History & Statistics

The Numbers    

Everything is bigger in Texas; including the number of executions.

Since 1819, Texas has led the nation in executions with 1,338 criminals sentenced to death. After a brief period in the 1960's and 1970's, during which the United States prohibited capital punishment, Texas marked the 1976 resumption ruling with the execution of convicted murderer Charles Brooks Jr., who also served as the first person to be executed via lethal injection.

Charles Brooks Jr. (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 1982)

Since then, 583 Texans have been executed, resecuring Texas's place as having the highest number of executions in the U.S. The state peaked in 2000, with 40 prisoners executed. The state's death row population ranks third in the country, with 184 prisoners currently incarcerated. As of March 2023, five people have been euthanized.

Former Texas governor Rick Perry (2001 - 2014) additionally leads the nation in granting more executions than any other governor in U.S. history; under his administration, 279 Texans were put to death.

Rick Perry feat. 5 men executed under his admin

Harris County, the most populated county in Texas, currently accounts for 133 executions. Dallas County follows with 63, Bexar with 46, and Tarrant with 45. 

The Methods

Hanging 1819 - 1923

Electric Chair 1923 - 1964 

"Old Sparky" Texas Prison Museum, Huntsville, TX

Moratorium 1964 - 1982

Lethal Injection 1982 - today

Cases of Wrongful Executions

reasonable doubt (n.) - insufficient evidence that prevents a judge or jury from convicting a defendant of a crime

One of the most prominent arguments against the death penalty is the common lack of reasonable doubt. In fact, since 1973, 190 death row (DR) inmates have been exonerated in the U.S., 16 of which were from Texas alone.

The Stats (TX)

68.9% include official misconduct

67.9% include false accusations/perjury

32.6% include false/misleading forensic evidence

16.8% include false confessions

82.8% of cases in which DNA evidence proved a DR inmate's innocence include misconduct

Why is this important? Because it suggests that the denial of DNA testing and/or the absence of DNA evidence will result in wrongful convictions.

In a report conducted by the Texas Defender Service, 84 cases were found "in which a Texas prosecutor or police officer deliberately presented false or misleading testimony, concealed exculpatory evidence, or used notoriously unreliable evidence from a jailhouse informant" (Death Penalty Information Center). The full report can be found here:

https://www.texasdefender.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/TDS-2001-State-of-Denial.pdf 

The Executed Innocents

Carlos DeLuna, 1983 & 1985

Who: Carlos DeLuna

Accused of: capital murder and attempted rape of 24-year old Wanda Lopez, 1983

Executed: December 7, 1989

Innocent: DeLuna claimed that he had been at a bar with a violent criminal, Carlos Hernandez, the night of the murder. When Hernandez did not return from a trip to the gas station, DeLuna found him wrestling with the victim, so he ran in fear. Police claimed Hernandez did not exist, neglected to collect any blood samples, and received an inaccurate eyewitness testimony. Four years after his execution, a private investigator found the existence of Hernandez within 24 hours of searching. Hernandez confessed multiple times, but died in prison after being arrested for assaulting somebody with a knife.

Larry Swearingen, John Shapley, 2019

Who: Larry Swearingen

Accused of: capital murder of 19-year old Melissa Aline Trotter, 1999

Executed: August 21, 2019

Innocent: Swearingen, a married man in 1999, according to him and eyewitness testimonies, left a study session with Trotter, and she was later seen with a different man. She then went missing, and her body was found less than a month later. Swearingen's defense attorneys argued for two decades that multiple factors ensured his innocence, including DNA under Trotter's fingernails that weren't Swearingen's and pantyhose around her neck that could not be connected to Swearingen despite prosecutors' claims.

NOTE: In the cases of DeLuna and Swearingen, neither have been granted certificates of innocence. Their cases are simply examples of how misconduct and other factors do not allow a conviction without reasonable doubt.

Other cases of potentially wrongful executions in the state of Texas:

Ruben Cantu https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence/executed-but-possibly-innocent#Ruben_Cantu

Gary Graham https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence/executed-but-possibly-innocent#Gary_Graham

Claude Jones https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence/executed-but-possibly-innocent#Claude_Jones

Cameron Todd Willingham https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/innocence/executed-but-possibly-innocent#Cameron_Willingham

Racial & Economic Biases

 Throughout U.S. history, Black and Latinx people have been disproportionately arrested and convicted of crimes compared to non-BIPOC. On average, Black and Latinx people are more likely, nationwide, to be wrongfully convicted, and take longer than normal to receive exonerations.

Currently, according to the TX Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), Black people make up 45.1% of death row, and Hispanic/Latinx people make up 26.6%, whereas white people only make up 25.5%. This is disproportionate to the Black population in Texas being 3.5 million people, Hispanic/Latinx being 11.3 million people, and white being 19.8 people.

Since 2018, over 70% of death sentences have been imposed on people of color.

white victims amplify odds of a death penalty, Mark Moran

“Racial disparities are present at every stage of a capital case and get magnified as a case moves through the legal process. If you don’t understand the history — that the modern death penalty is the direct descendant of slavery, lynching, and Jim Crow-segregation — you won’t understand why. With the continuing police and white vigilante killings of Black citizens, it is even more important now to focus attention on the outsized role the death penalty plays as an agent and validator of racial discrimination. What is broken or intentionally discriminatory in the criminal legal system is visibly worse in death-penalty cases. Exposing how the system discriminates in capital cases can shine an important light on law enforcement and judicial practices in vital need of abolition, restructuring, or reform.” - DPIC Executive Director, Robert Dunham

Defective Methods: Expired Drugs

 After a botched Oklahoma execution utilizing three drugs that had not been tested when blended that left the prisoner dead from a heart attack 43 minutes after administration, the U.S. decided that only one drug was to be used for executions: Pentobarbital (PB).

protocol requires inmates to be injected with 5g of PB

Though effective when used thus far in Texan executions, Texas has been found recently to have used mislabeled and/or expired drugs due to a shortage in pharmacies willing to provide them the narcotic. They have been proven to extend use-by dates after retesting the potency levels. Multiple attorneys have argued that this testing is done incorrectly and is not worth the painful deaths that would violate the U.S. Constitution's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. (See 8th Amendment Violation post).

 Currently, there have been seven reported doses of PB in the TDCJ's stock that were originally set to expire two to three years ago.

Just this past January, a DR inmate named Robert Fratta was executed for the 1994 hit on his estranged wife, Farah Fratta. His death comes after multiple pleas with the courts for a stay of execution because of the allegations against the state for permitting relabeling expired Pentobarbital. 

Robert Fratta, The Houston Chronicle, 1995

After an emergency hearing, Travis County District Judge Catherine Mauzy issued a temporary injunction, claiming that the TDCJ's PB stock is "probably illegal to possess or administer because it is more likely than not expired" (The Texas Tribune). The concern stems from expired PB having the potential to cause "torture, ill treatment, or unnecessary pain."

Mauzy was overruled by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals due to her lack of jurisdiction, and Fratta was pronounced dead 24 minutes after the administration of the drug.

8th Amendment Violation

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted - 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution

cruel and unusual punishment (n.) - punishment that is considered unacceptable due to the suffering, pain, or humiliation it inflicts on the person subject to the sanction

Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 The Supreme Court rules that "the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty...constitutes cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the 8th and 14th amendments."

This 1972 case ended with a requirement of the two-stage trial procedure. The defendant is to be found guilty or innocent at the first trial, and, if found guilty, the next rial will consist of finding whether or not the defendant should be executed, while taking into account mitigating circumstances. Executions were halted nationwide.

Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 The Supreme Court rules that newly implemented death penalty statutes, such as the two-stage trial procedure, contained "objective standards to guide, regularize, and make rationally reviewable the process for imposing the sentence of death." 

Executions resumed federally in 1977.

Steve Benson, The Republic

One of the main arguments supporting the death penalty being a violation of the 8th amendment claims that the United States is the only western industrialized country that regularly administers executions. This distinction indicates that all other western industrialized nations either consider capital punishment to be cruel and unusual or do not regularly wish to participate in the practice, despite its legality.

Questions to Consider

Do you believe that it matters whether or not there is reasonable doubt in a death penalty case if the prosecutors were able to convince the jury of the defendant's guilt? Why or why not?

Do you think it is ethical of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to relabel and administer expired drugs, as long as they are retested for potency? If so, what are some policies that could be enacted to ensure that this testing is done accurately?

Daniel Lopez, Texas Observer, 2015

Do you find capital punishment to be cruel and unusual punishment, or has it been regulated enough to where it does not fall under the criteria listed in the 8th amendment?

What do you think is a more effective and just punishment for a criminal convicted of murder, or another similar crime: capital punishment or life in prison?

Bibliography

activists protesting the death penalty in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, 2017

 All sources were accessed within the month of March, 2023.

“A State of Denial: Texas Justice and the Death Penalty.” Texas Defender Service, TDS, 2001, https://www.texasdefender.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/TDS-2001-State-of-Denial.pdf.

Carson, David. “History of the Death Penalty in Texas.” Texas Execution Information Center, TEIC, https://www.txexecutions.org/history.asp.

“DPIC Special Report: The Innocence Epidemic.” Death Penalty Information Center, DPIC, 18 Feb. 2021, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/dpic-reports/dpic-special-reports/dpic-special-report-the-innocence-epidemic.

Gross, Samuel R, et al. “Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States.” University of Michigan Law, National Registry of Exonerations, Sept. 2022, https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/Documents/Race%20Report%20Preview.pdf.

Jackman, Tom. “Larry Swearingen, Who Claimed Science Excluded Him as Killer, Is Executed by Texas.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 22 Aug. 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/crime-law/2019/08/22/larry-swearingen-claimed-science-excluded-him-killer-is-executed-by-texas/.

McCullough, Jolie. “Texas Executes Robert Fratta after High Courts Reject Challenges to Expired Lethal Injection Drugs.” The Texas Tribune, The Texas Tribune, 10 Jan. 2023, https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/10/texas-robert-fratta-execution-expired-drugs/.

Ndulue, Ngozi. “Enduring Injustice: The Persistence of Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Death Penalty.” Death Penalty Information Center, DPIC, Sept. 2020, https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/facts-and-research/dpic-reports/in-depth/enduring-injustice-the-persistence-of-racial-discrimination-in-the-u-s-death-penalty.

“Texas Death Penalty Facts.” Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, TCADP, 2023, https://tcadp.org/get-informed/texas-death-penalty-facts/#:~:text=The%20State%20of%20Texas%20has,death%20to%20date%20in%202023.