updated Thu. April 4, 2024
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Chron.com
April 17, 2018
A northeast Texas man convicted of strangling his girlfriend moved one step closer to a possible execution date after the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down his appeal despite what his lawyer described as a "compelling case of actual innocence." Daniel Acker was sent to death row in 2001 for theÃâà...
Houston Public Media
April 9, 2018
As first reported by the Houston Chronicle, Texas is currently awaiting a decision from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on whether its state appellate system is competent enough to limit death row appeals in federal court. If approved, the time frame for inmate attorneys to file petitions in federal courtÃâà...
Texas Tribune
April 7, 2018
Anthony Graves spent 12 years on death row before a conservative federal court tossed out his wrongful capital murder conviction. Texas courts had previously rejected all of his appeals. “I had to get out of the state of Texas and into the federal court system to get help,” he told The Texas Tribune on Friday.
Fort Worth Star Telegram
April 4, 2018
In a last-ditch effort to save him, Houston defense attorneys for a condemned inmate from Fort Worth argue that he should be spared death because he did not intend to kill two people in 2008 and he was high on a narcotic cocktail. Erick Davila, 31, is scheduled to be put to death April 25. Attorneys SethÃâà...
The Hill
April 2, 2018
... would shorten the appeals process for death row inmates, allowing the state to execute prisoners faster. Fans of the provision say it will speed up the lengthy appeals process for crime victims and save the government money from dragged out legal proceedings, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday.
Chron.com
April 2, 2018
With weeks to go before his scheduled execution, defense lawyers for Erick Davila are arguing that he should be spared death because he was high at the time of the slaying and didn't intend to kill more than one person. The Fort Worth man was convicted of killing a rival gang member's mother and aÃâà...
Chron.com
April 2, 2018
Texas is seeking to speed up executions with a renewed request to "opt in" to a federal law that would shorten the legal process and limit appeals options for death-sentenced prisoners. Defense attorneys worry it would lead to the execution of innocent people and — if it's applied retroactively, as Texas isÃâà...
Dallas Observer
March 27, 2018
Forensic hypnosis is what brought Flores, who is now 47, back to a Dallas district courtroom in October and again in December. Texas was supposed to execute him in June 2016, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals delayed the lethal injection a week before it was scheduled. Flores' new attorneys filedÃâà...
Texas Tribune
March 21, 2018
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Texas death row inmate Wednesday, ordering a federal appellate court to reconsider providing funding for him to investigate previously unexplored evidence that he believes could toss out his death sentence. The high court ruled unanimously to send the case ofÃâà...
FOX 29
March 13, 2018
SAN ANTONIO - A man on Texas death row lost his appeal Thursday moving him one step closer to execution. The United States Court of Appeals denied Ray Freeney's lastest plea. He claimed he did not have enough legal help during the punishment phase of his trial in 2003. Back then he was condemned for the rapesÃâà...
The Root
March 4, 2018
Brown always maintained his innocence, and spent nearly 10 years on death row before his case was dismissed in 2015 and his conviction overturned. According the Chronicle, the 36-year-old Brown later sued a slew of Harris County officials, including the DA's office, the prosecutor and police officer whoÃâà...
Texas Tribune
March 1, 2018
A 19-year-old like the Parkland, Florida, school shooter, for example, probably wouldn't view execution as a threat if he is on death row for 10 to 20 years beforehand. “He's doubled his life span,” Waldrip said. “I think the death penalty has to have a broader, more beneficial societal effect, or we're not betterÃâà...
Chron.com
March 1, 2018
The Texas prison system is considering moving youthful offenders from a Brazoria prison to the former death row unit in Huntsville on the heels of a rape investigation, according to one lawmaker and multiple sources within the agency. "I've heard that it was a done deal," said state Sen. John WhitmireÃâà...
Texas Tribune
February 27, 2018
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a Texas case that questioned the constitutionality of the state's execution process. The lawsuit dated back to 2013, when multiple death row inmates sued the Texas prison system claiming its lethal injection protocol is unconstitutional, in part based on the drugsÃâà...
mySanAntonio.com
February 26, 2018
Three Texas cases will be featured in the upcoming season of HLN's "Death Row Stories," a true crime documentary series. Over the course of eight one-hour episodes, the show explores the "fallibility of the ultimate criminal penalty," according to a press release. Narrated by actress Susan Sarandon,Ãâà...
Chron.com
February 25, 2018
Three Texas cases will be featured in the upcoming season of HLN's "Death Row Stories," a true crime documentary series. Over the course of eight one-hour episodes, the show explores the "fallibility of the ultimate criminal penalty," according to a press release. Narrated by actress Susan Sarandon,Ãâà...
Texas Tribune
February 20, 2018
In an exceedingly rare move, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted Tuesday to recommend a lesser sentence for a death row inmate facing execution. The board voted unanimously in favor of clemency for Thomas Bartlett Whitaker, a man who is set to die on Thursday evening. The decision nowÃâà...
Texas Tribune
January 30, 2018
Despite hopes that two recent U.S. Supreme Court cases would stop his execution at the last minute, William Rayford was put to death Tuesday night in the second execution in Texas and the nation this year. In multiple last-minute appeals, the 64-year-old death row inmate claimed his sentencing trial inÃâà...
Westword
December 31, 1999
In early 2016, we told you about the Western Slope arrest of former Texas death-row resident Claude Wilkerson for allegedly keeping a woman chained to his bed and repeatedly raping her. Just over two years later, Wilkerson has agreed to a plea deal in the case, and it's a sweet one. He's admitted guilt toÃâà...
NPR
December 31, 1999
Once on site, they were kept in vehicles outside the actual death row facilities. Such waits are not unusual, but this one lasted well over an hour. Shortly before 11:30 p.m., Department of Corrections officials and guards could be seen conferring, though it was not immediately clear what was happening.".
Democracy Now!
December 31, 1999
Meanwhile, in Texas, Governor Greg Abbott halted what would have been Thursday's third U.S. execution, granting clemency to condemned prisoner Bart Whitaker and commuting his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Prosecutors say that in 2003 Bart Whitaker arranged to have aÃâà...
CNN
December 31, 1999
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott decided to reduce Thomas Whitaker's sentence to life in prison without parole, the governor said in a statement. It's the first time Abbott spared the life of an inmate on death row and the first time in years that a governor reduced the sentence of a death row inmate. Abbott has allowedÃâà...
