitigating evidence and weren't able to include complaints of excessive use of force that had been filed against the officer. |
| Backpage on Manuel Garza Jr. |
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| Kent Sprouse |
| Thursday, April 9, 2015 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 The Missouri native was convicted in the 2002 shooting deaths of a North Texas police officer and a bystander in Ferris, Texas. The Ferris police officer was responding to a report of a man with a gun at a service station. Sprouse's attorneys argued on appeal that he is mentally ill and therefore ineligible for execution. |
| Backpage on Kent Sprouse |
| Return to Top |
| Randall Mays |
| Wednesday, March 18, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the slaying of a sheriff's deputy during a shootout that took place in 2007 after Mays barricaded himself inside his home in Payne Springs, about 55 miles southeast of Dallas. He argued unsuccessfully on appeal that he had insufficient legal representation at his trial and that his execution would be unconstitutional because he is mentally ill. |
| Return to Top |
| Manuel Vasquez |
| Wednesday, March 11, 2015 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to die for strangling to death a 51-year-old woman in San Antonio in 1998 in a hit ordered by the Mexican Mafia because the woman refused to pay the gang. Vasquez's previous execution date of Aug. 6 was delayed at the request of his lawyer, who said he had fallen "behind schedule" in filing paperwork, including clemency petitions. |
| Backpage on Manuel Vasquez |
| Return to Top |
| Rodney Reed |
| Thursday, March 5, 2015 |
| Execution |
 A judge ordered additional testing on crime-scene evidence during the same hearing at which he gave Reed a death date. Reed was convicted in the 1996 strangling death of a young woman. Anti-death penalty groups and family members lobbied for a new trial for Reed in light of evidence pointing to other suspects. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed Reed's execution on Feb. 23, saying it wanted more time to consider newly discovered evidence of his innocence. |
| Return to Top |
| Lester Bower, Jr. |
| Tuesday, February 10, 2015 |
| Execution |
 One of the longest-serving prisoners on Texas death row, Bower was convicted in the execution-style shooting deaths of four men in an airplane hangar in Sherman, Texas, in 1984.
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| Backpage on Lester Bower, Jr. |
| Return to Top |
| Donald Newbury |
| Wednesday, February 4, 2015 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 While serving a 99-year sentence for robbery, he joined six fellow prisoners in escaping from the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas, on December 13, 2000. He and other escapees were convicted of shooting to death an Irving police officer as they fled after robbing a store.
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| Backpage on Donald Newbury |
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| Robert Ladd |
| Thursday, January 29, 2015 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the sexual assault and slaying of a Tyler woman during a burglary in 1996. He appealed his conviction and death sentence, saying prosecutors used illegal tactics to exclude minorities from the jury and presented insufficient evidence at trial. Ladd also challenged the judge's instruction to jurors that they had the option to convict him under the Texas law of parties. |
| Backpage on Robert Ladd |
| Return to Top |
| Garcia White |
| Wednesday, January 28, 2015 |
| Execution |
 Sent to death row for the 1989 slayings of 16-year-old twin sisters with whom he had an argument while smoking crack cocaine at their home. White asserted in appeals that jury selection, jury instructions, his statements to police, and the judge's punishment charge were all improper. During White's trial, Houston Police analysts testified that DNA from the crime scene matched his. But retest results made public in 2004 by the prosecutor's office indicated a private lab was unable to duplicate the results. |
| Backpage on Garcia White |
| Return to Top |
| Arnold Prieto |
| Wednesday, January 21, 2015 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted in the murder of three people, including his co-defendants' great-aunt and great-uncle, in a 1993 home robbery in San Antonio.
Before Prieto's conviction, prosecutors offered him two 30-year terms in exchange for his testimony against a co-defendant. He declined. |
| Backpage on Arnold Prieto |
| Return to Top |
| Richard Vasquez |
| Thursday, January 15, 2015 |
| Execution |
 The Corpus Christi man was condemned in the 1998 fatal beating of his girlfriend's 4-year-old daughter. His death sentence survived years of appeals, even though a federal appeals court described his trial attorneys' performance at sentencing as "deficient," citing their failure to uncover Vasquez's own childhood abuse, which the court called "a frightening portrait of addiction and destruction." As a child, Vasquez was taught by his father to use and sell heroin. Vasquez was addicted by age 13. |
| Return to Top |
| Rodney Reed |
| Wednesday, January 14, 2015 |
| Execution |
 A judge ordered additional testing on crime-scene evidence during the same hearing at which he gave Reed a death date. Reed was convicted in the 1996 strangling death of a young woman. Anti-death penalty groups and family members have lobbied for a new trial for Reed in light of evidence pointing to other suspects. |
| Return to Top |
| Scott Panetti |
| Wednesday, December 3, 2014 |
| Execution |
 Convicted in the September 1992 shooting deaths of his in-laws inside their Fredericksburg home, Panetti told police it was his alter ego, Sarge, who committed the slayings. Panetti's previous execution date was put off by the Supreme Court, though the justices refused last month to hear his latest appeal, clearing the way for a new death date to be set. He was diagnosed as schizophrenic and hospitalized multiple times in the 10 years leading up the the slayings. Panetti was allowed to represent himself at trial. He wore a purple cowboy outfit and called witnesses including John F. Kennedy and Jesus Christ. Mental health professionals who have evaluated Panetti say he believes the State of Texas wishes to kill him to prevent him from preaching the Gospel. |
| Backpage on Scott Panetti |
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| Miguel Paredes |
| Tuesday, October 28, 2014 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Convicted of acting with John Saenz and Greg Alvarado in 2000 to shoot and kill three people in San Antonio. Paredes was one of 20 children born to poor, Mexican-immigrant parents. While in prison, he wrote Part 3 of a series called, "Letter to a Future Death Row Inmate." The text of his letter and a link to his his artwork are at http://minutesbeforesix.blogspot.com/2010/09/letters-to-future-death-row-inmate-part.html |
| Backpage on Miguel Paredes |
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| Larry Hatten |
| Wednesday, October 15, 2014 |
| Execution |
 Condemned following his conviction in the 1995 shooting death of a boy in Corpus Christi. His execution date was set after he wrote to his lawyer earlier this year, instructing him to drop all appeals. A court-ordered evaluation determined that Hatten was mentally competent to request the speeding up of his own death. Two days before his scheduled execution, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a reprieve, ordering his trial court to resolve within the next six months a 1997 filing that was never decided. |
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| Lisa Coleman |
| Wednesday, September 17, 2014 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Received an execution date after the U.S. Supreme Court refused in February 2014 to review her appeal. She was convicted of having a role in the 2004 death of her live-in girlfriend's son near Fort Worth. The girlfriend, Marcella Williams, who was 14 when she had the child, was also charged with capital murder but pleaded guilty in exchange for a life sentence. The death of the 9-year-old was among the cases cited when the Legislature passed a bill in 2005 overhauling the state’s protective services agencies.
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| Backpage on Lisa Coleman |
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| Willie Trottie |
| Wednesday, September 10, 2014 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the 1993 shooting deaths of his common-law wife and her brother. Trottie was shot five times during the incident in Houston. He maintained on appeal that he fired in self defense. According to Trottie, at least one witness could have corroborated this, had they been called as a witness at his trial. |
| Backpage on Willie Trottie |
| Return to Top |
| Manuel Vasquez |
| Wednesday, August 6, 2014 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of participating, along with two others, in the 1998 slaying of a drug dealer in San Antonio. Vasquez argued on appeal that the state offered insufficient evidence to corroborate the testimony of a co-defendant who received a non-death sentence for testifying against the others. DNA testing of physical evidence failed to link Vasquez to the crime. |
| Return to Top |
| Robert Lynn Pruett |
| Wednesday, May 21, 2014 |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in the slaying of a correctional officer, despite a lack of physical evidence linking him to the 1999 crime and conflicting accounts of it. Pruett received a stay of execution in 2013 to allow testing on a partial palm print and DNA evidence found at the scene. A judge rescheduled Pruett's execution date after ruling that the test results would not have changed a jury's decision. The results were reported to be inconclusive. |
| Return to Top |
| Robert Campbell | |||||
| Tuesday, May 13, 2014 | |||||
| Execution | |||||
 Convicted in the abduction and murder of Alexandra Rendon in Houston in January 1991. The case made headlines again in 2005, when investigators discovered about 150 pieces of misplaced evidence, including a cigarette butt that was collected at the scene of the Rendon murder but never brought to the attention of Campbell's trial attorneys. | |||||
| Backpage on Robert Campbell | |||||
Guests:
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| Jose Villegas |
| Wednesday, April 16, 2014 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the slayings of his ex-girlfriend, her son and her mother. Villegas lost his fight to delay his execution date when a Corpus Christi district court judge ruled on April 7, 2014, against his attorneys' assertions that he was unstable and not mentally competent to understand what he was doing when he committed the stabbings in 2001. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution prohibits the execution of anyone deemed mentally incompetent. |
| Backpage on Jose Villegas |
| Return to Top |
| Ramiro Hernandez |
| Wednesday, April 9, 2014 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 A native of the state of Tamaulipas in northern Mexico, he was convicted in the Oct. 15, 1997, beating death of a man in Kerrville. Appellate attorneys from the Cornell Death Penalty Project have argued that Hernandez, who literally grew up on a toxic waste dump, is mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for execution. |
| Backpage on Ramiro Hernandez |
| Return to Top |
| Tommy Sells | |||
| Thursday, April 3, 2014 | |||
| Listen to the program Watch the Video | |||
| Execution | |||
 The Oakland, California, native was convicted in the slaying of a teenage girl in Del Rio on New Year's Eve 1999. Under questioning by police, Sells took responsibility for dozens of slayings around the country, though his appellate lawyers asserted that detectives pressured him to make the grandiose statements. They also argued that his attorneys failed to represent him effectively at trial and early in the appeals process.
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| Backpage on Tommy Sells | |||
Guests:
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| Return to Top | |||
| Anthony Doyle | ||||||||||
| Thursday, March 27, 2014 | ||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted of beating to death a doughnut delivery woman in suburban Dallas at the age of 18. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down his appeal in July 2013, rejecting arguments that his confession was involuntary, that he had deficient legal help at his trial and that his sentence was unconstitutional. | ||||||||||
| Backpage on Anthony Doyle | ||||||||||
Guests:
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| Ray Jasper |
| Wednesday, March 19, 2014 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
| A rap artist born in the Netherlands, Jasper was 18 when, according to police, he and two others committed a 1998 robbery in which a business partner of Jasper's who owned a San Antonio recording studio was killed and his equipment stolen. Two other men charged in the slaying received life sentences. Jasper's attorneys argued that a potential juror at his January 2000 trial was excluded improperly because he, like Jasper, was black. They also contended that Jasper had poor legal help at his trial. |
| Backpage on Ray Jasper |
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| Suzanne Basso |
| Wednesday, February 5, 2014 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted as the leader of a group of six that lured a developmentally disabled man from New Jersey to Texas in 1999, kidnapped him, and beat him to death as part of a plan to obtain his life insurance benefits. Defense attorneys argued on appeal that Basso's trial attorneys did not present a key expert witness who would have given evidence about her background. The attorneys also said the judge's instructions to the jury were improper. |
| Backpage on Suzanne Basso |
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| Edgar Tamayo |
| Wednesday, January 22, 2014 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted in the shooting death of Houston police officer Guy P. Gaddis. Officer Gaddis was flagged down outside a southwest Houston night club by a man Tamayo had robbed minutes earlier. Officer Gaddis, 24, arrested and handcuffed Tamayo and was transporting him to jail when Tamayo pulled a pistol that had gone unseen and shot the officer three times in the back of the head. The officer's patrol car ran off the road into a house at which time Tamayo kicked out a window and fled, still handcuffed. He was arrested several blocks away. Tamayo told investigators that he was angry with officer Gaddis because he wouldn't allow him to leave his keys with his wife before being transported to jail.
Mexico has pleaded with Texas to delay Tamayo’s execution, saying an international treaty was violated when officers did not inform Tamayo of his right to contact the Mexican consulate and authorities failed to notify Mexico of the arrest. |
| Backpage on Edgar Tamayo |
| Return to Top |
| Edgardo Cubas |
| Thursday, January 16, 2014 |
| Execution |
 Postponed to May 29, 2014
Summary of Incident (from TDCJ)
On 01/19/2002 in Harris County, Texas, Cubas and co-defendants kidnapped a fifteen year old Hispanic female and took her to an open field where they sexually assaulted her and shot her in the head, resulting in her death.
Co-Defendants
W. Soto & E. Navarro |
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| Rigoberto Avila Jr. |
| Wednesday, January 15, 2014 |
| Execution |
 The El Paso man was convicted of killing his girlfriend's 19-month-old son while babysitting in 2000. Avila, a Desert Storm veteran, was previously scheduled to be put to death April 10, 2013. A judge granted a delay to give defense attorneys time to explore new evidence of innocence. An earlier execution date of Dec. 12, 2012, was also stayed. (See below, "Past Executions," July 10, 2013 for more details and backpage) |
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| Jerry Martin |
| Tuesday, December 3, 2013 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 While serving a 50-year term for attempted capital murder, he was condemned in connection with the 2007 death of a guard at the Wynne Unit when he and another prisoner attempted to escape. Martin was convicted of taking a guard's gun, stealing a truck and hitting a horse being ridden by a guard, who fell to her death. His execution date was set when he gave up his appeals. In the case of his co-defendant, John Falk Jr., a mistrial was declared in January 2013. Prosecutors were seeking a retrial. |
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| Jamie McCoskey |
| Tuesday, November 12, 2013 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 The former Houston bartender was convicted in the 1991 kidnapping and stabbing death of a 20-year-old man in the city's Montrose neighborhood. McCoskey was one of 16 defendants who received a death sentence after the now-disgraced psychologist George Denkowski used his own, non-standard methods to conclude that none was developmentally disabled. His determination essentially ended the defendants' chances of having their death sentences declared unconstitutional. Denkowski's punishment included being barred from performing such evaluations in future. |
| Backpage on Jamie McCoskey |
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| Arthur Brown Jr. |
| Tuesday, October 29, 2013 |
| Execution |
 The Los Angeles native was convicted in the 1992 drug-related slayings of four people at a home in Houston. His accomplices were identified as Marion Dudley and Antonio Dunson. The U.S. Supreme Court refused in 1997 to review his case, but four of the nine justices signed an unusual public statement questioning a Texas law prohibiting juries in the sentencing phase of a capital trial from considering how much time the defendant would actually serve in prison if sentenced to a life term instead. |
| Backpage on Arthur Brown Jr. |
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| Larry Hatten |
| Wednesday, October 16, 2013 |
| Execution |
 Condemned for fatally shooting a boy in Corpus Christi in 1995 after breaking into an apartment with the intention of shooting the boy's father over a dispute among drug dealers. Hatten was granted a new sentencing hearing in 1998 because a potential juror in his original trial was dismissed over her opposition to the death penalty. The new hearing resulted in a death sentence.
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| Backpage on Larry Hatten |
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| Michael Yowell |
| Wednesday, October 9, 2013 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted of a 1998 triple murder in Lubbock, in which Yowell's father, mother and grandmother died of injuries sustained before or during a fire at their home. Yowell's execution date has been delayed in the past, based on a claim that his trial lawyers failed to provide effective representation.
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| Backpage on Michael Yowell |
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| Arturo Elizar Diaz |
| Thursday, September 26, 2013 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted of murdering a man by stabbing him 94 times. The 1999 slaying occurred in the victim's apartment in McAllen, Texas. Authorities said Diaz and another man went to the apartment to rob the victim. On appeal, Diaz argued that his attorneys erred in the sentencing hearing by failing to call relatives to testify about his childhood, which was filled with poverty, neglect, violence and self-mutilation. The mitigating information, he argued, might have swayed a jury to spare his life. The courts rejected the argument, determining that Diaz's defense attorneys were only honoring his request that they not involve his relatives. |
| Backpage on Arturo Elizar Diaz |
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| Robert Garza |
| Thursday, September 19, 2013 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 Condemned after being convicted of two capital murder charges in the 2002 shooting deaths of four women in Donna, Texas. Garza had his appeal rejected in February 2013 by the U.S. Supreme Court. According to court records, Garza was among four men who targeted six women as they left Garcia’s Bar following their shifts as waitresses. State prosecutors said another man had ordered a hit on the women because he believed they had been called to testify against him in an attempted murder case. Authorities said the men mistakenly killed the wrong women. Garza reportedly told law enforcement he witnessed the shootings and knew of the plot but did not fire a gun. A jury convicted him of the crime under the Texas law of parties, which makes it unnecessary to prove a defendant killed a victim in order to hold him or her equally responsible for the crime if a secondary role can be proven. |
| Backpage on Robert Garza |
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| Douglas Feldman |
| Wednesday, July 31, 2013 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 The former financial analyst from Richardson, Texas, was convicted of shooting to death two truck drivers in separate road-rage incidents in 1998. A federal appeals court in September rejected Feldman's appeal, in which he claimed his trial lawyers were deficient, the jury received incorrect instructions, and a prospective juror was improperly dismissed. |
| Backpage on Douglas Feldman |
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| Vaughn Ross |
| Thursday, July 18, 2013 |
| Listen to the program Watch the Video |
| Execution |
 A former architecture student at Texas Tech, he was condemned in the 2001 murders of an 18-year-old woman he was feuding with and a Texas Tech associate dean who happened to be with her. Ross's attorneys argued that police contaminated DNA testing by mishandling it and suggested the slayings stemmed from Birdsall's visits to "a high-crime area" to patronize prostitutes. Family members of the victims said the death sentence brought them little peace. The relatives included Birdsall's son, Nat, who opposes the death penalty and said his father did, too. |
| Backpage on Vaughn Ross |
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| John Quintanilla Jr. |
| Tuesday, July 16, 2013 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Arrested in a Victoria, Texas, robbery that turned deadly, Quintanilla was convicted - along with Jeffrey Bibb - of slipping into an amusement arcade wearing a mask and brandishing a rifle, demanding cash from a worker and ordering customers to lie down on the floor. The murder victim, a former sheriff's deputy, was shot three times when he stood up and grabbed Quintanilla's weapon. Bibb and Quintanilla were charged with capital murder in the 2002 slaying. Bibb received a lengthy prison sentence. |
| Backpage on John Quintanilla Jr. |
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| Rigoberto Avila Jr. |
| Wednesday, July 10, 2013 |
| Execution |
 The El Paso man was convicted in the February 2000 slaying of his girlfriend's son while babysitting. Avila served in the military during Desert Storm. The execution of an El Paso man convicted in the beating death of his girlfriend's 19-month-old son in 2000 has been delayed for a 2nd time. Rigoberto Avila Jr., 40, was scheduled to be put to death April 10, 2013, when a judge granted a set-off until July 10 to give defense attorneys time to explore new evidence pointing to his innocence. An earlier execution date of Dec. 12, 2012, was also delayed by a judge.
Following a court hearing this morning, 41st District Judge Anna Perez ruled additional time is necessary to allow Avila's defense attorneys to explore possible new evidence of Avila's innocence. Perez also ordered that a new execution date be scheduled for July 10. That date was withdrawn weeks later to give Avila time to litigate new scientific evidence. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in 2010 to hear his appeal. |
| Backpage on Rigoberto Avila Jr. |
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| Kimberly McCarthy |
| Wednesday, June 26, 2013 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 A former crack addict who was sentenced to death for the 1997 slaying of an elderly woman during a home robbery near Dallas. McCarthy, 51, is the former wife of New Black Panther Party founder Aaron Michaels, with whom she has a son. She is one of 10 women on Texas death row. Since an execution date was announced in September 2013, she has been the only woman with a scheduled execution. Three of the nearly 500 people Texas has put to death in the modern era have been women. The week before her scheduled execution April 3, 2013, McCarthy's attorneys persuaded a judge to delay it until June 26. Hours before her date several months earlier, Jan. 29, a judge put it off until April 3. Among the attorneys' assertions was that jury selection in McCarthy's trial was tainted by racism.
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| Backpage on Kimberly McCarthy |
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| Elroy Chester III |
| Wednesday, June 12, 2013 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 A jury sentenced him to death after he pleaded guilty to the 1998 fatal shooting of a Port Arthur firefighter who was was slain after arriving at his sister's home during a robbery. Chester's attorneys argued on appeal that he is ineligible for execution because he is mentally impaired, but a divided federal appeals court upheld the sentence. Chester's previous execution date of April 24, 2013, was delayed by the trial court in response to a motion he filed. |
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| Robert Lynn Pruett |
| Tuesday, May 21, 2013 |
| Execution |
 An argument with a prison guard who had written him up for a minor infraction of the rules led Pruett to stab the guard to death with a shank, according to prosecutors in Corpus Christi who obtained the death penalty against him. The guard was killed in the maximum-security McConnell state prison unit in Bee County, where Pruett was serving a life sentence he began when he was 16. At the time, he was believed to be the youngest person in the state's adult prison system. |
| Backpage on Robert Lynn Pruett |
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| Jefferey D. Williams |
| Wednesday, May 15, 2013 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the 1999 shooting death of a Houston Police Officer who was trying to arrest him for driving a stolen Lexus. The officer was alive when backup arrived but died later of his wounds. A delay in the arrival of an ambulance sparked a probe of the Houston Fire Department's dispatching procedures. The contention was that the officer might have survived had he received treatment sooner. Investigators found that the dispatcher initially misdirected the ambulance to a location miles away. |
| Backpage on Jefferey D. Williams |
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| John Quintanilla Jr. |
| Tuesday, May 14, 2013 |
| Execution |
 Arrested in a Victoria, Texas, robbery that turned deadly, Quintanilla was convicted - along with Jeffrey Bibb - of slipping into an amusement arcade wearing a mask and brandishing a rifle, demanding cash from a worker and ordering customers to lie down on the floor. The murder victim, a former sheriff's deputy, was shot three times when he stood up and grabbed Quintanilla's weapon. Bibb and Quintanilla were charged with capital murder in the 2002 slaying. Bibb received a lengthy prison sentence. |
| Backpage on John Quintanilla Jr. |
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| Carroll Joe Parr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, May 7, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program Watch the Video | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Parr grew up in poverty so extreme, he was often given baked dirt to eat. His sister once tried to kill him. Texas plans to execute Parr for the shooting death of a man in a drug deal outside a North Waco convenience store in 2003. Parr and his fall partner, Earl Whiteside, were accused of approaching two men sitting in a car, forcing them to the side of the building, and robbing and shooting them. One victim survived. Whiteside testified against Parr and received a 15-year sentence on a plea to aggravated robbery. Parr’s would be the 497th Texas execution in the modern death-penalty era. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Carroll Joe Parr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Richard Cobb | |||||
| Thursday, April 25, 2013 | |||||
| Listen to the program | |||||
| Execution | |||||
 One of two men condemned in a 2002 robbery-slaying in the small, East Texas town of Ruskin. He and Beunka Adams (executed April 26, 2012) were convicted of forcing three convenience-store workers into a car, driving them to a field, raping one of the women, and shooting all three with a shotgun. One worker, a mentally disabled man, died. The women survived by playing dead. | |||||
| Backpage on Richard Cobb | |||||
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| Elroy Chester III |
| Wednesday, April 24, 2013 |
| Execution |
 A jury sentenced him to death after he pleaded guilty to the 1998 fatal shooting of a Port Arthur firefighter who was was slain after arriving at his sister's home during a robbery. Chester's attorneys argued on appeal that he is ineligible for execution because he is mentally impaired, but a divided federal appeals court upheld the sentence. |
| Backpage on Elroy Chester III |
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| Ronnie Paul Threadgill |
| Tuesday, April 16, 2013 |
| Execution |
 Threadgill, 38, was sentenced to death for a slaying in 2001 outside a Navarro County nightclub. He was convicted of firing two shots into a car, hitting a 17-year-old who was in the back seat. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in 2012 to review the case. Threadgill's appeal asserted that his lawyers should have negotiated for a felony murder charge instead of capital murder and should have rebutted an alleged shooting in Freestone County that was brought up during the trial. |
| Backpage on Ronnie Paul Threadgill |
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| Rigoberto Avila Jr. | |||||
| Wednesday, April 10, 2013 | |||||
| Execution | |||||
 The 40-year-old veteran from El Paso was convicted in the February 2000 slaying of his girlfriend's son while babysitting. Avila served in the military during Desert Storm. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in 2010 to hear an appeal filed by his attorney, Robin Norris. | |||||
| Backpage on Rigoberto Avila Jr. | |||||
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| Rickey Lynn Lewis |
| Tuesday, April 9, 2013 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Convicted of sexually assaulting a Tyler woman and killing her fiance during a home burglary in 1990. A previous execution date was stayed because of claims that Lewis had extremely poor intellectual functioning, but a court ruled in 2005 that his intellectual abilities were not an issue. |
| Backpage on Rickey Lynn Lewis |
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| Kimberly McCarthy |
| Wednesday, April 3, 2013 |
| Execution |
| A former crack addict who was sentenced to death for the 1997 slaying of an elderly woman during a home robbery near Dallas. McCarthy, 51, is the former wife of New Black Panther Party founder Aaron Michaels, with whom she has a son. She is one of 10 women on Texas death row. Since the date was announced Sept. 12, she has been the only one with a scheduled execution. Three of the nearly 500 people Texas has put to death in the modern era have been women. Hours before her scheduled execution Jan. 29, 2013, a Dallas judge put it off until April 3, based on her attorneys' assertions that jury selection in McCarthy's trial was tainted by racism.
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| Backpage on Kimberly McCarthy |
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| Michael Gonzales |
| Thursday, March 21, 2013 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of fatally stabbing his elderly neighbors in 1994 after they awakened while he was burglarizing their home. In 2009, Gonzales received a new punishment trial because of testimony from a former psychologist for Texas prisons who cited race and ethnicity as reasons for his future dangerousness. A March 2013 execution date was set, but a federal judge issued a stay at the request of Gonzales's attorney, who sought time to prepare a motion to strike his death sentence on grounds of mental incompetence.
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| Backpage on Michael Gonzales |
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| Larry Swearingen |
| Wednesday, February 27, 2013 |
| Execution |
 Ninth Texas District Court Judge Fred Edwards set Swearingen's latest execution date after the state Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the convict's most recent appeal. Swearingen was convicted in June 2000 of the abduction and murder of college student Melissa Trotter. He has since been sentenced to die by lethal injection on three occasions – January 2007, January 2009 and August 2011. He was granted stays as his claim of innocence wound its way through the appellate courts. Swearingen's latest stay came Jan. 30, 2013, when a judge struck the execution date of Feb. 27 to allow for further DNA testing.
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| Backpage on Larry Swearingen |
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| Carl Henry Blue |
| Thursday, February 21, 2013 |
| Execution |
| Convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend in 1995 by burning her alive at her College Station apartment. His attorneys argued unsuccessfully that he was mentally impaired and therefore ineligible for the death penalty. Blue acknowledged drinking and smoking crack the night of the slaying. |
| Backpage on Carl Henry Blue |
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| Britt Ripkowski | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, February 20, 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of capital murder in the 1997 slaying of a toddler kidnapped from Utah and found buried near Sheldon Reservoir northeast of Houston. In appealing his conviction, Ripkowski claimed that he was incompetent to assist his attorney in his defense at trial. An affadavit from a physician who had examined Ripkowski said he had bipolar disorder, suffered from hallucinations, and appeared to have been suicidal during trial. On Jan. 11, a Houston judge canceled the Feb. 20 execution date after ruling that Ripkowski was mentally incompetent. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Britt Ripkowski | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Kimberly McCarthy |
| Tuesday, January 29, 2013 |
| Execution |
 A former crack addict who was sentenced to death for the 1997 slaying of an elderly woman during a home robbery near Dallas. McCarthy, 51, is the former wife of New Black Panther Party founder Aaron Michaels, with whom she has a son. She is one of 10 women on Texas death row. Since the date was announced Sept. 12, she has been the only one with a scheduled execution. Three of the nearly 500 people Texas has put to death in the modern era have been women. |
| Backpage on Kimberly McCarthy |
| Return to Top |
| Rigoberto Avila Jr. |
| Wednesday, December 12, 2012 |
| Execution |
 The 40-year-old veteran from El Paso was convicted in the February 2000 slaying of his girlfriend's son while babysitting. Avila served in the military during Desert Storm. The U.S. Supreme Court declined in 2010 to hear an appeal filed by his attorney, Robin Norris. |
| Backpage on Rigoberto Avila Jr. |
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| Preston Hughes | |||||
| Thursday, November 15, 2012 | |||||
| Listen to the program | |||||
| Execution | |||||
 Hughes, 46, was sent to Texas death row more than 23 years ago following his conviction in the Houston murders of a teenage girl and a toddler. His supporters cite numerous problems with the case against him, including a confession they say was coerced by police. | |||||
| Backpage on Preston Hughes | |||||
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| Ramon Hernandez | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, November 14, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 One of two men sentenced to death for a 2002 murder in San Antonio in which the victim was abducted, robbed and sexually assaulted. Co-defendant Santos Minjarez cheated the death gurney by dying in custody Jan. 14, 2012, from septic shock and multiple organ failure.
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| Backpage on Ramon Hernandez | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Mario Swain | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, November 8, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 A jury convicted the Los Angeles native, following a three-day trial, of murdering a woman after she entered her East Texas home to find Swain burglarizing it. Among his claims on appeal were that the prosecution should not have been allowed to introduce his confessions at trial, his attorneys failed to investigate evidence of childhood abuse that might have persuaded the jury to spare his life, and a prosecution-requested jury shuffle deliberately placed more whites at the front of the panel of prospective jurors, reducing the likelihood that a black person would be chosen. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Donnie Lee Roberts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, October 31, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Condemned for the slaying of a live-in girlfriend found shot to death in their home in 2003. Roberts appealed on several grounds, including the trial judge's refusal to allow a defense expert to testify that Roberts' combined use of alcohol and crack cocaine had fueled the crime. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Donnie Lee Roberts | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bobby Hines | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, October 24, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The 40-year-old was condemned 20 years ago in the robbery-murder of a woman in Dallas. Hines, who was 19 at the time of the crime, was scheduled to die in June, but the Dallas County district attorney's office withdrew the death date for additional DNA testing of evidence. His execution was reset when test results reportedly confirmed his guilt. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected an appeal from Hines the week before his execution. His appellate attorney argued that Hines' trial attorneys "failed to adequately investigate ... the abuse, neglect and violence (he) was subjected to at a very young age." | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Bobby Hines | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Anthony Haynes | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, October 18, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The 33-year-old, who has been locked up since he was 19, was one of two black men convicted in the 1998 slaying of a white off-duty Houston police officer. Also convicted in the killing was Michael Turner. On appeal, Haynes asserted that prosecutors deliberately excluded African-Americans from the jury.
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| Jonathan Green | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, October 10, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the June 2000 slaying of a 12-year-old girl in Montgomery County, north of Houston. He survived an execution date in 2010 when Texas's highest criminal court granted a hearing on whether he was too mentally ill to be put to death. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Jonathan Green | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sarge Foster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, September 25, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program Watch the Video | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 This is Texas' fourth attempt to put to death the former Army recruiter who has consistently claimed innocence of the murder for which he was condemned. The state's past three execution attempts, all in 2011, were turned back by the courts. Foster and another man were convicted in 2004 of killing a woman in Fort Worth a decade ago. Co-defendant Sheldon Ward died of brain cancer in prison in 2010. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Sarge Foster | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Robert Harris | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, September 20, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The 40-year-old Lubbock native was condemned following his conviction for two of five shooting deaths during a March 20, 2000, robbery at a Dallas-area car wash. He had been fired from his job there several days earlier. Attorneys for Harris say he is mentally impaired and therefore ineligible for execution under Supreme Court guidelines, an argument rejected in March by a federal appeals court. His lawyer, Lydia Brandt, said she would take the appeal to the Supreme Court. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Robert Harris | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| John Balentine | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, August 22, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 It's the third execution date for the former auto mechanic and laborer convicted in the 1998 deaths of three teens in Amarillo. Prosecutors said the slayings were the result of a feud between Balentine and his ex-girlfriend's brother, one of the victims. Balentine was granted stays after arguing that his trial attorneys did a poor job. Balentine had a lengthy criminal record in his native Arkansas that included kidnapping, assault and robbery. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Marvin Wilson | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, August 7, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Wilson was sent to death row after his conviction in the 1992 kidnapping and murder of confidential police informant Jerry Williams following a confrontation between the two. A tip from the victim had led to a police search in which drugs were seized and charges lodged against Wilson. His attorneys argued unsuccessfully on appeal that he is ineligible for execution because he is mentally retarded. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Marcus Druery | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, August 1, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The former student at Texas State Technical College was convicted in the death of 20-year-old fellow student Skyyler Browne. According to testimony at Druery's trial, the two were among a group celebrating Halloween 2002 in Bryan and wound up at property belonging to Druery's family in rural Brazos County. Browne's body was found in a pond on the property. He had been shot three times and his body burned. Druery's attorneys argued unsuccessfully in his appeal that his trial lawyers were deficient and jury instructions were faulty.
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| Yokamon Hearn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, July 18, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The 33-year-old was sentenced to die in the 1998 slaying of a North Dallas man who was abducted from a coin-operated car wash, driven to a secluded area, and shot to death. The victim’s Mustang was found the next day in a shopping center parking lot. Hearn, who was 19 at the time of the crime, has been on death row since New Year’s Eve 1998. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Yokamon Hearn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bobby Hines | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, June 6, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of killing a Dallas woman in 1991 who lived in the apartments where he was staying. He was 19 at the time of the crime. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Steven Staley |
| Wednesday, May 16, 2012 |
| Execution |
| Convicted of murdering a restaurant manager during a 1989 robbery in Fort Worth, Staley, 49, is a paranoid schizophrenic whose severe symptoms have caused three previous execution dates to be withdrawn on the grounds that he was too mentally ill to understand the real reason he was being put to death. Staley's mental incompetence is so frustrating to people who want his death sentence carried out, he has been the subject of a court order to force medication to try to make him sane long enough to qualify for execution. His childhood included a father who had acute alchoholism and a mother who was so mentally ill, she once tried to drive a stake through Staley's chest and, on another occasion, tried to stab him with a butcher knife. One doctor who evaluated Staley said his symptoms included hallucinations; paralysis; depression, sometimes to the point of catatonia; and delusional thinking. The U.S. Supreme Court has not prohibited the execution of mentally ill people, but it bars the execution of anyone so mentally incompetent they do not understand why they are being put to death.
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| Backpage on Steven Staley |
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| Anthony Bartee | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, May 2, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the August 1996 robbery murder of a friend, Bartee was given a stay before his scheduled execution in February so that additional DNA testing could be done. When the May 2 date was announced, Bartee attorney David Dow sent the court a letter saying the new date should not have been set because DNA testing has not been done. Dow said no notice of a hearing for a new execution date was sent to him or Bartee. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Beunka Adams | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, April 26, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 He and his fall partner, Richard Cobb, were convicted of abducting and killing a man during the robbery of a convenience store in the East Texas town of Rusk. Cobb remains on death row. Adams was 19 at the time of the offense; Cobb was 18. Three days before the scheduled execution, a federal judge in Texarkana granted Adams a stay of execution. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott appealed the stay, which was lifted by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals the day before the execution.
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| Jesse Hernandez | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, March 28, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the 2001 beating death of a 10-month-old boy he was babysitting in West Dallas. The jury imposed the death penalty after finding that Hernandez posed a continuing threat to society and that there were no mitigating circumstances to warrant sparing his life. Police linked Hernandez to the slaying through traces of his DNA mixed with the boy's blood on a pillowcase and a jumper. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Beunka Adams | |||||
| Thursday, March 8, 2012 | |||||
| Execution | |||||
 He and his fall partner, Richard Cobb, were convicted of abducting and killing a man during the robbery of a convenience store in the East Texas town of Rusk. Cobb remains on death row. Adams was 19 at the time of the offense; Cobb was 18. The scheduled execution of Adams comes less than eight years after his conviction in August 2004.
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| Backpage on Beunka Adams | |||||
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| Keith Steven Thurmond | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, March 7, 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 The former master mechanic was convicted of shooting and killing his estranged wife and her boyfriend in Magnolia in 2001. He lost his federal appeal when his attorney missed a deadlines, essentially waiving the last constitutionally required review before his death sentence could be carried out. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Keith Steven Thurmond | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| George Rivas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, February 29, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Described as the mastermind of a seven-man escape in 2000 from a state prison in South Texas, he was condemned in the shooting death of a police officer outside Dallas during a robbery by the group. Later, one escapee committed suicide rather than be captured. The six survivors were sentenced to death. Executed in August 2008 was Michael Rodriguez, who had dropped his appeals. Donald Newbury was set to die Feb. 1 but got a stay. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on George Rivas | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Anthony Bartee |
| Tuesday, February 28, 2012 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of the 1996 robbery-murder of his San Antonio neighbor, Bartee insisted that two gang members committed the 1996 murder and robbed the victim of his motorcycle. He won a stay of execution on Feb. 23, 2011, five days before his scheduled execution, when a judge in Houston agreed to new forensic tests. |
| Backpage on Anthony Bartee |
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| Donald Newbury |
| Wednesday, February 1, 2012 |
| Execution |
 The Albuquerque, New Mexico, native was one of seven men who escaped from a Texas prison in 2000 and committed a store robbery in suburban Dallas in which a police officer was killed. One escapee claimed sole responsibility for the murder. Newbury and the others were condemned to death following separate trials. Texas is the only state that permits the death penalty for people convicted of murder for playing a supporting role. One co-defendant has been executed, another has an execution date of Feb. 29, and the other three continue to appeal their cases. |
| Backpage on Donald Newbury |
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| Rodrigo Hernandez | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, January 26, 2012 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the murder of a Frito-Lay saleswoman, his appeal was rejected in 2008 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The seven-year gap from Hernandez' 2004 conviction to the 2011 announcement of his execution date was relatively short. Typically, a person sentenced to death spends at least 10 years going through the appeals process. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Rodrigo Hernandez | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Guadalupe Esparza |
| Wednesday, November 16, 2011 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Esparza, 46, received his execution date Aug. 16, 2011, from a San Antonio judge who ignored his attorney's request for a delay to prepare an appeal based on evidence that Esparza is mentally retarded. A jury ordered Esparza put to death in 2001 following his conviction in the abduction, rape and strangulation of a 7-year-old girl. The victim's mother, Diana Berlanga, said she planned to witness Esparza's execution.
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| Backpage on Guadalupe Esparza |
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| Henry "Hank" Skinner |
| Wednesday, November 9, 2011 |
| Execution |
 (For earlier background, scroll down to Skinner's stayed execution date, March 24, 2010.) |
| Backpage on Henry "Hank" Skinner |
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| Frank Garcia | |||||
| Thursday, October 27, 2011 | |||||
| Listen to the program | |||||
| Execution | |||||
 Slated to be executed six days after his 39th birthday, Garcia was convicted in the shooting deaths of his wife and a San Antonio Police officer in 2001. The officer had responded to a call about a domestic dispute. | |||||
| Backpage on Frank Garcia | |||||
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| Cameron Todd Willingham | |||||
| Wednesday, October 5, 2011 | |||||
| Listen to the program | |||||
| Execution | |||||
| Yes, you read the prisoner's name right. The date, too. Execution Watch is producing a special program examining the Feb. 17, 2004, execution of Todd Willingham. He was put to death despite emerging evidence of his innocence in the deaths of his three daughters in a house fire. Top arson experts using modern investigative techniques have categorically rejected the arson finding of local investigators in Corsicana. Two years ago, the Texas Forensic Science Commission was on the verge of receiving a report condemning the original investigation, when Perry abruptly shut down their work by replacing several members, including the chairman, with new appointees. | |||||
| Because of technical problems a few minutes from the beginning of the show are missing. | |||||
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| Lawrence Russell Brewer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, September 21, 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 One of three men convicted in the infamous East Texas slaying in which three white men chained James Byrd, a 49-year-old black man, to the back of a pickup truck and dragged him to death on a country road near Jasper. The 1998 case shocked the nation for its brutality. Fall partner John William King is on death row, awaiting an appeal. Another co-defendant, Shawn Berry, received life in prison. The trials of the three men cost Jasper County $1.02 million, leading to a 6.7 percent increase in property taxes.
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| Backpage on Lawrence Russell Brewer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cleve 'Sarge' Foster | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, September 20, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 This is the third execution date set for Foster, who was convicted of participating in a 2002 crime in Tarrant County in which another man has admitted committing a murder. The U.S. Supreme Court granted Foster a last-minute stay of execution in January, later rejecting his appeal. Foster was then set to be executed in April when the Supreme Court issued a second stay to consider his request for a rehearing. In May, the high court decided not to take up that motion. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Cleve 'Sarge' Foster | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Duane Buck | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, September 15, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the 1995 homicide of his ex-girlfriend and her male friend in Houston. Buck was on parole for a cocaine delivery conviction at the time. Witnesses said Buck came to his ex-girlfriend's apartment late one night, kicked in the door, argued with her and others, then left after retrieving some of his possessions. He returned a few hours later with a gun, fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend and her male friend. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Duane Buck | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Steven Michael Woods | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, September 13, 2011 | |||||||||||||||
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| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 After Woods was convicted and sentenced to death in a double homicide outside Dallas, a co-defendant admitted to killing the couple, saying Woods was present but did not participate in the slayings. The co-defendant received a life sentence. Woods' death sentence was allowed to stand under the law of parties. Texas is the only state in which the law of parties permits the death penalty for those convicted of participating in a crime involving a murder -- even if someone else committed the murder and receives a lesser punishment. | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Steven Michael Woods | |||||||||||||||
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| Ivan Cantu |
| Tuesday, August 30, 2011 |
| Execution |
 Condemned in the 2000 shooting death of his cousin, he petitioned the courts unsuccessfully for forensic testing of DNA evidence that he said would prove his innocence. Cantu was 28 when a Collin County jury convicted him of capital murder in a botched robbery that left his cousin and the cousin's girlfriend dead. Cantu was also indicted in the death of Mosqueda's girlfriend, 22-year-old Amy Kitchen. The couple were found slain Nov. 4 in their North Dallas home.
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| Backpage on Ivan Cantu |
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| Randall Wayne Mays |
| Tuesday, August 23, 2011 |
| Execution |
 The former oil field worker with a history of mental illness was convicted in the 2007 shooting deaths of two Henderson County sheriff's deputies. The U.S. Supreme Court refused in March 2011 to hear his case. In challenging his conviction, Mays's appellate attorneys asserted that: he was not mentally fit to stand trial, he received ineffective assistance of counsel, and his trial judge gave improper instructions to the jury. Mays will be the second in his family to die at the hands of the state in as many decades. His oldest brother, Noble, was executed in 1995 for stabbing and robbing a man in Wichita Falls. |
| Backpage on Randall Wayne Mays |
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| Larry Swearingen |
| Thursday, August 18, 2011 |
| Execution |
 On June 24, 2011, a Montgomery County judge gave Swearingen this execution date -- his third in four years. A growing list of physicians and scientists (10 at last count) say there is virtually no way the now-40-year-old man could have committed the 1998 murder for which he was condemned, that of Melissa Trotter. They all agree that, based on the condition of Trotter’s body, she died at a time when he was in police custody. Swearingen has filed a sixth writ of habeas corpus with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, which last turned him down in February 2010. “In this case we have fantastic science from multiple areas,” said his attorney, James Rytting. “All of it converges at the place where Swearingen is excluded from the universe of possible culprits.”
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| Backpage on Larry Swearingen |
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| Martin Robles | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, August 10, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 One of two men convicted in a 2002 double slaying in Corpus Christi. Robles was convicted and condemned after the men were found shot to death at a residence. Joe David Padron, Robles's fall partner, was also convicted of capital murder but received a life sentence. Prison records indicate Robles began using marijuana and inhalants at age 10, acid and mushrooms at 14 and cocaine at 15. He acknowledged he was an alcoholic and that he joined a gang at 14. He had at least 11 arrests as a juvenile. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Martin Robles | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Mark Stroman | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, July 20, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 41, convicted of killing an Indian-American man during a post-9/11 shooting spree in Dallas that claimed one other life. The sole survivor of the shootings, Rais Bhuiyan, has since forgiven Stroman and mounted an international campaign to spare his life. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Mark Stroman | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Humberto Leal, Jr. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, July 7, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 President Obama's pleas to stay the execution of the Mexican citizen are having no impact on Governor Perry, who is also turning a deaf ear to the international community and the elite of the U.S. military and criminal justice system. They've warned that Leal's execution would endanger Americans abroad by violating a treaty guaranteeing consular access to foreign nationals upon their arrest. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Humberto Leal, Jr. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Milton Mathis | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, June 21, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 After cheating death in 2005 when he got a stay of execution, Mathis received a new date with the executioner. His execution was scheduled after the U.S. Supreme Court turned down an appeal in February 2011. His attorneys say they've been unable to get a court to consider claims that their client is mentally retarded and therefore ineligible for execution. The Houston native was convicted in the shooting deaths of two men in 1998 in Fort Bend County
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| Backpage on Milton Mathis | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Lee Taylor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, June 16, 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 His execution date was set shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court refused his appeal in April 2011. Taylor was serving a life term in 1999 for the beating death of a Houston man when he was convicted of murdering a fellow inmate at the Telford state prison in New Boston, about 2-1/2 hours northeast of Dallas. Taylor, who was 16 at the time of the Houston murder, argued unsuccessfully that prosecutors improperly used the juvenile conviction - when he was ineligible for the death penalty - as evidence to convince a jury to condemn him for the prison killing. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Lee Taylor | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| John Balentine | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, June 15, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 News of Balentine's execution date came a year and a half after a last-minute stay voided his original ticket to the death house. A federal appeals court issued the reprieve based on arguments by the Amarillo man's appeals lawyer that the jury might not have condemned him for the 1998 triple murder if his trial attorney had presented mitigating evidence about his childhood, which was filled with violence, poverty and abuse. The appeals court considered arguments on the claim but decided in November that the evidence could not be considered.
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| Backpage on John Balentine | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Gayland Bradford | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, June 1, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Came within six days of being executed when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay to give his attorneys time to prepare a full appeal of his death sentence on grounds that he is mentally impaired. Bradford was sentenced to death in the slaying of a security guard. His attorneys say his execution would be unconstitutional because he is mentally retarded. Bradford was convicted in the shooting death of Brian Williams during a robbery at a south Dallas convenience store in 1988. Bradford's IQ was tested as 68 by the Texas Department of Corrections when he was a 17-year-old first offender. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Gayland Bradford | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cary Kerr | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, May 3, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Kerr, now 46, was condemned for the July 2001 slaying of 34-year-old Pamela Horton. Both were from Haltom City, near Fort Worth. When Horton's body was found, Kerr told authorities he had been with her at his home that night but that she had left alive. His trial lawyer said the woman walked out after the two argued following an evening of heavy drinking. Petitions to stay Kerr's execution and reexamine the case were pending before the U.S. Supreme court. Executioners planned to use pentobarbital for the first time in Texas history. Officials announced recently that they would substitute pentobarbital in the three-drug method of lethal injection because the supply of the sedative employed in executions for the past three decades was cut off due to anti-death penalty sentiment where the manufacturer is based, in Europe.
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| Backpage on Cary Kerr | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Cleve Foster | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, April 5, 2011 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 The former Army recruiter survived His Jan. 11 execution date when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a last-minute stay, which it later lifted without comment. Foster, who insists he is innocent, was condemned for participating in a 2002 crime in which Sudanese woman was murdered in Fort Worth. He and Sheldon Ward were sent to death row for the death of Mary Pal, 28. Ward, who claimed sole responsibility for the slaying, cheated the executioner by dying in prison May 13, 2010, of a brain tumor | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Cleve Foster | |||||||||||||||
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| Timothy Adams |
| Tuesday, February 22, 2011 |
| Listen to the program |
| Execution |
 Sentenced to death in the 2002 shooting death of his son in Houston following a standoff with police after his wife threatened to divorce him.
A jury deliberated more than two days before sentencing Adams to death after he surprised prosecutors by pleading guilty to capital murder as his trial was about to start. |
| Backpage on Timothy Adams |
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| Michael Wayne Hall | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, February 15, 2011 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Sentenced to death in the 1998 kidnapping and fatal shooting of a woman in Arlington. Hall's attorney attempted to save him from the gurney by asking a federal court to reconsider previous rulings that Hall is not retarded. The attorney said courts should consider new definitions of mental retardation. Hall's co-defendant Robert Neville was executed in 2006
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| Backpage on Michael Wayne Hall | |||||||||||||||
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| Cleve 'Sarge' Foster | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, January 11, 2011 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 The former Army recruiter, who insists he is innocent, was condemned for the murder of a Sudanese woman in Fort Worth in 2002. He and Sheldon Ward were sent to death row for the death of Mary Pal, 28. Ward, who claimed sole responsibility for the slaying, died May 13, 2010, of a brain tumor. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Cleve 'Sarge' Foster | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Steven Kenneth Staley | |||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, December 1, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Condemned for the shooting death of a restaurant manager in Fort Worth during a botched robbery in 1991 by Staley and two accomplices. A district judge at one point ordered the state to forcibly give anti-psychotic drugs to Staley, who had been diagnosed with severe paranoid schizophrenia and refused to take medication because he believed it poisoned him.
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| Backpage on Steven Kenneth Staley | |||||||||||||||
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| Larry Wooten | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, October 21, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Sentenced to death in 1998 at age 39 following his conviction in the robbery-murders of an elderly couple in Paris, Texas, for whom he had worked as a handyman. The state's highest criminal court in 2004 granted him a new trial on his claim that could not be executed because he is mentally retarded. The trial, held in the same Lamar County District Court where he had been convicted and sentenced to death, found that he was not retarded. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Larry Wooten | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Gayland Bradford | |||||||||||||||
| Thursday, October 14, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Gayland Bradford | |||||||||||||||
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| Peter Anthony Cantu | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, August 17, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 One of a group of teenagers convicted of raping and killing two teenage Houston girls in 1993. Cantu, who was 18 at the time of the slayings, and four companions -- all 17 or 18 -- received death sentences. Two have been executed. Two others had their sentences commuted to life after the U.S. Supreme Court barred the death penalty for those under 18 at the time of their crimes. The slayings led to a Texas law allowing victims' families to view the execution of murderers. International controversy erupted around the execution two years ago of co-defendant José Medellín when it was revealed that he was not notified of his right to meet with Mexican consular officials. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Peter Anthony Cantu | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Derrick Leon Jackson | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, July 20, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
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| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Condemned in 1998 for the stabbing deaths of Houston Grand Opera tenors Richard Alan Wrotenbery and Forrest G. Henderson, both 31, during an apparent robbery in their Houston apartment 10 years earlier.
Jackson, formerly of Missouri City, has insisted on his innocence. He was linked to the slayings by DNA evidence and a bloody fingerprint on the apartment door. The discovery of widespread problems at the HPD crime lab led investigators from the Harris County District Attorney's office in 2003 to order a retesting of the evidence in Jackson's case.
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| Backpage on Derrick Leon Jackson | |||||||||||||||
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| Michael Perry | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, July 1, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 confessed to authorities that he killed 50-year-old Sandra Stotler in her home near Conroe in 2001, then recanted, saying police had beat the confession out of him. He claims he was in jail on an unrelated traffic charge during the period the state's medical examiner pinpointed as the time of death. He blames co-defendant Jason Aaron Burkett for the shotgun slayings of Stotler and later Stotler's son, Adam, and Adam's friend, Jeremy Richardson. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Michael Perry | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jonathan Green | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, June 30, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted and sentenced to death in 2002 by an all-white jury in the murder of a 12-year-old white girl in Dobbin, Texas, a small town 60 miles northwest of Houston. Green, who is African-American, suffers from mental illness, is functionally illiterate and is probably mentally retarded, according to his attorneys. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the execution of mentally retarded people is illegal because it is cruel and unusual punishment.
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| Backpage on Jonathan Green | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| David Lee Powell | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, June 15, 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 On death row more than three decades, Powell was convicted in the 1978 slaying of an Austin police officer. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to review Powell's death sentence in 2009. He was sent to death row three separate times, including retrials. Powell's attorneys said his due-process rights were violated when prosecutors held back documents indicating his girlfriend might have fired the fatal shots. Of the 322 people on Texas death row, only five have been there longer than Powell. He would be the state's longest-serving death row inmate to die by lethal injection. Excell White was executed in 1999 after 24 years. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| George Jones | |||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, June 2, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
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| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the 1993 robbery-murder of Forest Hall, who was abducted from the parking lot of a Dallas shopping mall. Jones' attorneys say his verdict and sentence were reached unfairly, because the trial judge wrongly allowed Dallas County prosecutors to exclude a prospective juror perceived as friendly to the defense. In a capital trial, a single holdout juror can mean the difference between life and death.
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| John Alba | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, May 25, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Alba, 54, was convicted in the 1991 shooting death of his wife, Wendy Alba. He was arrested in Plano, Texas, following a standoff with police in which he held a gun to his head and threatened to pull the trigger. A federal court in 2000 overturned his death sentence because a psychologist testified improperly at his trial that jurors should consider the fact that he is Hispanic in deciding punishment. Alba had a second punishment trial, at which a Collin County jury imposed the death penalty. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Rogelio Cannady | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, May 19, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Cannady was in prison on a life sentence in 1993 when he was charged with killing his cellmate at the McConnell Unit in Beeville. The victim was serving 15 years for murder. Cannady was the first Texas prison inmate prosecuted under a 1993 statute permitting a charge of capital murder against an offender serving 99 years or life on a previous murder conviction. His personal diary entries have been posted by a friend at http://deathwatchjournal.wordpress.com/ | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Rogelio Cannady | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Billy John Galloway | |||||||||||||||
| Thursday, May 13, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Billy John Galloway was condemned for the slaying of a man in Greenville, east of Dallas. Galloway, Kevin Varga (May 12 date) and two women were arrested in the September 1998 robbery and beating death. | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Billy John Galloway | |||||||||||||||
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| Kevin Varga | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, May 12, 2010 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Kevin Varga was condemned for murder of a man in Greenville, east of Dallas, during a 1998 robbery by Varga, Billy John Galloway (May 13 execution date), and two women. The women pleaded to lesser charges.
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| Backpage on Kevin Varga | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Samuel Bustamante | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, April 27, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Bustamante was one of four people charged in the 1998 fatal stabbing of 27-year-old Rafael Alvarado of Richmond. His attorney requested clemency from the state, arguing that Bustamante received inadequate representation from his state-appointed appellate attorney, who missed critical filing deadlines and failed to conduct any additional investigation of his client's background, which included serious abuse as a child. Courts rejected Bustamante's arguments that his execution would be unconstitutional because he is retarded, with a tested IQ of 71. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Samuel Bustamante | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| William Berkley | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, April 22, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Berkley, a native of Germany, was living in El Paso and had just turned 21 when he and Michael Jacques were arrested in March 2000 and charged with the murder of a woman whose body had been found in the northeast section of the city. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on William Berkley | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Franklin Alix | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, March 30, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the January 1998 slaying of a man at an apartment complex in Houston, Alix is among hundreds of defendants whose DNA evidence was submitted for retesting because of questions about the way it was processed by the Houston Police Department's crime lab. An investigation of the lab found that an analyst failed to report potentially exculpatory DNA test results from a murder that was cited in the penalty phase of Alix's capital murder trial. | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Franklin Alix | |||||||||||||||
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| Henry Watkins Skinner | |||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, March 24, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
| Condemned to die for the 1993 murders of his girlfriend and her two adult sons in the Texas Panhandle town of Pampa, "Hank" Skinner has always insisted he is innocent. Northwestern journalism students investigating his conviction found numerous inconsistencies in the state's case. His supporters have encountered a wall of resistance from the state their efforts to obtain testing of additional crime scene evidence gathered by police. If the execution goes on as scheduled, protesters plan to gather outside the death house in Huntsville, where our reporters will provide live coverage.
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| Backpage on Henry Watkins Skinner | |||||||||||||||
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| Joshua Maxwell | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, March 11, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the shooting death of an off-duty Bexar County Deputy Sheriff in an alleged three-state crime spree 10 years ago with girlfriend Tessie McFarland, who is serving a life sentence. Dubbed the "Natural Born Killers" couple, their case sold many newspapers and was fodder for the true-crime television series Wicked Attraction. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Joshua Maxwell | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Michael Sigala | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, March 2, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Convicted of slaying a couple in their Plano apartment during a robbery in August of 2000. In appealing his death sentence, Sigala argued that the testimony of a psychiatrist was improperly limited at trial. Dr. Laura Slaughter had planned to testify that Sigala had a history of mental illness and suffered from bipolar disorder. The prosecution prevented the jury from hearing the diagnosis.
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| Backpage on Michael Sigala | |||||||||||||||
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| Henry Watkins Skinner | |||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, February 24, 2010 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 ***DELAYED TILL 3/24/2010*** Hank Skinner was condemned to die for the 1993 murder of his live-in girlfriend and her two adult sons in the small Texas town of Pampa, Henry "Hank" Skinner has always insisted he is innocent. Northwestern journalism students investigating his conviction found that Skinner's trial defense was inadequate and that forensic testing of evidence was incomplete. | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Henry Watkins Skinner | |||||||||||||||
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| Gary James Johnson | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, January 12, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of murdering ranch manager James M. Hazelton, 28, and Peter J. Sparagana, 23, in 1986, as they investigated a report of a burglary at Triple Creek Ranch outside Huntsville, Texas. Johnson's brother, co-defendant Terry Johnson, struck a deal with prosecutors that spared him from the death penalty, in exchange for testifying against Gary Johnson. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Gary James Johnson | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Kenneth Mosley | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, January 7, 2010 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Kenneth Mosley, 51, was condemned for the February 1997 shooting death of Garland, Texas, Officer Michael David Moore, who was responding to a 911 call about a robbery at a bank. Mosley's appellate attorneys argued he should have a new hearing, because his trial attorneys failed to object to victim impact testimony from the officer's wife and did not call witnesses to testify about Mosley's drug and alcohol addictions. The Supreme Court gave Mosley a reprieve in September one day before he was to be executed, but the panel later declined to hear his appeal. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Kenneth Mosley | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bobby Wayne Woods | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, December 3, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Believed by some experts to be mentally retarded, Woods was convicted and sentenced to die for the April 1997 slaying of Sarah Patterson. The girl and her 9-year-old brother were abducted from their home. She was killed when her throat was slashed. Her brother, Cody, was choked into unconsciousness but survived. Attorneys are seeking a stay so they may present evidence that Woods' execution would be unconstitutional because of diminished mental capacity. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Bobby Wayne Woods | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Robert Lee Thompson | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, November 19, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Thompson and a co-defendant robbed a convenience store. On their way out, Thompson, armed with a .25-caliber pistol, and Sammy Butler, with a .38-caliber pistol, fired at the clerk. Butler, who was later sentenced to life in prison, shot the fatal bullet. Thompson was convicted under the law of parties and sentenced to death. He has sought clemency from Gov. Rick Perry and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on the grounds that his punishment should not be worse than that of the person who fired the fatal shot. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Robert Lee Thompson | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Danielle Nathaniel Simpson | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, November 18, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Simpson and three teenage co-defendants were burglarizing the Palestine, Texas, home of an 84-year-old white woman on Jan. 26, 2000. When the woman came home unexpectedly. They robbed her, taped her mouth, bound her hands and feet, put her in the trunk of her vehicle, drove to the Nueces River, tied a rope with a block to her, and threw her into the river. Simpson and his co-defendants were in possession of the victim's vehicle at the time of their arrest. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Danielle Nathaniel Simpson | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Gerald Cornelius Eldridge | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, November 17, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the shooting deaths of former girlfriend Cynthia Bogany and her 9-year-old daughter, Chirrisa Bogany. Eldridge broke into Bogany's apartment and shot the daughter as she slept on a couch. After chasing Cynthia's boyfriend from the apartment, he returned to the living room and shot in the shoulder the 7-year-old son he had with Cynthia. He then chased Cynthia onto a stairwell outside the apartment and shot her. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Gerald Cornelius Eldridge | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Yosvanis Valle | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, November 10, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Valle, a Cuban national who prosecutors say joined a prison gang while incarcerated for a previous crime, was convicted of forcing his way into the Pasadena, Texas, home of Jose Martin Junco on June 7, 1999, stealing drugs, money and weapons, and shooting Junco to death.
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| Backpage on Yosvanis Valle | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Khristian Oliver | |||||||||||||||
| Thursday, November 5, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Oliver was 20 when he and three juveniles burglarized the home of an East Texas farmer on March 17, 1998. The farmer, a 64-year-old white man, came home unexpectedly, saw the burglars, got his rifle, and shot and wounded a juvenile. Oliver responded by shooting the owner with a handgun, seizing his rifle, and using it to beat him. The jury that convicted Oliver consulted the Bible during sentencing deliberations that resulted in the death penalty. | |||||||||||||||
| Partial Show audio | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Khristian Oliver | |||||||||||||||
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| Reginald Blanton | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, October 27, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 According to prosecutors, Blanton and a co-defendant shot and killed a 20-year-old friend of Blanton's during an April 2000 robbery in San Antonio during which jewelry was stolen and later pawned for $79. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Reginald Blanton | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| John Uzell Balentine | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, September 30, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 On 01/21/98 in Amarillo, Texas, Balentine fatally shot 3 white males, 17 year old Edward Mark Caylor, 15 year old Kai Brooke Geyer and 15 year old Steven Brady Watson, once each in the head with a 32-caliber pistol. Balentine entered the residence during the night, and committed the murders while the victims were sleeping.
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| Backpage on John Uzell Balentine | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Kenneth Mosley | |||||||||||||||
| Thursday, September 24, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 On February 15, 1997, Mosley murdered a white male police officer while attempting to rob a bank in Garland. Employees called police after noticing Mosley inside the bank acting suspicious. As one of the first officers to arrive at the scene, the victim entered the bank in full uniform and approached Mosley, noticing that the would-be bandit had his hand stuck in his waistband. When the officer told Mosley to show him his hands, a struggle ensued and the two crashed through a glass window. Witnesses heard several shots fired before Mosley re-entered the bank through the broken window and was shot in the wrist after flashing his pistol at a second police officer. The victim died the afternoon of the shooting. He suffered at least four bullet wounds to the torso. | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Kenneth Mosley | |||||||||||||||
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| Christopher Coleman | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, September 22, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 On December 14, 1995 in Houston, Coleman and two co-defendants murdered three men during a drug deal. Four men were shot by Coleman, but one survived to identify him as the gunman. | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Christopher Coleman | |||||||||||||||
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| Stephen Lindsey Moody | |||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, September 16, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the robbery and murder of 28-year-old Joseph F. Hall in Houston. Moody and a co-defendant followed Hall to his home, forced their way inside, and demanded money and drugs. While Hall, who was crippled, begged for his life, Moody shot him at close range with a sawed-off shotgun. Moody and his accomplice then fled with $1200 in cash from the home. Moody later told his co-defendant that he shot Hall because he kept trying to get up from the ground. | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Stephen Lindsey Moody | |||||||||||||||
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| David L. Wood | ||||||||||
| Thursday, August 20, 2009 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted in the abduction and stabbing death of 24-year-old Ivy Susanna Williams of El Paso. Williams was one of six female murder victims found in the desert around El Paso between June and August 1987. Wood was also indicted in the five other murders. Nearly a year after her disappearance on March 14, 1988, Williams' remains were found buried in the desert a short distance from U.S. Highway 54. | ||||||||||
| Read interview of David Wood on Associated Content (click here) | ||||||||||
| Backpage on David L. Wood | ||||||||||
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| Tracy Beatty | ||||||||||
| Thursday, August 13, 2009 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted of: On July 25, 2003, in Smith County, Texas, Beatty strangled his mother, a sixty-two year old white female, placed her in the bathtub for two days and then buried her in a shallow grave in their backyard. | ||||||||||
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| Roderick Dasha Newton | ||||||||||
| Thursday, July 23, 2009 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted of carjacking (with another man) a 20-year old Hispanic male, forcing him to an ATM at gunpoint, then shooting and killing him. | ||||||||||
| Backpage on Roderick Dasha Newton | ||||||||||
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| Kenneth Mosley | ||||||||||
| Thursday, July 16, 2009 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted of murdering a white male police officer while attempting to rob a bank in Garland. Employees called police after noticing Mosley inside the bank acting suspicious. As one of the first officers to arrive at the scene, the victim entered the bank in full uniform and approached Mosley, noticing that the would-be bandit had his hand stuck in his waistband. When the officer told Mosley to show him his hands, a struggle ensued and the two crashed through a glass window. Witnesses heard several shots fired before Mosley re-entered the bank through the broken window and was shot in the wrist after flashing his pistol at a second police officer. The victim died the afternoon of the shooting. He suffered at least four bullet wounds to the torso. | ||||||||||
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| Terry Hankins | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, June 2, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 On 08/26/2001, in Mansfield, Hankins shot his wife (34 year old white female) one time in the head while she was sleeping, resulting in her death. The next day, Hankins shot his stepchildren (a 12 year old white male and a 10 year old white female) in the same manner, causing their deaths. After his arrest, Hankins told authorities where to find the bodies of his 55 year old father and his 20 year old sister, whom he murdered in 2000.
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| Backpage on Terry Hankins | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Michael Lynn Riley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, May 19, 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Riley's execution stems from the robbery and fatal stabbing of a convenience store clerk 23 years ago in Quitman. Riley turned himself in to police hours after the slaying. His execution was stayed in 2005 to allow an investigation of claims he is mentally retarded, which would make his execution unconstitutional. When Riley was a teenager, an evaluation at Terrell State Hospital put his IQ at 67. An IQ of 70 is considered the threshold for mental retardation. Riley's execution date coincides with the birthday of Malcolm X, who said: "“It isn’t the white man who is racist, but it’s the American political, economic, and social atmosphere that automatically nourishes a racist psychology in the white man.” | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Michael Lynn Riley | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Derrick Lamone Johnson | ||||||||||
| Thursday, April 30, 2009 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted in the death of a 25-year-old woman during the commission of a robbery. The courts indicated that Johnson and a co-defendant beat the victim about the head with a board and then suffocated her with a shirt and a sweater. | ||||||||||
| Backpage on Derrick Lamone Johnson | ||||||||||
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| Michael Rosales | |||||
| Wednesday, April 15, 2009 | |||||
| Execution | |||||
 Convicted of killing a 60-year-old woman during the commission of a burglary. Rosales claimed he did not know she was home. When he was discovered, he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed her 137 times, then struck her with a hard object resulting in her death. | |||||
| Backpage on Michael Rosales | |||||
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| Jose Garcia Briseno | ||||||||||
| Tuesday, April 7, 2009 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 (Invited Guest: LULAC Drctr Francisco Rodriguez)
Convicted in the January 1991 murder of Dimmit County Sheriff Ben "Doc" Murray. Murray was killed inside his home in Carrizo Springs following a violent struggle with Briseno and his accomplice, Alberto Gonzales. The sheriff suffered numerous stab wounds with a knife found buried in his chest. He had also been shot once in the head. | ||||||||||
| Backpage on Jose Garcia Briseno | ||||||||||
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| Luis Salazar | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, March 11, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Sentenced to death for his conviction in the murder of a 28-year-old woman who was stabbed to death Oct. 11, 1997, by an intruder who sneaked into her Fort Worth home through a window. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Luis Salazar | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| James Edward Martinez | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, March 10, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Convicted of a double murder that occurred in Fort Worth on September 21, 2000, when 20 shots were fired into a vehicle, resulting in the deaths of a 20-year-old man and and 29-year-old woman. | |||||||||||||||
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| Kenneth Wayne Morris | |||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, March 4, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Condemned in the fatal shooting of a Houston businessman in 1991 during a burglary gone bad. Morris's date comes nearly six years after he won a last-minute reprieve over concerns that putting him to death would violate the Supreme Court's prohibition on executing the mentally retarded.
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| Backpage on Kenneth Wayne Morris | |||||||||||||||
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| Willie Earl Pondexter, Jr. | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, March 3, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Convicted of burglarizing the Clarksville home of an 85-year-old woman and fatally shooting her in the head. She was sleeping when Pondexter and at least one accomplice broke into her home. After shooting the woman with a 9mm pistol, the intruders took $18 from her purse and fled in her car. Cases are pending against accomplices. | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Willie Earl Pondexter, Jr. | |||||||||||||||
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| Johnny Ray Johnson | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, February 12, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 A native of Austin, he was condemned for the rape and beating death of a woman in Houston in 1995. Johnson, 51, was convicted in the death of Leah Joette Smith. She is described in court documents as a cocaine addict Johnson offered drugs in exchange for sex, then beat to death when she used the drugs and reneged. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Johnny Ray Johnson | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Dale Devon Scheanette | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, February 10, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Dale Devon Scheanette, who identifies himself as a Cajun from Monroe, Louisiana, is scheduled to be executed in the 1996 slaying of 22-year-old Wendie Prescott of Arlington, a teacher's aide. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Dale Devon Scheanette | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| David Martinez | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, February 4, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the slayings of his girlfriend and her 14-year-old son inside their San Antonio home. Both victims were beaten to death with a baseball bat. Following his arrest in San Marcos two days after the murders, Martinez said he grabbed the bat and began to beat his girlfriend when she awoke to find him standing over her in the bedroom. Fearful that her son might discover his murdered mother, he walked into the living room where he was sleeping and struck him repeatedly in the head with the bat. He did not harm the boy's 10-year-old sister, telling her instead to go to her grandmother's home next dore and not return. No motive was offered for the killings. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on David Martinez | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Ricardo Ortiz | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, January 29, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Sentenced to death after being convicted of murdering Geraldo Garcia, his cellmate at El Paso County Jail, in 1997 by administering a deliberate overdose of heroin.
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| Was he set up by the state? Read Jim Skelton's backpage. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Ricardo Ortiz | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Virgil Martinez | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, January 28, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of fatally shooting a 27-year-old Hispanic female, her two children (a 3-year-old Hispanic female and a 6-year-old Hispanic male), and an 18-year-old Hispanic male during the nighttime on 10/1/96. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Virgil Martinez | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Larry Ray Swearingen | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, January 27, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of kidnapping and strangling a 19 year old white female on 12/8/1998. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Larry Ray Swearingen | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Reginald Perkins | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, January 22, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of strangling his 64 year old black female step-mother on 12/04/2000, resulting in her death. Her body was found in the trunk of her vehicle in a parking garage. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Reginald Perkins | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Frank Moore | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, January 21, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the January 1994 shooting deaths of Samuel Boyd, 23 and Patrick Clark, 15, outside a San Antonio nightclub. The two victims were shot with a .30-caliber rifle as they sat in a car outside the Wheels of Joy Club. Boyd was shot in the chest and Clark in the head following an argument with Moore inside the club. Both died at the scene. Prior to his arrest, Moore reportedly threatened to kill family members of witnesses if they cooperated with the police investigation. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Frank Moore | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| José Garcia Briseńo | |||||||||||||||
| Thursday, January 15, 2009 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 *** DELAYED TILL APRIL 7, 2009 ***
Convicted in the January 1991 murder of Dimmit County Sheriff Ben "Doc" Murray. Murray was killed inside his home in Carrizo Springs following a violent struggle with Briseńo and his accomplice Alberto Gonzalez. The sheriff suffered numerous stab wounds inflicted with a butcher knife found buried in his chest. He had also been shot once in the head. Briseńo and Gonzales reportedly killed Murray to avenge previous arrests he had made against them. | |||||||||||||||
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| Curtis Moore | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, January 14, 2009 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 He was sentenced to death 12 years ago in the abduction-murder of Henry Truevillian in Fort Worth during a 1995 drug deal-turned-robbery. Since age 12, Moore had been in and out of state custody. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Curtis Moore | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Robert Hudson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, November 20, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the May 7, 1999 stabbing death of a 35-year-old black female and the attempted murder of her 9-year-old son. Hudson caught the victim with another man and stabbed her 7 times in the upper torso with a knife. The victim's son tried to intervene and Hudson slashed him 2 times in the throat with a knife. The victim died at the scene and her son ran out of the apartment to a neighbor, who called police. Hudson was arrested at the scene. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Robert Hudson | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Rogelio Cannady | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, November 19, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of: On October 10, 1993, Cannady who was serving a life sentence caused the death of a 55-year-old Hispanic male Texas prison inmate inside a medium-custody housing area at the McConnell Unit in Beeville. Cannady beat the victim who was Cannady's cellmate with a steel lock attached to a belt and kicked him repeatedly in the head with steel-toed boots. The victim who was serving 15-year sentence for murder died two days later.Cannady was the first Texas prison inmate to be prosecuted under a 1993 statute that allows for capital murder convictions if the offender is serving 99 years or life as a result of previous murder convictions. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| From TDCJ: "The execution date for Cannady was withdrawn today [11/17/08], subject to further order of the court." | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Eric Cathey | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, November 18, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the September, 1995 abduction and murder of Christina Castillo in Houston. Cathey and several others abducted Castillo from the parking lot of her apartment complex and attempted to force her to tell them about her boyfriend's drug and money dealings. When Castillo refused to give them any information, she was driven to a vacant lot in northeast Houston and shot three times in the head. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Eric Cathey | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Denard Manns | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, November 13, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of: On 11/18/1998 in Killeen, Manns entered the home of a 26 year old white female. He sexually assaulted the victim, then shot her in the head and chest, resulting in her death. Manns took credit cards and cash from the residence and fled in the victim's vehicle.
A U.S. district judge in Waco, Texas, had ordered Manns' execution, originally scheduled for Aug. 20, be delayed until Nov. 13 because he has been without counsel since his attorney was removed from the case. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Denard Manns | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| George Whitaker III | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, November 12, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the shooting death of 17-year-old Shakeitha Shanta Carrier of Crosby. Whitaker had been dating the victim's sister who had recently left him because of his abusive behavior. On the day of the murder, Whitaker drove to his former girlfriend's parents' home outside Crosby and told her mother, Mary, that he was returning some of her belongings. Told to leave them on the porch, Whitaker pulled a .45 caliber pistol and forced his way inside. He forced Mrs. Carrier and her 5-year-old daughter, Ashley, into the living room where he shot Mrs. Carrier once in the chest. He followed the fleeing Ashley upstairs where he confronted Shakeitha and shot her once in the head. He then pistol-whipped Ashley fracturing her skull in two places. Returning downstairs he saw Mrs. Carrier fleeing through the front door. Retrieving more bullets from his vehicle, he cornered Mrs. Carrier behind the house and shot her a second time in the chest. Both Mrs. Carrier and Ashley survived their wounds although Mrs. Carrier suffers from partial paralysis in her right arm and hand. Shakeitha died at the scene. Whitaker was traced to his apartment where he attempted to elude police by jumping out a window. Police shot him in the hip when he appeared to be reaching for a pistol. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| From the Houston Chronicle Copyright 2008 by The Houston Chronicle The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously voted Monday to turn down condemned man George Whitaker's request for a reprieve. The board dismissed Whitaker's appeal in which he argued that jurors should have been told that he only would be eligible for parole after he served 40 years in prison. With all of his appeals exhausted, Whitaker, 37, is set to enter Texas' death chamber Wednesday. He was sentenced to die for the June 15, 1994, shooting death of Shakeitha Carrier, 17, a sister of his former girlfriend Catina Carrier, who had broken off their relationship two months before. Carrier's mother, Mary Carrier, was shot twice in the attack, and her sister Ashley, 5, was severely pistol-whipped. His execution is scheduled for Wednesday. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on George Whitaker III | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Elkie Taylor | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, November 6, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the robbery and murder of 64-year-old Otis Flake in Fort Worth. Taylor and an accomplice forceably entered Flake's home and tied him up. The two then packed up several items from the home, including dishes, pots and pans, and a television later selling them for a total of $16. A friend of Flake's found him dead inside his bedroom later in the day. He had been strangled with two wire coat hangers. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Gregory Wright | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, October 30, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of: On 03/21/1997, in DeSoto, Wright broke into the home of a white female. The victim was stabbed to death with a knife. Wright took many items from the home and left the scene in the victim's vehicle. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Free Greg Wright Web Page | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Gregory Wright | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Eric Nenno | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, October 28, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted in the rape and murder of 7-year-old Nicole Benton in Hockley. Nenno lured the young girl to his home and attempted to rape her. He choked her to death when she began to cry and resist. He then raped her repeatedly. Nenno hid Benton's nude body in his attic until neighbors went to police two days later and told them he had earlier been accused of fondling a child. Under questioning, Nenno confessed to killing Benton and led police to her body. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Eric Nenno | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Bobby Woods | |||||||||||||||
| Thursday, October 23, 2008 | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Convicted of: On April 30, 1997, Woods entered the home of his ex-girlfriend through an open window. Woods sexually assaulted the 11 year old white female, then abducted her and her 9-year-old male brother. Woods severely beat the 9-year-old boy about the head, resulting in serious injury, and cutting the throat of the 11-year-old victim, resulting in her death. | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Bobby Woods | |||||||||||||||
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| Joseph Ray Ries | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, October 21, 2008 | |||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
 Convicted of: On 02/22/99, in Cumby, Texas, Ries and the co-defendant broke into the residence of a 64-year old white male who was asleep at the time. They shot the victim in the head with a 22-caliber pistol and then took his car. Property belonging to the victim was later pawned.
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| Backpage on Joseph Ray Ries | |||||||||||||||
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| Kevin Watts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, October 16, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Convicted of: On March 1, 2002, in San Antonio, Texas, Watts entered a restaurant and fatally shot 1 Asian male and 2 Asian females. Watts then kidnapped a fourth victim, a Asian female, sexually assaulted her and took her to codefendant Bolden's residence where he allowed Bolden to sexually assault her. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Kevin Watts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Alvin Andrew Kelly | ||||||||||
| Tuesday, October 14, 2008 | ||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted in the shooting deaths of three people including an 18-month old child on April 30, 1984. According to TDCJ, 'records indicate the killings may have been drug related. | ||||||||||
| Backpage on Alvin Andrew Kelly | ||||||||||
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| Joseph Ries | ||||||||||
| Thursday, September 18, 2008 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted of: On 02/22/99, in Cumby, Texas, Ries and the co-defendant broke into the residence of a 64-year old white male who was asleep at the time. The victim was shot in the head with a 22-caliber pistol and his car was taken. Property belonging to the victim was later pawned. | ||||||||||
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| William Murray | ||||||||||
| Wednesday, September 17, 2008 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted of: On 02/10/98, in Kaufman, Texas, during the nighttime hours, a 93-year old female was beaten, strangled and raped . Law enforcement officers responded to a call concerning the victim at her residence. When the officers arrived, they found the residence to be in disarray and appeared to have been ransacked. They found the victim in the bedroom, nude from the waist down with wounds and bruising on and about her head area. The victim also had an Ace bandage tied around her neck and into her mouth, which was soaked with blood. It was stated that the victim's death was caused by strangulation and blunt force injuries. The subject confessed to entering the residence and ransacking it. The subject admitted that he physically and sexually assaulted the victim, and wrapped an Ace bandage around her face and mouth. The subject admitted he removed some change from a jar and a small knife. | ||||||||||
| Backpage on William Murray | ||||||||||
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| Charles Hood | ||||||||||
| Wednesday, September 10, 2008 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted of: The November 1989 murders of Ronald Williamson and Williamson's girlfriend, Traci Lynn Wallace, 26. The two were found shot to death inside Williamson's home in Plano, Texas. Hood was living at Williamson's home and also worked for Williamson. Following the murders, Hood attempted to cash a $500 check forged against Williamson's company account. Hood was arrested in Vergennes, Indiana while driving WIlliamson's car.
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| His previously scheduled execution June 17 was halted when the death warrant expired before it could be carried out. His attorneys announced Aug. 19 that they'd file a petition in civil court asking to take the depositions of former state District Judge Vera Sue Holland and former Collin County District Attorney Tom O’Connell. They've refused to answer questions about whether they may have tainted Hood's 1990 trial by engaging in a romance. | ||||||||||
| Backpage on Charles Hood | ||||||||||
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| Gregory Wright | ||||||||||
| Tuesday, September 9, 2008 | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
 Convicted of: On 03/21/1997, in DeSoto, Wright broke into the home of a white female. The victim was stabbed to death with a knife. Wright took many items from the home and left the scene in the victim's vehicle.Wright's attorneys say approved DNA tests have excluded him as a contributor to the DNA on the knife used in the slaying. They say the new evidence, plus a recent successful polygraph test, indicate Wright is innocent, as he claims. | ||||||||||
| Free Greg Wright Web Page | ||||||||||
| Backpage on Gregory Wright | ||||||||||
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| Jeffery Wood | |||||||||||||||
| Thursday, August 21, 2008 | |||||||||||||||
 Convicted of: On 01/02/1996, in Kerrville, Wood and one co-defendant robbed a service station, murdering the white male attendant in the process. Wood and the co-defendant took the store safe, a cash box, and a VCR containing a security tape. The value of cash and checks was estimated to be $11,350.Wood was not in the store when his co-defendant pulled the trigger. His case raises issues about the 'party' statute which says anyone involved in a capital offense is equally culpable. | |||||||||||||||
| Save Jeff Wood Website The Other Save Jeff Wood Website Sidebar from the Houston Chronicle, August 20, 2008 At least three Texas death row inmates have been executed under the law of parties, which makes accomplices as liable as the actual killer in capital murder cases. • Carlos Santana, 40, executed in 1993 for the death of 29-year-old security guard Oliver Flores during a failed $1.1 million armored car heist in Houston. His co-defendant, James Meanes, the triggerman, was executed in 1998. • Joseph Starvaggi, 34, executed in 1987 for fatally shooting Montgomery County probation officer John Denson, 43, during a Magnolia home burglary. An accomplice, G.W. Green, 49, was executed in 1991; a third man, Glenn Martin, got life in prison. • Doyle Skillern, 49, was executed in 1985 for the murder of Department of Public Safety narcotics officer Patrick Allen Randel. Skillern claimed an accomplice, Charles Victor Sanne, was the gunman. Sanne got a life sentence. Source: Death Penalty Information Center and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Web site | |||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Jeffery Wood | |||||||||||||||
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| Denard Manns |
| Wednesday, August 20, 2008 |
| Execution |
 Convicted of: On 11/18/1998 in Killeen, Manns entered the home of a 26 year old white female. He sexually assaulted the victim, then shot her in the head and chest, resulting in her death. Manns took credit cards and cash from the residence and fled in the victim's vehicle. |
| A U.S. district judge in Waco, Texas, ordered Manns' execution, originally scheduled for Aug. 20, be delayed until Nov. 13 because he has been without counsel since his attorney was removed from the case. |
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| Michael Rodriguez | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, August 14, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Convicted of: While on escape from TDCJ, Rivas and 6 co-defendants robbed a sporting goods store at gunpoint. An Irving police officer was murdered outside the store as Rivas and co-defendants left the scene. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Connally Unit, a maximum security prison southeast of San Antonio from which the Texas 7 escaped, had a history of prisoner attacks on guards and was short staffed by almost two dozen correctional officers the day of the breakout, according to published reports following the escape. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Summary of the Case | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Leon Dorsey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, August 12, 2008 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Convicted of: On 4/4/1994 during the night in Dallas, Dorsey entered a video store and used a 9 millimeter pistol to rob and kill a 26 year old white male employee and a 20 year old white male employee. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Background on Dorsey Case | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Heliberto Chi | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, August 7, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
| 29 years old. Convicted of murdering a clothing-store manager during a robbery seven years ago in Arlington, Texas. | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Heliberto Chi is a citizen of Honduras. As in the case of Jose Medellin and the 50 other Mexican citizens covered by the Avena ruling, Chi was not advised of his right to consular notification when he was arrested. Unlike the Mexican citizens, however, Chi is not covered by the International Court of Justice's Avena ruling | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Backpage on Heliberto Chi | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Jose Medellin | |||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, August 5, 2008 | |||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | |||||||||||||||
| Execution | |||||||||||||||
| Convicted of gang-related murder of two girls. Was not allowed to contact the Mexican consulate. | |||||||||||||||
| Executed shortly before 10PM after 5-4 decision in the Supreme Court. One member of the supreme court, justice Stephen Breyer wrote however, that to permit the execution would place the US "irremediably in violation of international law and breaks our treaty promises." | |||||||||||||||
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| Larry Davis | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Thursday, July 31, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Derrick Sonnier | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Wednesday, July 23, 2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Carlton Turner | ||||||||||
| Thursday, July 10, 2008 | ||||||||||
| Listen to the program | ||||||||||
| Execution | ||||||||||
| Convicted of killing his parents when he was 19 in 1999. | ||||||||||
| There was substantial evidence that Carlton was severly abused by his parents. | ||||||||||
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| Danny Bible |
| Tuesday, November 30, 1999 |
| Execution |
| Confined to a wheelchair A 66-year-old Texas man on death row for the icepick slaying of a 20-year-old woman in Houston in 1979 has been set for execution. Hi There to a wheelchair on death row for the icepick slaying of a 20-year-old woman in Houston in 1979 has been set for execution. |
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