Tag: texas execution
The case of Rodney Reed, a Texas man facing execution, has made headlines across the nation in recent weeks as millions of people signed online petitions calling for the courts to take another look at the case. Texas’ highest criminal court halted Reed’s execution on Nov. 15, sending the case back to the trial court…
Randy Halprin has been on Texas’ Death Row for a decade for a high-profile prison escape that resulted in the killing of a police officer a decade ago. However, just weeks away from his scheduled execution attorneys say the trial judge’s alleged antisemitism may have tainted the case against Halprin who is Jewish. Lawyers representing…
Texas has been censured by the U.S. Supreme Court over how it determines intellectual disability when deciding if defendants should receive the death penalty. However, a ruling by the nation’s highest court has failed to spark changes in the Lone Star State. Now the pressure is on the Texas Legislature to amend the law relating…
Texas once again executed more people than any other state in 2018 when the number of prisoners put to death rose. However, the state’s Death Row population is falling. Two groups that oppose the death penalty reported Texas again tops the capital punishment table. With no further executions scheduled for 2018, tallies from both the…
The execution of a man accused of killing a store worker during a robbery at a Fort Worth gas station in 2010 has been delayed by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after his attorneys argued he is mentally ill. The execution of 42-year-old Kwame Rockwell was set for Oct. 24. Rockwell and two other…
Texas Governor Spares The Life of Death Row Inmate Thomas Whitaker It’s extremely rare for the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend a lesser sentence for a death row inmate facing execution but it happened this month. Shortly afterwards, state Governor Greg Abbott accepted the state parole board’s unusual and unanimous recommendation to…
Texas executed more people than any other state in 2017, but the number of times inmates were put to death was again at a low in the Lone Star State. Seven men were executed in Texas in 2017. The figure was the same as 2016, a year with the lowest number of executions in two…
Texas’ highest criminal court has not often been receptive to the arguments of criminal defense attorneys that their clients should be spared the death penalty in the past. But six reprieves handed down by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in recent weeks have led commentators to ask if the court is taking a new…
A former accountant from Dallas who murdered his two daughters in 2001, has been moved from death row as a fight goes on to prove his mental incompetency. The Dallas Morning News reported on how John Battaglia had been due to be executed in March but won a stay of execution in the 5th U.S….
Allegations of racism in the criminal justice system are nothing new but a high profile case in Texas has led to soul searching at a national level over allegations that a man was sentenced to death because he is black. In April, the U.S. Supreme Court conferenced a decision on whether it will again address…