Capital punishment in Texas
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who is at least 18 years old.
The last hanging in the state was that of Nathan Lee, a man convicted of murder and executed in Angleton, Brazoria County, Texas on August 31, 1923.
[5] The only other method used at the time was execution by firing squad, which was used for three Confederate deserters during the American Civil War, as well as a man convicted of attempted rape in 1863.
The first executions on the electric chair were on February 8, 1924, when Charles Reynolds, Ewell Morris, Harris Washington, Haden Cochran, and Melvin Johnson had their death sentences carried out.
The United States Supreme Court decision in Furman v. Georgia (408 U.S. 238 (1972)), which declared Georgia's "unitary trial" procedure (in which the jury was asked to return a verdict of guilt or innocence and, simultaneously, determine whether the defendant would be punished by death or life imprisonment) to be unconstitutional, on the grounds that it was a cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, essentially negated all death penalty sentences nationwide.
As result of the Furman decision, the 52 Texas death-row inmates at the time had all of their sentences reduced to life imprisonment.
[9] Furman led to a 1973 revision of the laws, primarily by introducing the bifurcated trial process (where the guilt-innocence and punishment phases are separate), and narrowly limited the legal definition of capital murder (and, thus, those offenses for which the death penalty could be imposed).
(Jurek was a companion case in the Gregg decision, and was upheld by the Court; the Court stated that Texas' death penalty scheme could potentially result in fewer death penalty cases, an irony given that post-Gregg Texas has by far executed more inmates than any other state.)
In 2005, the state of Texas passed a law allowing life imprisonment without parole as an option for capital cases.
Rose Calahan of Texas Monthly stated that by that year, the death penalty became less of a wedge issue in politics.
Under Texas law, offenders under 17 are not executed,[22] but the US Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons has ruled capital punishment to be unconstitutional for those under 18 when the crime was committed.
Additionally, the death penalty cannot be sought at all on a capital murder charge if the aggravating factor was a single victim that was older than 10 but younger than 15.
In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued—even if only a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial).
[26] Texas's appeal process has been criticized as too lengthy compared to other states, such as Virginia, by death penalty supporters.
[34] All death row inmates at the Polunsky and O'Daniel units are physically segregated from the general population, are housed in individual cells approximately 60 square feet (5.6 m2) in size, and engage in recreational activities in a cage individually, separate from the general population and other death row inmates.
The TDCJ makes death row prisoners wear various restraints, including belly chains and leg irons, while being transported.
[51] Upon arrival at the Huntsville Unit, the condemned is led through a back gate, submits to a cavity search, then is placed in a holding cell adjacent to the execution chamber.
[52] However, Lawrence Russel Brewer, a white supremacist gang member convicted for the high-profile hate crime dragging death of James Byrd Jr., ordered a large last meal, and did not eat it before his execution in September 2011.
[53] However, Whitmire warned in a letter that he would seek formal state legislation when lawmakers next convened if the "last meal" tradition was not discontinued immediately.
Under Texas law, executions are carried out at or after 6:00 p.m. Huntsville (Central) time “by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death, and until such convict is dead.”[56] The law does not specify the substance(s) to be used; previously, according to the TDCJ, the chemicals used for the lethal injection were the commonly-used three-drug combination of (in order): sodium thiopental (a dose which sedates the offender, but not enough to kill outright), pancuronium bromide (a muscle relaxant which collapses the diaphragm and lungs), and potassium chloride (which stops the heartbeat).
[58] Still, further shortages of pancuronium bromide (and the expiration of the existing stock) forced the state into switching to a single-drug protocol, using solely pentobarbital.
[62] Upon the offender's death, the body shall be immediately embalmed, and shall be disposed of as follows:[64] The TDCJ keeps an online record of all of its executions, including race, age, county of origin, and last words.
In 2004, TCADP opened a state office in Austin with a paid program coordinator, and subsequently hired an executive director in 2008.
Through a variety of non-violent strategies, they have begun launching protests against the perceived bad conditions at Polunsky, in particular, and capital punishment, in general.
They actively seek to consistently voice complaints to the administration, in order to organize grievance filing to address problems.
They occupy day rooms, non-violently refuse to evacuate their cells, or initiate sit-ins in visiting rooms, hallways, pod runs, and recreation yards when there is the perception of an act of abuse of authority by guards (verbal abuse; physical abuse; meals/recreations or showers being wrongly denied; unsanitary day rooms and showers being allowed to persist; medical being denied; paper work being denied; refusing to contact higher rank to address the problems and complaints), and when alleged retaliation (thefts, denials, destruction of property; food restrictions; wrongful denials of visits; abuse of inmates) is carried out in response to their grievances.
[72] One notable case involves Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed by lethal injection on February 17, 2004, for murdering his three daughters in 1991 by arson, but where a 2009 article in The New Yorker, and subsequent findings, have cast doubt on the evidence used in his conviction.
He stated that court records showed evidence of Willingham's guilt in charges that he intentionally killed his daughters in the fire.
An investigation published by the Columbia Human Rights Law Review in May 2012 has strengthened these claims of innocence, by detailing a large amount of evidence suggesting the actual murderer was Carlos Hernandez, a similar-looking man who lived in a nearby neighborhood.
In 2004, after DNA-analyses, Leoncio Perez Rueda was found to be the murderer of Narnie Box Bryson, who was killed four months before Sister Benz.
