The StandDown Texas Project

ProPublica on the State of Lethal Injection

ProPublica posts, "A Prolonged Stay: The Reasons Behind the Slow Pace of Executions," by Raymond Bonner. He's the author of the 2012 book, Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong.  This extensive report is a must-read.  Here's the beginning:

States that impose the death penalty have been facing a crisis in recent years: They are short on the drugs used in executions.

In California, which has the country's largest death row population, the chief justice of the state supreme court has said there are unlikely to be any executions for three years, in part due to the shortage of appropriate lethal drugs. As a result, state prosecutors are calling for a return of the gas chamber.

Ohio, which is second only to Texas in the number of executions carried out since 2010, said it will run out of the drug it uses in executions, pentobarbital, on Sept. 30. The state has two men scheduled for execution in November, and eight more set to be killed after that. Every state's supply of pentotbarbital, which has been the principal execution drug, expires at the end of November.

The shortage has forced death penalty states to scramble on two fronts: They are hunting for new suppliers or different drugs to use, and enacting changes to public records laws to keep the names of suppliers and manufacturers of those alternative drugs secret.

The lack of lethal drugs, and the fight over keeping new ones secret, are partly the result of a remarkably effective campaign by opponents of the death penalty, who have, in effect, taken their efforts from the court room to the boardroom.

Earlier coverage of the availability of lethal injection drugs begins at the link.  Related posts are in the lethal injection and international category indexes.

 Notable posts include:

• The Arkansas Lethal Injection Drugs
• Scott Christianson on a California Legislator's Push to Bring Back Gas
• Nebraska Lethal Injection Drug News
• Georgia Lethal Injection Drug Legislation
• News Coverage of DC Court of Appeals Oral Arguments
• Drugmaker to Block Sales of Propofol for Use in Executions
• Ohio Executes & Steps Up Search for Pentobarbital
• More on the Georgia Lethal Injection Drug Supply
• European Concerns Over Drugs Used in Lethal Injection Executions

Texas Execution Date Withdrawn for DNA Testing

The Austin Chronicle posts, "Pruett Gets 60-Day Delay Pending DNA Testing," by Jordan Smith.

According to the state of Texas, on Dec. 17, 1999, Robert Pruett, 20, took a sharpened metal rod wrapped with tape and stabbed prison guard Daniel Nagle eight times, prompting a heart attack that killed the guard. Pruett then took a disciplinary complaint that Nagle had just written concerning Pruett's behavior that afternoon – he'd tried to take a sack lunch in the recreation yard, a violation of rules – and tore it up, discarding the pieces next to the guard's body.

At the time of Nagle's death, Pruett was already serving a 99-year sentence in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's McCon­nell Unit in Beeville for murder; at 16 he'd been certified to stand trial as an adult for his role in the beating and stabbing death by Pruett's father of a neighbor in the Harris County trailer park where they lived. Given his record, it's little wonder that a jury in 2002 sentenced Pruett to die for Nagle's murder.

But his execution, initially slated for May 21, last week was postponed for 60 days pending the outcome of agreed-to DNA testing that could demonstrate Pruett was not responsible for Nagle's death. Pruett has maintained his innocence, and his lawyer, David Dow, founder and co-director of the Texas Innocence Network at the University of Houston Law Center, is seeking to test pieces of the ripped-up disciplinary form to see if Pruett's DNA, or that of someone else, is on the paper. "DNA testing could corroborate [Pruett's] claim of innocence while also identifying the actual perpetrator of the murder," Dow wrote in a motion filed May 9. He notes that a palm print found on the paper was not a match to Pruett, and blood found on the pieces matched Nagle and "no other DNA profiles were developed from the report," he wrote.

"State judge delays execution set for next week," is the AP coverage, via the Baytown Sun.

A state district judge has put off next week's scheduled execution of a Texas inmate condemned for the slaying of a corrections officer at a South Texas prison in 1999.

Robert Pruett faced lethal injection May 21 for the fatal stabbing of Dan Nagle, a corrections officer at the McConnell Unit prison near Beeville. Attorneys for Pruett want additional DNA testing in his case. Prosecutors agreed to a 60-day delay.

State District Judge Ronald Yeager in Bee County on Tuesday formally withdrew next week's execution date. The judge also set a hearing for June 3 to address questions about the forensic testing and a new execution setting.

Related posts are in the DNA category index.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its sixth execution of 2013, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 498th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 259th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Houston man’s execution is sixth so far this year," is Michael Graczyk's AP report, via the Austin American-Statesman.

A Houston man condemned for killing a police officer during a car theft arrest 14 years ago was put to death Wednesday after his last-day appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed.

Jeffrey Demond Williams, 37, became the sixth Texas inmate executed by lethal injection this year.

To date, there have been 12 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,332 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, nine additional execution dates have been set for 2013.

Earlier coverage of Jeffrey Williams' case begins at the link.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Wednesday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its sixth execution of 2013, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 498th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 259th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Texas to execute man for Houston officer’s slaying," is the AP filing, via the Longview News-Journal.

When Houston police arrested Jeffrey Demond Williams for gunning down a plainclothes officer working an auto theft assignment, the slain officer’s handcuffs dangled from one of Williams’ wrists.

And:

Attorneys for Williams appealed Tuesday to the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, after lower courts refused to do so. They contend that he received poor legal help in earlier appeals, and that those lawyers should have argued that his trial lawyers had failed him. The trial lawyers should have provided jurors with more than superficial mitigating evidence of Williams’ mental impairment to show he did not deserve a death sentence, they said.

“There is a reasonable probability, but for trial counsel’s unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different,” attorney Jonathan Sheldon told the high court.

Earlier coverage of Jeffrey Williams' case begins at the link.

To date, there have been 11 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,331 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

According to TDCJ, nine additional execution dates have been set for 2013.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its fifth execution of 2013, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 497th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 258th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most  active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the   executions in America's death  penalty states.

"Waco Drug Dealer Executed by Lethal Injection," is the AP report via KXXV-TV.

A Texas death row inmate convicted of killing a fellow drug dealer while robbing him outside of a Waco convenience store 10 years ago was executed Tuesday evening.

In the seconds before being injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital, Carroll Joe Parr told his victim's wife she should talk to her brother to learn "the truth about what happened to your husband."

To date, there have been 11 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,331 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, 10 additional execution dates have been set for  2013.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Tuesday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its fifth execution of 2013, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 497th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 258th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

'Waco robbery-drug deal gunman Carroll Parr set to die Tuesday by lethal injection," is the AP report, via KTRK-TV.

Attorneys for Parr last week argued unsuccessfully in state courts and to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that a witness at Parr's 2004 trial had provided an affidavit saying his testimony was false and that he'd been encouraged by McLennan County prosecutors to testify falsely. Trial prosecutors denied the accusations and said the witness' retraction wasn't credible.

The 5th Circuit last year rejected another appeal from Parr, and the U.S. Supreme Court in January refused to review his case.

To date, there have been 10 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,330 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

According to TDCJ, 10 additional execution dates have been set for 2013.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its fourth execution of 2013, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 496th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 257th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Inmate executed for 2002 slaying," is the AP report on the execution of Richard Cobb.  It's written by Michael Graczyk, via the Austin American-Statesman.

To date, there have been nine executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,329 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, 11 additional execution dates have been set for 2013, including five scheduled in the next five weeks. More will be added.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Thursday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its fourth execution of 2013, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 496th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 257th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Despite prosecutor's deal with snitch, Cobb loses appeals," is Jordan Smith's report for the Austin Chronicle on the case of Richard Cobb.

Richard Cobb was just 18 when he and a friend, 19-year-old Beunka Adams, robbed the B-D-J's convenience store in Rusk, taking two female clerks and a customer hostage. The pair drove the three hostages to a nearby field known as the "pea patch," raped one of the clerks, and tied up all three. Cobb shot the customer, Kenneth Vandever, killing him; either Cobb or Adams – it remains unclear which – shot each of the clerks. Both were wounded, faked death, and ultimately survived. The murderous pair was turned in to police by Adams' cousin a day after the crime; the state sought, and obtained, a death sentence for each defendant.

On April 25 the state intends to execute Cobb – almost a year to the day after it carried out the death sentence on his accomplice, Adams. If the schedule remains on track, Cobb would be the 497th inmate put to death in Texas since 1982.

To date, there have been eight executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,328 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), tonight.

According to TDCJ, 11 additional execution dates have been set for 2013, including five scheduled in the next five weeks. More will be added.

Continued Controversy over Texas Mental Retardation Evaluations

The cover article of this week's Austin Chronicle is, "Smart Enough to Die," by Jordan Smith.It concerns Texas death row inmate Elroy Chester.  Here's an excerpt from this must-read:

When he was arrested, Chester confessed to Ryman's murder and to assaulting Erin and Claire in addition to a host of other crimes. Ultimately, he pleaded guilty to capital murder in connection with Ryman's death, forgoing a trial and instead leaving only his fate – death or, at the time, life in prison with the (very unlikely) possibility of parole – in the hands of a jury.

To say that Chester was a difficult client to defend would be an understatement; transcripts from the sentencing hearing reflect that Chester had little, if any, rapport with his defense counsel. Against the advice of his attorney, Chester opted to testify on his own behalf, delivering a rambling and inflammatory rant wherein he claimed variously that he hadn't acted alone in committing his many crimes, and that if sentenced to death he would have his "homeboys" on the outside commit additional crimes in his honor, and that he should've killed additional victims – including a 10-year-old who had survived his attack, and a police officer who had previously arrested him for burglary. He refused to allow his attorneys to present any witnesses that might help mitigate his culpability, says attorney Susan Orlansky, pro bono counsel from an Alaskan law firm, who currently represents him. "He doesn't get what's important," she says of Chester's ability in 1998 to grasp the gravity of his legal situation. "He tells his lawyer not to put on a mitigating case."

And that is a key issue, because Chester is mentally retarded, says Orlansky, a circumstance that should make him ineligible for execution, based on a 2002 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court barring execution of the mentally impaired as cruel and unusual punishment. "He has a compelling case for mental retardation," she says. "I think the evidence is, essentially, undisputed." (Although the term "mentally retarded" is steadily being replaced by "intellectually disabled" in the general lexicon, it remains the standard term in matters of criminal liability.)

Chester repeatedly scored below 70 on IQ tests – the generally accepted upper limit for mental impairment; spent almost his entire childhood in special education classes; never learned to read, to shop or cook, or to live on his own, or even to distinguish among colors, according to court testimony; and was placed in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Mentally Retarded Offenders Program during his previous stays in the pen. Nonetheless, the courts have repeatedly determined that Chester has not proven he is mentally retarded, and is thus eligible for execution – a sentence the state intends to carry out on April 24.

Elroy's execution date has been rescheduled, too late for the Chronicle's print deadline.  "Elroy Chester execution date moved to June," is the Port Arthur News report by Mary Meaux.

The execution date for Port Arthur mass murderer Elroy Chester has been pushed back 60 days.

Chester was scheduled for execution April 24. His new date is June 12, Waylon Thompson, with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office, said.

Thompson said the reason for the delay was due to a paperwork issue. A new transfer order and death warrant have been issued and the Attorney General’s office as well as other parties involved are agreeable with.

Earlier coverage of Texas' process for examining claims of mental retardation begins at the link.  Related posts are in the mental retardation category index.

As Jordan points out in her article, mental retardation is now generally referred to as a developmental or intellectual disability.  Because MR has a specific meaning with respect to capital cases, I continue to use the older term at this website. More on Atkins v. Virginia, the Supreme Court's 2002 ruling banning the execution of those with mental retardation, is via Oyez.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its third execution of 2013, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 495th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 256th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Convicted killer's last words before execution: 'I'm ready. Let's go'," is the AP report filed by Michael Graczyk.  It's via KHOU-TV.

A North Texas man was executed Tuesday evening for fatally shooting a teenager during a carjacking outside a nightclub 12 years ago.

Ronnie Threadgill, 40, received lethal injection in Huntsville less than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a last-day appeal.

To date, there have been eight executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,328 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, 10 additional execution dates have been set for 2013, including five scheduled in the next five weeks. More will be added.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Tuesday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its third execution of 2013, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 495th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 256th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Ronnie Threadgill Files Last Appeal to Supremes," is Jordan Smith's Austin Chronicle report.

At issue is whether his trial attorney – and then the state habeas attorney – rendered ineffective assistance of counsel on several counts: by failing to ask the court for jurors to be given the option of convicting Threadgill on the lesser charge of felony murder (attempting to commit one crime and engaging in a dangerous act that causes someone to lose life; unlike capital murder, there is no intent to kill in felony murder) and by failing to thoroughly investigate a previous shooting case out of Limestone County. In order to prove Threadgill would remain a future danger unless sentenced to death, prosecutors brought a host of evidence about his past. Indeed, at the time of the McDonald killing, Threadgill, then 29, had spent almost all of his adult life in prison; among the bad acts prosecutors used as evidence against him was an allegation that he had shot a man named Erik Martin in a previous and unrelated incident in another county. What Thread­gill's defense apparently did not find out was that those Limestone County charges had been dropped after prosecutors found that there was "conflicting evidence" in the case.

Threadgill's claims were ultimately shot down, however, because they had not been raised in his first appeal. And on April 3, the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected his most recent appeal, which argued that the state habeas attorney was also ineffective for not calling into question the efficacy of the trial counsel. Whether these specific types of appeals can be made in Texas is actually the subject of a pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court, styled Trevino v. Thaler. The Fifth Circuit last week declined to stay Threadgill's execution, however, arguing that regardless of the outcome of the Trevino case, Threadgill is procedurally barred from having his claim heard. Threadgill's attorney, Lydia Brandt, is appealing that decision to the Supremes; at press time, a decision in the case was still pending.

To date, there have been seven executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,327 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), Tuesday.

According to TDCJ, 10 additional execution dates have been set for 2013, including five scheduled in the next five weeks. More will be added.

Jacquielynn Floyd on Texas' Death Penalty Machine

Dallas Morning News Columnist Jacquielynn Floyd writes, "After nearly 500 Texas executions, we have to keep questioning death penalty."

We’ll hear a lot in the weeks to come about the nation’s “busiest death chamber” on Texas death row. We’re all drawn to milestones, and the state is approaching a big one.

Sometime next month, Texas will execute its 500th inmate in the three decades since it reinstated the death penalty and ushered in the modern era of capital punishment.

Because of delays and appeals, the scheduled execution lineup changes frequently.

The current list maintained by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice indicates that No. 500 will be a 33-year-old named Robert Pruett. He was already serving a life sentence for a Harris County murder when he was convicted of fatally stabbing a prison guard with a sharpened steel bar.

There is little to separate Pruett from the sad parade of vicious screwups, drifters and sociopaths who have preceded him. That is, apart from his comparative youth — he was 16 when he was certified to stand trial as an adult on the original murder beef — and the fact that, based on his self-serving prison musings published online, he’s an unusually lucid writer.

Whether it’s Pruett or some other inmate, No. 500 will inevitably become a symbol for the emotionally and politically vehement debate over capital punishment.

TDCJ's list of scheduled executions, which are set by state district courts, is at its website.

 

Texas Execution

Texas conducted its second execution of 2013, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 494th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 255th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

Reuters posts, "Texas executes inmate convicted in 1990 murder and rape," by Corrie MacLaggan.

Texas executed a convicted murderer on Tuesday by lethal injection for killing a man then raping the victim's fiancée, even as he maintained to the end that he was "not a killer," according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Eleven other convicts are scheduled to be executed before the end of July in Texas, which has put to death more people than any other U.S. state since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Last year, it executed 15 people.

Rickey Lewis was convicted of shooting to death George Newman, 45, in 1990 while burglarizing Newman's home in East Texas.

"Texas executes man for 1990 fatal shooting, rape in Smith County," is the AP report, via the Dallas Morning News.

As the drug began taking effect, he said he could feel it “burning my arm.”

“I feel it in my throat. I’m getting dizzy,” Lewis said before he started to snore and, seconds later, lost consciousness.

He was pronounced dead 14 minutes after the lethal dose began.

To date, there have been six executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,326 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, 11 additional execution dates have been set for 2013, including six scheduled in the next six weeks. More will be added.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Tuesday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its second execution of 2013, Thursday night in Huntsville.  It would be the 494th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 255th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Tyler man set to be second execution of year in Texas," is the AP report filed by Michael Graczyk.  It's via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

A Tyler man convicted of fatally shooting a man and afterward raping his fiancee while accomplices stole items from the couple's house is set for execution tonight.

When he was arrested for the slaying in Smith County, Rickey Lynn Lewis had been in and out of Texas prisons five times in fewer than seven years and had been paroled six months earlier from his third burglary conviction.

On Tuesday, Lewis, 50, of Tyler is scheduled to become the second man executed in Texas this year. Three more are scheduled later this month in the nation's most active death penalty state.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Friday rejected a clemency petition for Lewis, and the U.S. Supreme Court a week ago refused to review Lewis' case.

"I think at this point we're out of options," said Lewis' attorney, Seth Kretzer.

To date, there have been five executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,325 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CDT), Tuesday.

According to TDCJ, 11 additional execution dates have been set for 2013, including six scheduled in the next six weeks. More will be added.

The Death Penalty Has a Face: A DA’s Personal Story

That's the title of a powerful Texas Monthly essay written by Tim Cole, a Texas prosecutor who served four terms as an elected district attorney.  It's subtitled, "During my years as a district attorney, I have sought the death penalty. But does the state need to take a life to make a point?" 

Here's the beginning:

I remember feeling a little nervous when the heavy door leading to Death Row clanged shut behind me. I didn’t really know what I would see. Having never walked the concrete corridors of a Texas prison, or any other for that matter, I didn't know at the time that it was very much the same as any other cell block. Inmates stepped aside as we passed, eyes down, in their place behind a yellow line painted along the edge of the floor. I assumed it was prison protocol for any "suits” on the unit—outsiders important enough to be escorted through the cell block by an assistant warden. But I never asked.

It was the fall of 1990. Barely two years after graduating from law school I fell into a position as criminal law advisor and counsel to Governor William Clements as he neared the end of his last term in the office. Even though I never met the governor during the six months of my employment, I thought the position would fit nicely into my plan to return to my North Texas hometown in Montague County to run for district attorney. I was 31—and ambitious. I had been sent to Huntsville as the governor’s representative to witness a scheduled execution, but it was delayed. As we waited, the warden was more than pleased to show me around. I was “with the governor’s office.” Technically, almost his boss. Or close enough to make him very accommodating.  The red carpet treatment was a bit heady. The respect was more for the office than me, but it had its perks. Visiting the country’s—maybe the world’s—most active death chamber was one. It should have been a solemn occasion, but to be honest I recall very little of it. Except the part where I visited Death Row.

Near the end of the tour I mentioned to the warden that I actually knew someone on the Row: Clifford Holt Boggess, who was condemned to death for the murder of Frank Collier in July, 1986. I grew up in Saint Jo, a small North Texas town close to the Oklahoma border where Collier ran an old-fashioned family grocery store. It’s one of those places where everyone knows each other, and though I was a few years older than Boggess, I knew him. I knew his family. He knew mine. I probably had been in his home at some point as a child. At one point Boggess had worked a part-time high school job at the local newspaper owned and operated by my family. I never thought much about him after that. Until he murdered Collier and another man in nearby Grayson County in a three-week span of violence and became the only person in the modern era of the state's death penalty from Montague County to be sentenced to die.

Texas & Georgia Execute - Updated

Texas carried out its first execution of 2013, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 493rd post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 254th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

Reuters posts, "Georgia, Texas execute inmates for 1990s' murders," by Corrie MacLaggan and David Beasley.  It's via the Chicago Tribune.

A man convicted of killing his former girlfriend by dousing her with gasoline and setting her on fire was put to death by lethal injection in Texas on Thursday, the state's first execution of the year.

In Georgia, a man convicted of fatally shooting two university students in 1995 was executed after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his last-minute appeal.

Carl Henry Blue, 48, was pronounced dead at 6:56 p.m. local time at the state penitentiary at Huntsville, said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

France has issued a diplomatic communique on the execution of Blue:

France condemns the execution of Carl Blue in the state of Texas, in the United States, on February 21. With 15 prisoners executed in 2012 and 493 executions since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, Texas is responsible for more than a third of executions in the United States.

France reaffirms its constant opposition to the death penalty everywhere and under all circumstances. This is the thrust of the campaign for the universal abolition of the death penalty, launched on October 9, 2012. Our diplomatic network is fully committed to this priority, wherever the death penalty continues to be applied. France urges the Texas authorities to put an end to the executions, to observe a moratorium and to initiate a debate on the abolition of the death penalty.

"Georgia executes Andrew Cook," is by Rhonda Cook in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Andrew Cook was executed Thursday, 18 years after he randomly shot two Mercer University students who were parked at Lake Juliette in Monroe County as they were enjoying the view.

He was pronounced dead at 11:22 p.m. Cook’s final words were apologies to his family and the families of the victims.

Cook was the first person Georgia has executed using a single massive dose of a sedative instead of a series of three drugs that had been used to execute 29 other men.

His death came after the U.S. Supreme Court had considered his plea for mercy for almost five hours. The appeal was sent to the high court before 6 p.m., an hour before his scheduled execution.

To date, there have been three executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,323 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, 11 additional execution dates have been set for 2013, including six in March. More will be added.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Thursday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its first execution of 2013, Thursday night in Huntsville.  It would be the 493rd post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 254th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

Reuters posts, "Texas to execute man for 1994 fire killing of ex-girlfriend,"by Corrie MacLaggan.  It's via the Chicago Tribune.

The state of Texas was due to execute a man on Thursday for killing his former girlfriend in 1994 by dousing her with gasoline and setting her on fire.

Carl Henry Blue, 48, was scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection on Thursday night unless a court intervened to grant a stay of his execution.

To date, there has been one execution in an American death penalty state this year; a total of 1,321 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Tuesday.

According to TDCJ, 11 additional execution dates have been set for 2013, including six in March. More will be added.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Tuesday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its first execution of 2013, Tuesday night in Huntsville.  It would be the 493rd post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 254th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Woman set to die for 1997 Lancaster murder loses clemency bid," is the Dallas Morning News report.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has unanimously refused a clemency request from a Dallas County woman set to die next week for the slaying and robbery of a retired 71-year-old college psychology professor at her home.

Attorneys for Kimberly McCarthy had sought a 120-day reprieve from her scheduled Tuesday execution and that her sentence be commuted to life in prison.

The seven-member board Friday turned her down.

And:

McCarthy would be the fourth woman executed in Texas in modern times.

To date, there has been one execution in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,321 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Tuesday.

According to TDCJ, seven additional execution dates have been set for 2013. More will be added.

David Protess on Texas Executions

"A Busy Year for the Texas Executioner, but Hank Skinner Eludes Death Again," is David Protess' latest essay at Huffington Post.  He's President of the Chicago Innocence Project.  Here's the beginning:

In the spirit of the holidays, Texas is taking a break from lethally injecting the residents of the Allan B. Polunksy Unit, better known as death row.

Executioners need time off, too, especially after a busy year that reduced the surplus population by 14 -- six executions ahead of its nearest rival, Oklahoma, and one-third of the total state-sponsored killings in 2012.

The Texas killing fields ended in controversy a week before Thanksgiving when Preston Hughes was executed despite compelling evidence of his innocence. Texas will officially welcome in the New Year when Kimberly McCarthy becomes the first woman put to death in two years, barring an unforeseen stay.

Of the 17 executions planned for 2013, eight will be in Texas. And, if Texas has its way, one of the newly departed will be Henry Watkins Skinner, a/k/a "Hank."

Executing Hank Skinner has presented a surprisingly stubborn challenge for Texas lawmen. Convicted of brutally slaying his live-in girlfriend and her two adult sons on New Year's Eve in 1993, physical evidence proved that Skinner was in the home at the time of the crime. Then he showed up, wearing bloodstained clothes, at a neighbor's residence and allegedly threatened her if she called the cops. A Panhandle jury did not take long to find him guilty and recommend the ultimate punishment.

Yet, on death row for 18 Christmases, Skinner has outlived more than 400 condemned men and women. How? Turns out the evidence was not what it seemed.

Earlier coverage of Hank Skinner's case begins at the link.

Texas Capital Case on Hold Over Jury Instruction

Today's Bryan-College Station Eagle reports, "Attorneys make case to appeals court in murder trial."  It's by Maggie Kiely.

The capital murder trial of John Ray Falk Jr. remained on standby Monday as attorneys awaited a ruling from the 10th Court of Appeals on a rarely used request from prosecutors filed last week. State attorneys asked the appeals court to instruct District Judge Ken Keeling to change wording in the court's charge that they contend puts them at an unfair advantage. The motion was filed with an emergency stay of proceedings that was granted last Tuesday, the morning closing arguments were set to begin.

Until justices come back with an opinion, the trial will remain on recess with jurors not knowing exactly why they were released until further notice.

Falk, 45, was serving a life sentence at a Huntsville prison when he and another inmate were accused of killing Susan Canfield, a 59-year-old correctional officer, during their brief escape in 2007.

Walker County District Attorney David Weeks, who is prosecuting the case alongside Assistant Attorney General Jane Starnes, insisted to the appeals court that Keeling didn't have authority to add wording to the court's charge that required jurors find Falk should have anticipated the specific way Canfield was killed before they could arrive at a guilty verdict.

Weeks argued to justices that to find Falk guilty as a party conspirator -- his codefendant was driving the truck that struck Canfield's horse, leading to her death -- the state didn't need to prove that Falk knew the truck would be used as the murder weapon, just that he should have anticipated her murder.

"What we have here is a judge who clearly did not follow the law," Weeks said. "At this point, we have no other remedy."

But Lane Thibodeaux, who's handling Falk's appeals and working with defense attorney Michele Esparza and Kyle Hawthorne, dismissed the state's argument on the grounds that the court's charge follows the allegations listed in the indictment.

"The jury charge did nothing more than track the indictment," he said.

According to court documents, the indictment accuses Falk of killing Canfield by striking her with a vehicle while escaping from prison.

But in the writ of mandamus, Weeks pointed to several cases supporting his argument that the law of parties didn't have to be included in the indictment for the defendant to be charged as a party.

Rick Wetzel, Keeling's appeals attorney, argued that Keeling constructed a charge that came "together to represent the allegations, the evidence and the law."

"Keeling was up on a bench having two sides talking on him -- this is what he came up with and this is what trial courts do," he said.

A condensed AP version of the report is, "Jury instructions disputed in Texas inmate's trial," via the San Francisco Chronicle.

An appeals court has been asked to clarify jury instructions over a Texas inmate's alleged role in the 2007 death of a guard during an escape attempt.

The Eagle newspaper reported Tuesday that the Bryan capital murder trial of John Falk Jr. remains on hold pending a ruling.

Prosecutors seeking the death penalty told the 10th Court of Appeals in Waco on Monday that the jury instructions are too limiting.

The defense says the wording follows what's in the indictment.

Officer Susan Canfield died after being thrown from a horse that was hit by a truck at the Wynne Unit. The driver, inmate Jerry Martin, received a death sentence for the slaying.

Related posts are in the law of parties category index.

Remembering Another Date That Will 'Live in Infamy'

That's the title of Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Bob Ray Sanders' latest, regarding the 1982 lethal injection execution of Charlie Brooks.

For many in this country, Friday was a day to reflect on a horrific event that happened 71 years ago: the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor.

But for one Fort Worth family, Dec. 7 will "live in infamy" for another reason: It marks the day one of their own made history by becoming the first person put to death by lethal injection and the first person in Texas to be executed following an 18-year hiatus for capital punishment in the United States.

Charlie Brooks Jr. was executed in Huntsville on Dec. 7, 1982, having been convicted of shooting to death a Fort Worth used car company employee six years earlier.

His family, friends and opponents of the death penalty held a memorial service Friday on the 30th anniversary of his death at the Riverside Community Center, not far from where Brooks and his co-defendant grew up.

And:

Charlie Brooks' case underscores the arbitrariness and capriciousness of capital punishment. He and co-defendant Woodie Loudres were sentenced to death, but Loudres' sentence was overturned because of jury-selection problems.

Loudres then pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Loudres has served his time and is now active in a church and in the Riverside community.

Hours after Brooks' execution, Jack Strickland, who had been lead prosecutor in the case, told ABC's Good Morning America: "It may well be, as horrible as it is to contemplate, that the state of Texas executed the wrong man at 12:09 a.m."

Charlie Brooks' name is at the top of the state's list of executed individuals since 1982. There are 491 other names that follow.

Earlier coverage of the anniversary of Charlie Brooks' execution begins at the link.

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/12/08/4470905/remembering-another-date-that.html#storylink=cpy

Texas Execution

Texas conducted its 15th execution of 2012, last night in Huntsville; the second in two consecutive nights.  It was the 492nd post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 253rd execution under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"In last words, condemned man maintains innocence," is Anita Hassan's report for the Houston Chronicle.

While his mother wailed and screamed in the background, Preston Hughes was executed Thursday night for fatally stabbing a teenage girl and her toddler cousin on a dirt road in southwest Houston more than two decades ago.

Hughes was convicted of the 1988 murders of La Shandra Charles, 15, and her 3-year-old cousin, Marcell Taylor. None of the victims' friends or relatives attended the execution.

Hughes was put to death about 31/2 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals filed by his attorney to postpone the punishment. The execution also was slowed by an appeal filed by Hughes to the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals asking that the court reconsider its earlier denial to retest DNA in the case.

And:

Thursday's execution also followed a failed attempt this week by Hughes' attorney to persuade the Texas Board of Paroles and Pardons to commute the inmate's death sentence to life in prison.

In his petition to the board, Hughes' attorney, Pat McCann, argued that police lied when they told jurors Charles identified her attacker as "Preston" in her dying breath.

McCann supplemented his argument with a sworn statement from a deputy Tarrant County medical examiner, who said Charles would have lost consciousness within 60 seconds of the attack. The policeman who claimed to have heard the statement arrived 13 minutes after Charles died, McCann said.

McCann also argued that police checked items confiscated from his client's apartment into their evidence room about three hours before Hughes agreed to the search.

Earlier coverage of Preston Hughes' case begins at the link.

To date, there have been 40 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,317 post-Furman executions since 1977.

It appears certain that this was the last Texas execution of 2012.  According to TDCJ, five execution dates have already been set for 2013. 

Texas Execution

Texas conducted its 14th execution of 2012, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 491st post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 252nd execution under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Texas executes Hernandez for 2001 slaying of woman abducted from San Antonio bus stop," is the AP report, via the Washington Post.

A registered sex offender was put to death Wednesday for the rape, robbery and slaying of a woman abducted from a San Antonio bus stop 11 years ago.

Ramon Torres Hernandez was one of three people convicted in the killing of Rosa Maria Rosado, 37, who was pulled into a car Hernandez was driving after she refused to let go of her purse during a drive-by robbery.

And:

He took several breaths as the lethal dose of pentobarbital took effect, then began snoring quietly. Within a minute, all movement stopped.

His time of death was announced as 6:38 p.m. CST, 26 minutes after the drug began flowing into his arms.

Texas is scheduled to execute Preston Hughes tonight in Huntsville.  Jordan Smith writes, "State on Track To Execute Its 15th in 2012," for the Austin Chronicle.

Ohio also conducted an execution this week. "Ohio executes condemned killer who stabbed woman, slit her throat and cut off her hands," is the AP report on the execution of Brett Hartman, also via the Washington Post.

To date, there have been 39 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,316 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Wednesday and Thursday.

According to TDCJ, five execution dates have already been set for 2013. 

Texas Executions Scheduled for Wednesday & Thursday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its 14th execution of 2012, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 491st post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 252nd execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Execution looms for serial rapist, murderer," is Michelle Mondo's San Antonio Express-News report.

Ramon Hernandez is set to be executed Wednesday for the 2001 abduction, rape and killing of Rosa Maria Rosado.

But the man prosecutors have called a serial rapist and murderer is known to have other victims.

Rosado, whose body was found in a shallow grave near Loop 1604 and UTSA Boulevard, was the first of five victims authorities connected to Hernandez or named him as suspect. It was his only conviction.

On Thursday, Texas is scheduled to execute Preston Highes III.  Allen Turner writes, "Thursday execution still on schedule after killer denied commutation," for the Houston Chronicle.

Houston killer Preston Hughes III's claims that police lied at his trial failed to sway the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, which on Tuesday unanimously voted not to recommend that the governor commute the local warehouse worker's death sentence to life in prison.

Hughes, 46, is set to be executed Thursday for the Sept. 26, 1988, stabbing murders of La Shandra Charles, 15, and her 3-year-old cousin, Marcell Taylor.

Hughes, who was on probation for sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl at the time of the killings, has claimed innocence. Hughes' case has drawn international attention among death penalty critics who believe his case was marred by irregularities.

The killer's lawyer, Pat McCann, said he will pursue his client's appeals in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the Harris County civil court level.

To date, there have been 37 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,314 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Wednesday and Thursday.

These are the final two Texas executions scheduled for 2012.  According to TDCJ, five execution dates have already been set for 2013. 

Texas Execution

Texas conducted its 13th execution of 2012, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 490th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 251st execution under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Texas exectues man for killing woman in 2002," is the AFP post.

The US state of Texas executed a man on Thursday for killing a woman during a break in at the victim's home a decade ago, authorities said.

Mario Swain, 33, was pronounced dead by lethal injection at 6:39 pm (0039 GMT Friday), according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. He had no final statement.

Swain's death brought to 37 the number of executions in the United States this year.

To date, there have been 37 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,314 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, two additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district courts for this year.  Five execution dates have already been set for 2013.  The next scheduled Texas executions are November 14 and 15; they should be the final Texas executions of 2012.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Thursday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its 13th execution of 2012, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 490th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 251st execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Man to die for 2002 slaying of East Texas woman," is Michael Graczyk's AP report, via the Austin American-Statesman.

Condemned Texas prisoner Mario Swain is to die for the beating, stabbing and strangling of a woman during a break-in at her East Texas home a decade ago.

The 33-year-old Swain faces lethal injection Thursday evening in Huntsville for the slaying of 46-year-old Lola Nixon at her home in Longview.

To date, there have been 36 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,313 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Thursday.

According to TDCJ, two additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district courts for this year.  Five execution dates have already been set for 2013.  The next scheduled Texas executions are November 14 and 15.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its 12th execution of 2012, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 489th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 250th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

Reuters posts, "Texas executes man who murdered girlfriend over money," by Corrie MacLaggan.

Donnie Lee Roberts, 41, became the 35th person executed in the United States this year and the 12th in Texas. He was pronounced dead at 6:39 p.m. local time at the state prison in Huntsville, the state Department of Criminal Justice.

According to the AP report, Roberts was pronounced dead 23 minutes after the single dose lethal injection of pentobarbital.

To date, there have been 35 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,312 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, six additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district courts, including two set for 2013.  The next scheduled Texas execution in November 8.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Wednesday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its 12th execution of 2012, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 489th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982, and the 250th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Louisiana Parolee Set to Die in Texas Wednesday," is Michael Graczyk's AP report, via ABC News.

When Louisiana parole violator Donnie Lee Roberts was arrested for fatally shooting his girlfriend at her East Texas home nine years ago, he had an immediate request: the death penalty.

Roberts, 41, is scheduled for lethal injection Wednesday for the October 2003 murder of Vicki Bowen, a 44-year-old dental assistant from Lake Livingston.

To date, there have been 34 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,311 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Thursday.

According to TDCJ, six additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district courts, including two set for 2013.  The next scheduled Texas execution in November 8.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its 11th execution of 2012, last night in Huntsville.  It was the 488th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Texas executes convicted killer for 1991 slaying," is the AP report, via KTRK-TV.

Convicted killer Bobby Lee Hines has been executed for strangling and repeatedly stabbing a suburban Dallas woman at her apartment 21 years ago.

To date, there have been 33 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,310 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, seven additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district courts, including two set for 2013.  The next scheduled Texas execution in October 31.

Texas Execution Scheduled for Wednesday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its 11th execution of 2012, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 488th post-Furman Texas execution since 1982.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Execution Wednesday for 1991 Dallas-area slaying," is the AP report on the scheduled execution of Bobby Hines, via KTRK-TV.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last week rejected an appeal from Hines, whose lawyer argued Hines' trial attorneys "failed to adequately investigate, develop and present to the jurors the full extent of the abuse, neglect and violence that Bobby was subjected to at a very young age, and which continued throughout his youth."

Attorney Lydia Brandt also contended lawyers early in the appeals process likewise failed to investigate the claims. She unsuccessfully tried to negotiate the execution date so it fell after a U.S. Supreme Court conference next week when justices are expected to discuss whether to review another Texas death penalty case with similar issues.

Lisa Smith, a Dallas County assistant prosecutor, argued Hines' trial lawyers had presented "a detailed and credible picture of a child who suffered and faced significant struggles."

Earlier coverage of Bobby Hines' case begins at the link.

To date, there have been 32 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,309 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Thursday.

According to TDCJ, seven additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district courts, including two set for 2013.  The next scheduled Texas execution in October 31.

Execution Changes Occur Without Public Scrutiny, Input

That's the title of Mike Ward's excellent recap of execution protocols in Texas and other death penalty states in today's Austin American-Statesman.  It features a map and several state-by-state lists.  Here's the beginning of this must-read:

On July 9, when Texas switched from three drugs to just one to execute its most heinous criminals, Rick Thaler, the state’s No. 3 corrections official, signed off on the change without fanfare after consulting with prison officials in other states.

No public hearings. No legislative action. No public vote by the prison system’s nine-member governing board, which routinely votes on tweaks to prison policies, such as hazardous-duty pay bumps for individual employees and donations of vegetable and Bibles.

Under a state law enacted years ago, Thaler — a former guard and warden with no medical training — alone decided the change on how Texas’ ultimate punishment is administered. His signature on the revised 10-page execution policy was all it took to upend almost three decades of precedent using three drugs in executions.

Lethal injection faces increasing scrutiny nationwide with states scrambling to keep their death chambers operating as their supplies of drugs run short, and because of that, critics of the death penalty say, the execution process is much more haphazard than it once was.

“It appears to be like the Keystone Kops running around changing the procedures to fit whatever drugs they can get at that time, just so they can keep executions going,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center. “Clearly, this is not any way to be doing this.”

Added Deborah Denno, a law professor and death penalty expert at New York’s Fordham University: “The process has always been sloppy, but it’s getting much riskier from a constitutional standpoint, in my view. There used to be a pretense that the three-drug method was humane.

“Now, there is no such pretense. States are switching to whatever drug they can get.”

For their part, Texas prison officials say they are simply doing what they must to carry out the law, and they echo the response of colleagues across the country: Courts have approved all the changes so far.

Related posts are in the lethal injection index.

Texas Execution Scheduled Thursday

Texas is set to carry out its 11th execution of 2012, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the 488th post-Furman executions since 1982.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Pardons board rejects cop killer's request for clemency," is Allan Turner's report in the Houston Chronicle.

Harris County cop killer Anthony Haynes moved a step closer to execution on Tuesday when the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously rejected his request that it recommend his death sentence be commuted to life in prison.

Haynes alternately had asked the board to recommend to Gov. Rick Perry that his execution be stayed for 90 days to allow for a review of his case. The board also rejected that request.

Haynes, 33, the son of a former Houston arson investigator, is to be put to death on Thursday for the fatal May 1998 shooting of off-duty Houston police Sgt. Kent Kincaid, 40.

The Austin Chronicle reports, "Two More in Line for Death Penalty," by Jordan Smith.

Jurors in Haynes' case deliberated for three days before sentencing the teen to death.

That sentence was overturned, however, after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Haynes' defense that an unusual jury-selection setup in Haynes' case had denied his right to equal protection under law. Indeed, two different judges presided over Haynes' jury selection; one heard prosecutors interview individual jurors, and a second heard the lawyers' arguments for striking from service the potential jurors. As it turned out, the state used its power to strike all but one of the black potential jurors, arguing that it was not their race that excluded them (which would be illegal), but their "demeanor." But Haynes' appeal attorney argued that the judge who allowed those strikes had not actually witnessed the jurors' questioning and thus could not actually have seen whether their demeanor would be a basis on which to have them struck. The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately disagreed with the 5th Circuit, ruling that there was no rule that would require a judge to "personally observe" the juror questioning when deciding whether a juror is lawfully struck from service.

To date, there have been 32 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,309 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Thursday.

According to TDCJ, eight additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district courts, including two set for 2013.  The next scheduled Texas execution in October 24.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its 10th execution of 2012, last night in Huntsville; a total of 487 post-Furman executions since 1982.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

Reuters posts, "Texas executes man who strangled to death 12-year-old girl," by Corrie MacLaggan.  It's via the Chicago Tribune.

Texas put to death a Houston-area man late on Wednesday for raping and strangling to death 12-year-old Christina Neal in 2000, despite arguments that he was too mentally incompetent to be executed, the state's criminal justice department said.

And:

Green had argued that he was too mentally incompetent to be executed. He was granted a stay of execution in 2010 by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. On Monday, he was granted another stay by a U.S. district court in Houston; that stay was vacated on Tuesday by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

In a flurry of Wednesday evening filings that pushed the execution hours past the 6 p.m. expected time, Green asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, but the court declined to halt his execution.

To date, there have been 31 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,308 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, seven additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district court.  Two executions have already been set for 2013.

5th Circuit Lifts Jonathan Green Stay

"Appeals court lifts Green's execution stay," is the AP report via the Montgomery County Courier.

A federal appeals court has lifted a reprieve for a convicted killer in Texas, reinstating his scheduled execution hours before it was to be carried out for the slaying of a 12-year-old girl more than decade ago.

The state attorney general's office had asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the stay of execution given earlier this week to condemned prisoner Jonathan Green. The 44-year-old was convicted of the abduction, rape and strangling of Christina Neal in 2000.

He's set to die Wednesday evening in Huntsville.

The issue is now before the Supreme Court.

Earlier coverage of Jonathan Green's case begins at the link.  Related posts are in the competency and mental illness category indexes.

Texas has carried out 9 executions this year; a total of 486 post-Furman executions since 1982.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Thursday.

According to TDCJ, seven additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district court.  Two executions have already been set for 2013.

Prison-Crime Witness Now on the Defensive

That's the title of a report in the Texas edition of the New York Times, by Maurice Chammah of the Texas Tribune.  "Death Penalty Witness Condemned by Courts," is posted at the Tribune.

A. P. Merillat has spent two decades investigating crimes in Texas prisons, and his testimony about the violence that inmates serving life sentences can inflict has helped send at least 15 murderers to death row.

Now the credibility of Mr. Merillat — a go-to expert for prosecutors seeking the death penalty — has been condemned by the state’s highest criminal court, after judges determined that Mr. Merillat gave false testimony. Two death sentences were reversed to life sentences, the most recent in June. Mr. Merillat said he was close to being devastated by those decisions. “A guilty capital murderer was removed from the punishment a jury, according to proof beyond a reasonable doubt, determined he deserved,” Mr. Merillat said.

Mr. Merillat says he believes the court has unfairly jeopardized his standing and that he is facing an uphill battle to repair it.

“I am currently attempting to rebuild my reputation for honor and integrity that was so unjustifiably destroyed by our own Court of Criminal Appeals,” he said.

Mr. Merillat, 56, began his career as a police officer in Huntsville and Houston, and for years, he said, he assumed that anyone who committed a “heinous capital murder” would be closely watched by the prison.

“I was very mistaken,” he said.

For the last 20 years, Mr. Merillat has been an investigator with the Special Prosecution Unit, an independent agency financed by the governor’s office to investigate and prosecute crimes that occur in prison.

And:

For a Texas jury to sentence a murderer to death, it must find that he or she will be a continuing threat to society. For decades, prosecutors relied on psychiatrists to testify that the accused would commit violent crimes again if given a sentence less than death.

Many of those psychiatric experts, like James Grigson (popularly known as Dr. Death), Richard Coons and George Denkowski, have since been discredited for their predictions of future likelihood of causing harm. Instead, prosecutors have turned to prison experts for testimony about the opportunities for violence behind bars — but outside death row.

Also:

But in 2010, the Texas’ Court of Criminal Appeals threw out the death sentence of Adrian Estrada for the 2005 stabbing of 17-year-old Stephanie Sanchez. Judge Barbara Hervey found Mr. Merillat erred by testifying that a convicted capital murderer would have more freedom in prison than would ever be possible.

Then, earlier this year, the court threw out the death sentence of Manuel Velez, a death row inmate convicted of killing his girlfriend’s infant son, after his lawyers found Mr. Merillat had given similar testimony in his Cameron County trial.

Earlier coverage of Manuel Velez' case and Adrian Estrada begins at the links.

Related posts are in the expert witnesses and future dangerousness catagory indexes; also available, coverage of George Denkowski.

Texas Execution Scheduled Tuesday

Texas is scheduled to carry out its ninth execution of 2012, tonight in Huntsville.  It would be the state's 486th post-Furman execution since 1982.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

"Texas Death Row Inmate Seeks Fourth Stay of Execution," is Brandi Grissom's Texas Tribune post.

Death row inmate Cleve Foster, a former military recruiter, is hoping the courts will for the fourth time in a year stay his execution, which is scheduled for Tuesday evening.

After the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals denied his appeal, Foster’s lawyer, Maurie Levin, filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. She said on Monday that the justices had called for the record in the case, a step they don’t always take.

“They’re taking it seriously,” said Levin, who is also an adjunct professor and co-director of the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin.

"Texas inmate narrowly avoided execution 3 times, tries for fourth," is the Los Angeles Times report by Molly Hennessy-Fiske.

A Texas inmate whose appeals have three times spared him the death penalty is again scheduled for execution Tuesday.

Cleve Foster, 48, was sentenced to die for his part in the abduction and killing of a 30-year-old Sudanese woman near Fort Worth in 2002.

And:

Foster still had appeals pending Monday, alleging he had poor legal representation at his 2004 trial and early in the appeals process.

Michael Graczyk files, "Death row inmate to relive execution day for third time," for AP.  It's via the Dallas Morning News.

Appeals again were pending in the courts, focusing on what his lawyers argued was poor legal help both at his 2004 trial in Fort Worth and by attorneys early in the appeals process. Similar appeals resulted in the three previous reprieves the courts subsequently have lifted, but his lawyers argue his case should get another look because the legal landscape has changed in death penalty cases.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Thursday.

To date, there have been 29 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,306 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, seven additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district court.  Two executions have already been set for 2013.

Earlier coverage of Cleve Foster's case begins at the link.

Texas & Ohio Executions

Texas and Ohio carried out executions on Thursday.

"Texas executes man who confessed to killing 5," is Michael Graczyk's AP report via the Dallas Morning News.

An ex-convict who confessed to killing five people at a Dallas-area car wash a week after he was fired from his job there 12 years ago was executed Thursday evening.

Robert Wayne Harris, 40, received lethal injection less than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused appeals to halt his punishment.

The Columbus Dispatch reports, "Man apologizes at his execution."  It's by  Alan Johnson.

If Donald Palmer was hoping for forgiveness before dying, he didn’t get it from his victims’ families.

Palmer, 47, was executed yesterday at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility for the fatal shootings of Charles Sponhaltz and Steven Vargo on a rural Belmont County road in 1989. Palmer died at 10:35 a.m. yesterday as six women looked on, including both of his victims’ widows, Tiffany Nameth and Valerie Vargo-Jolliffe.

“I want you to know I’ve carried you in my heart for years and years,” Palmer said, lifting his head off the lethal injection table to look toward the witnesses, behind glass just a few feet away. “I am so sorry. I wish this could bring him it to you, but it can’t. I only hope you let the pain and hurt die with me today.”

After a series of shuddering breaths and tremors in his jaw, Palmer was declared dead about 15 minutes later.

It was Texas'8th execution of the year; the state's 485th post-Furman execution since 1982.  Texas has the nation's most active death chamber and accounts for more than 37% of the  executions in America's death penalty states.

To date, there have been 29 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,306 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, eight additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district court.  Two executions have already been set for 2013.

Texas, Ohio Executions Scheduled for Thursday

"Texas, Ohio set to execute convicted murderers on Thursday," is the Reuters post, via the Chicago Tribune.

Texas and Ohio are scheduled to execute two convicted killers by lethal injection on Thursday in what would be the 28th and 29th executions in the United States this year.

In Texas, which leads the country in executions, Robert Wayne Harris is set to be executed for killings committed at a car wash in 2000. Donald Palmer is scheduled to be put to death in Ohio for murdering two people in 1989.

Harris, 40, is seeking to convince the U.S. Supreme Court to halt his execution, arguing his constitutional rights were violated when prosecutors struck all five qualified black candidates from his jury pool.

That left Harris, who is African-American, with an all-white jury to convict him and impose the death penalty, he said incourt documents.

And:

In Ohio, Palmer is set to die for the killings of Charles Sponhaltz, 43, and Steven Vargo, 41, in Mount Pleasant.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Thursday.

To date, there have been 27 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,304 post-Furman executions since 1977.

According to TDCJ, eight additional executions have been scheduled by Texas district court.  Two executions have already been set for 2013.

Considering Death Row for Organs

That's the title of Brandi Grissom's report for the Texas Tribune and the Southwest regional edition of the New York Times.  Here's the beginning:

Before Gov. John Kitzhaber of Oregon established a moratorium on his state’s death penalty last year, Christian Longo, a death row inmate, started a campaign to allow the condemned to donate their organs.

Mr. Longo argued that a new execution protocol that many states — including Texas — have adopted leaves inmates’ organs viable for transplantation.

“While I can potentially help in saving one life with a kidney donation now, one preplanned execution can additionally save from 6 to 10 more lives,” Mr. Longo wrote in a plea that Oregon officials denied.

No state allows death row inmates to donate their organs. Although Texas recently abandoned a three-drug cocktail in favor of a single-drug method for execution, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it did not intend to change its policy. There are 11,000 Texans on the organ transplant waiting list.

Criminal justice and medical experts say that the idea of recovering organs from willing convicted murderers is fraught with moral, ethical and medical challenges that make it unlikely to ever be an option.

“It’s complicated in ways that are very messy and very fuzzy,” said Richard C. Dieter, executive director of the nonprofit Death Penalty Information Center.

The Criminal Justice Department allows offenders in the general prison population to donate organs, like kidneys, while they are alive in certain cases and after death if they complete a donor form.

The prospect of death row organ donation, though, prompts several questions, said Dr. David Orentlicher, a co-director of the Hall Center for Law and Health at Indiana University’s Robert H. McKinney School of Law. Is an inmate giving free and informed consent, or is he hoping to win favorable treatment? Would a donation affect jurors in murder cases who are weighing the death penalty versus life sentences? Or prosecutors deciding whether to seek the death penalty? Or governors deciding whether to grant clemency?

Texas Execution Scheduled for Wednesday

Texas is set to carry out its eighth execution of 2012, Wednesday, in Huntsville.  It would be the state's 485th post-Furman execution since 1982.  Texas accounts for more than 37% of the nation's executions.

It would be the 246th execution conducted under the administration of Governor Rick Perry, more than half of the state's executions.  He succeeded Governor George W. Bush in December 2000; Bush presided over 152 executions.

"Balentine's execution date nears," is the Amarillo Globe-News report by Bobby Cervantes.

For the third time, John Balentine’s final hour is closing in.

He sits on death row awaiting a 6 p.m. Wednesday appointment in America’s most active execution chamber, hoping his attorney can persuade a court to grant this third stay of execution since a 1999 conviction for three Amarillo murders.

Balentine would join 12 Potter and Randall county defendants executed since 1982, when Texas reinstated the death penalty.

The regional cases have been some of the most disputed in the state, according to a review of Texas Department of Criminal Justice records. The Hank Skinner DNA testing saga is an example.

And:

Lydia Brandt, Balentine’s attorney, has argued since 2003 that her client’s trial attorney did not investigate mitigating factors in Balentine’s life that could have called for a lighter sentence. The evidence includes a violent childhood, delayed emotional development and an untreated head injury, Brandt said.

“These facts raise a very strong claim that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to conduct a reasonable investigation of the defendant’s background and life history in preparation for the penalty phase of his trial,” she said.

Earlier coverage of John Balentine's case begins at the link.

Houston's KPFT-FM will host Execution Watch on the web and it's HD radio broadcast signal beginning at 6:00 p.m. (CST), Wednesday.

To date, there have been 27 executions in American death penalty states this year; a total of 1,304 post-Furman executions since 1977.

Texas Death Row Inmate Selwyn Davis Dies

Mike Ward posts, "Selwyn Davis dies while on death row," at the Austin American-Statesman.

Authorities said they are investigating the death — a rarity on Texas death row — as a possible suicide.

Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, said Selwyn Davis, 30, was found unconscious during a routine security check shortly after 9 p.m. last Friday at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston, east of Huntsville.

“He was unresponsive on the floor,” Clark said. “Staff began life saving measures, called 911, and took the offender to the unit infirmary.”

Davis was rushed by ambulance to Livingston Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead at 10:04 p.m., Clark said. An autopsy and cause of death are pending, he said.

Clark said the agency’s Office of Inspector General is investigating the death.

Marcus Druery

"Lawyers Argue Inmate Incompetent for Aug. 1 Execution," is Brandi Grissom's post at Texas Tribune, today.  Here's the beginning:

Marcus Druery says that his cell on death row at Livingston's Polunsky Unit is wired. The wires, he believes, carry voices into his cell and transport his thoughts to other people. Prison staff members, he claims, have contaminated his food with feces, urine and insects.

Druery, 32, is scheduled to be executed Aug. 1 for the 2002 fatal shooting of a 20-year-old man in Brazos County. On Tuesday, his lawyers will ask a judge to appoint experts to examine the convicted murderer, who they argue is ineligible for execution because of his severe mental illness.

“He started to experience voices and hearing echoes in his cell and has deteriorated pretty quickly since arriving on death row,” said Kate Black, who represents Druery and is a staff attorney at the Texas Defender Service.

A spokeswoman for the Brazos County district attorney’s office declined to comment on the ongoing case, but said that the state would file a response to Druery’s motion before the hearing.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2007 in another Texas death penalty case, Panetti v. Quarterman, that it isn’t enough for prisoners to simply understand the fact that they will be executed and are being punished for a crime. The court ruled that inmates must have enough mental capacity to have “a rational understanding of it.”

And:

At Tuesday's hearing, Druery’s lawyers will ask the judge to appoint two independent experts to evaluate his mental competency. In documents requesting the hearing, they wrote that Druery’s “psychotic disorder prevents a rational understanding of the connection between his crime and his punishment.”

Earlier coverage of Marcus Druery's case begins at the link

The Supreme Court established standards to assess whether severely mentally ill inmates are competent to be executed in a 1986 case, Ford v. Wainwright; more via Oyez.  Related posts are in the competency and mental illness indexes.

Texas Execution

Texas carried out its sixth execution of 2012, Wednesday night in Huntsville.  It was the state's 483rd post-Furman execution since 1982.  Texas accounts for more than 37% of the nation's executions. 

The AP report on the execution of Yokamon Hearn is, "Man condemned for Dallas carjacking is executed."  It's by Michael Graczyk, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

He showed no apparent unusual reaction to the drug and was pronounced dead about 25 minutes after the lethal dose began flowing.

Ohio, Arizona, Idaho and Washington have adopted a single-drug procedure, and this week Georgia said it would do so.

I would point out that under Texas' three drug lethal injections, death was generally declared in ten minutes or less from the time the drugs were administered.

And:

Earlier Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his appeals to halt the execution. None addressed the change in the state's execution drug policy.

In one appeal, Hearn's lawyers said his mother drank alcohol while she was pregnant, stunting his neurological development and leaving him with mental impairments that disqualify him from execution under earlier Supreme Court rulings.

In another, his appeals lawyers said his trial attorneys failed to investigate his background and uncover evidence of mental impairment and a troubled childhood.

Hearn was within 15 minutes of being executed in 2004 when the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals halted his execution to allow him to pursue his claim that he is mentally retarded because of fetal alcohol syndrome.

Hearn is one of two inmates identified in a Star-Telegram article this month who have appealed death sentences on the grounds that they have brain damage from fetal alcohol syndrome, caused by their mothers' alcohol abuse during pregnancy. The other inmate, Mark Anthony Soliz of Fort Worth, was convicted in the fatal shooting of a Godley grandmother.

Hearn's execution was the 244th execution conducted under the administration of Rick Perry.  He became Governor of Texas upon the resignation of George W. Bush in December 2000.  152 men and women were executed in five years under Governor Bush's tenure.

To date, there have been 24 executions in the nation this year; a total of 1,301 post-Furman executions since 1977.  According to TDCJ, eight additional executions have been scheduled for 2012 by state district courts.  Marcus Druery is scheduled to be executed on August 1.

TDCJ Switches to Single-Drug Lethal Injection Protocol

"Texas switches to 1-drug execution due to shortage," is the AP filing written by Nomaan Merchant.  It's also available via the Austin American-Statesman.

Texas, the nation's most active death penalty state, announced Tuesday that it would become the latest to switch to single-drug executions amid a drug shortage that has left states scrambling for acceptable alternatives.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it will begin using a single dose of the sedative pentobarbital to carry out death sentences. It had been using that drug in combination with two others, but its supply of one of the other drugs expired.

Texas began using pentobarbital last year after another drug, sodium thiopental, became unavailable when its European supplier bowed to pressure from death penalty opponents and stopped making it. But pentobarbital is now in short supply after its Danish manufacturer said it would try to prevent its use in executions.

An Oklahoma inmate asked a federal court on Tuesday to halt his upcoming execution because that state has only one dose of pentobarbital left. A lawyer for Michael Hooper said Oklahoma has no backup plan if the drug fails to render Hooper unconscious, and that creates a risk of cruel and unusual punishment.

Texas officials said in May that they have enough doses of pentobarbital to carry out 23 executions. No one has been executed in the state since.

In the three-drug cocktail, Texas officials administered 5 grams of the drug - about 3.4 ounces - to render the inmate unconscious, followed by the muscle relaxant pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride to stop the heart. Pancuronium bromide is the drug that expired.

Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark said officials didn't expect the dose of pentobarbital needed to change with the new procedure.

Four other states - Arizona, Idaho, Ohio and Washington - have used a single drug to carry out executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Ohio was the first to use just pentobarbital, during a March 2011 execution.

Other states, such as Missouri, plan to use propofol, the anesthetic blamed for Michael Jackson's death, to do single-drug executions.

"Texas Will Change Its Lethal Injection Protocol," is Brandi Grissom's post at the Texas Tribune.

Texas will join a handful of states that use a single drug in lethal injections, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced Tuesday. 

"Implementing the change in protocol at this time will ensure that the agency is able to fulfill its statutory responsibility for all executions currently scheduled," TDCJ spokesman Jason Clark said in an email.

For Yokamon Hearn's scheduled execution on July 18, officials plan to administer a lethal dose of pentobarbital instead of the three-drug cocktail that has been used since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1982. Clark said the decision to change the protocol came because the state's supply of one of the other drugs that had been used in the protocol — pancuronium bromide — had expired and TDCJ was unable to obtain more.

"The agency currently has an adequate supply of pentobarbital to carry out all scheduled executions," Clark said. Currently, nine inmates are scheduled to be executed between July 18 and Nov. 14. Clark said that courts have upheld the use of the single-drug protocol as constitutional.

Pentobarbital is a barbiturate that is often used in animal euthanasia, but states began using it more widely in lethal injections last year. Ohio was the first state to switch to the single-drug protocol using pentobarbital in March 2011.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.

Texas to Switch to Single Drug Lethal Execution?

Kent Scheidegger has just posted a short item at the Crime and Consequences blog, "Texas Joins the Single-Drug Club."

We have received info that Texas will switch to a pentobarbital-only method for its next execution, Yokamon Hearn on July 18.

So now we have Ohio, Washington, Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, Texas, and soon Kentucky.

More as it becomes available.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.

The Ivan Cantu Case

BBC News Magazine posts, "Texas death row prisoner clings to hope."  It's by Paul Adams.  There is audio at the link.

The Allan B Polunsky Unit just outside Livingston, Texas, is an intimidating place.

As a maximum security facility housing all the state's death row prisoners, that is hardly surprising.

But the watch-towers and razor wire are only part of it. It is the buildings themselves: bleak, other-worldly boxes, apparently windowless, that are really scary.

Look more closely and you see that there are, in fact, windows but they are narrow, horizontal slits more like something from a medieval castle than anything to be gazed out of.

Again, hardly surprising.

The reception, when I arrive to interview an inmate on death row, is friendly, polite and extremely thorough.

No mobile phones, computers or weapons, of course, but also no money - including cash, credit cards and chequebooks.

Nothing that could remotely be of use to a prisoner, if you were somehow able to make contact. Which, of course, you cannot.

After being accompanied through several electronically controlled doors to the visitation centre and handing over the microphone that would be used to record his leg of our conversation, I looked around, wondering where Ivan Abner Cantu was.

What Miller v. Alabama Means for Texas

The Texas Tribune posts, "Decision on Juvenile Sentences Stirs Questions in Texas," by John Wayne Ferguson.

Twenty-eight states currently allow mandatory life without parole for juveniles and will now have to change their laws to accommodate the rulings. The decision still allows for such sentences, but judges must now consider the age of the convicted individual.

Texas already abolished mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juveniles in 2009. But the Texas law stipulated that no one under the age of 17 could receive the sentence.

There are currently 27 individuals incarcerated in Texas who were sentenced to life without parole before they were 18. All 27 were convicted of capital murder, and all but two are male. Seventeen of them were 17 years old at the time of their offense. The others were 16 or younger. Nationwide, 2,300 individuals are serving life without parole sentences for murders committed before they were 18. Only about 79 were under the age of 14. Ninety percent of them are serving mandatory life sentences.

And:

After the Supreme Court in 2005 decided that the death penalty for juveniles was unconstitutional, Gov. Rick Perry commuted the sentences for 28 17-year-olds on death row. All 28 were given life sentences with the possibility of parole in 40 years.

After Monday's ruling, the state is still determining what action to take. “The Governor’s Office is working with the Attorney General, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, prosecutors and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to determine how many individuals may be affected by this ruling and what the appropriate steps will be for Texas going forward,” Josh Havens, a spokesman for the governor’s office, said in a statement.

Jason Clark of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said his office began preparing soon after the court’s announcement, and identified the 27 convicts in anticipation of any requests from the attorney general or governor’s offices.

Earlier coverage of the Supreme Court ruling on juvenile sentencing begins with the preceding post.

Texas Stockpiled Lethal Injection Drugs

Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Records: Texas bought execution drugs before supply dwindled."  It's by Mike Ward.

Turned down in their request for secrecy by state Attorney General Greg Abbott for the second time in as many months, Texas prison officials have revealed that their large stockpile of lethal injection drugs — probably the largest in the country — came from a South Carolina pharmaceutical supplier.

In releasing invoices and other records about its supply chain, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice shed new light on how it obtained the stockpile of a key drug used in executions last year, at a time when other states were unable to purchase any and some were being forced to switch to other drugs.

The information confirmed that Texas purchased its lethal drugs in spring 2011 through a U.S.-based supplier, not through a shadowy overseas network that several other states had used last year — actions that drew federal agents to seize illegally imported drugs.

Texas appeared to get a head start on other states by buying the drugs when supplies were still available. By the summer of 2011, the domestic supplies had mostly dried up — and the other states were left hunting for pentobarbital in places such as England and Pakistan.

Last month, the Texas agency, which operates the busiest death chamber in the United States, confirmed that it had enough lethal drugs on hand to carry out as many as 23 executions — and that it does not prepare backup doses of the three drugs, as officials previously had said state policy requires.

And:

Invoices made public by the agency Wednesday show that more than $51,000 worth of the powerful sedative Nembutal, a brand name for pentobarbital, was purchased in March and April 2011 through Physician Sales and Service in Houston.

Other forms disclosed Wednesday show it was shipped from company offices in West Columbia, S.C.

Calls to the company in both locations were not returned. Company officials previously had not commented about the sales.

The newly disclosed documents reveal that in one shipment, three of 39 vials of Nembutal were broken in transit. The state received a credit for the breakage, according to the records.

Earlier coverage of Texas' lethal injection drugs and TDCJ's resistance to releasing public information begins at the link.

TX BPP OK's Parole for Eroy Brown

Today's Austin American-Statesman reports, "Storied Texas prisoner approved for parole."  It's written by Mike Ward.  Here's an extended excerpt:

Eroy Brown, whose acquittal on murder charges involving the deaths of a prison warden and a farm manager in the 1980s shook Texas' corrections system to its roots, has been approved for parole after nearly three decades behind bars.

Officials confirmed Thursday that Brown, 61, who has served 27 years for robbing a Waco convenience store of $12 and some candy bars, will be sent to a supervised pre-release rehabilitation program in California.

No date for the release has been set.

In 1985, Brown was sentenced to 90 years as a habitual criminal; he had two previous felonies — a burglary and a robbery dating back to the 1970s.

In recent years, Brown has been serving his time in a South Carolina prison because a federal judge thought his safety could not be guaranteed in a Texas lockup.

"This has been a long time coming," said Bill Habern, a Huntsville attorney who represented Brown in both the murder and parole cases. "Twenty-seven years for a $12 robbery is a lot of time. ... This way, he'll be under supervision when he gets out.

"The board deserves credit. The right thing to do was to grant this parole, and they did that."

Had Brown been denied parole again, as he had seven times since he went to prison, he would have been released within five years anyway without any supervision under controversial early release policies enacted in the 1970s to ease prison crowding in Texas.

The vote for parole was 2-0, said Jason Clark, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Thomas Leeper, an attorney, and Pamela Freeman, a former prison guard, voted in the case, he said.

Once before, several years ago, Brown was approved for parole, but officials changed their vote, and he was never released.

And:

Habern credited a 2011 book by Houston journalist Michael Berryhill — "The Trials of Eroy Brown: The Case That Shook the Texas Prison System" — with raising awareness of the details of the case and Brown's long term of incarceration.

Earlier coverage of Eroy Brown's case begins at the link.

The Texas Lethal Injection Drug Stock

"Texas has enough lethal drugs for 23 executions, officials say," is the Austin American-Statesman report by Mike Ward.

Forced to go public by an order from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, state prison officials late Friday disclosed that they have enough lethal drugs on hand to carry out as many as 23 executions.

The agency also said Friday that it does not prepare backup doses of the lethal drugs for each execution, as state officials have long said policy requires.

In a brief statement issued without elaboration, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it has 46 2.5-gram vials of Nembutal on hand and similar amounts of two other drugs included in a three-drug cocktail used in executions at the Huntsville Unit.

That could mean that Texas has the largest stockpile of the lethal drugs in the country, at a time when other states are scrambling to find suppliers for the same drugs.

Death penalty critics have long suspected that Texas has not been following state policy on backup doses, but until Friday there was no official confirmation.

For years, state officials have said agency policy calls for them to prepare double doses of the three-drug cocktail in case the initial round fails. If the backups were prepared, each execution would use twice the amount of lethal drugs as is needed if the first dose executes the prisoner.

Prison officials have previously refused to comment on whether the backup doses were being prepared. But on Friday, officials said that they interpret the policy to require the drugs to be on hand but not in syringes.

"The backup set of lethal injection drugs is not actually prepared, but an additional dose is available if needed," the brief statement said Friday.

Abbott's opinion Monday was prompted by requests under the Texas Public Information Act filed by the American-Statesman and a reporter for The Guardian, a British newspaper.

"After Texas AG ruling, prison officials air lethal injection drug information," is Allan Turner's report for the Houston Chronicle.

The issue is a particularly sensitive one at TDCJ, which has faced significant problems in obtaining ingredients for its three-drug "lethal cocktail" used in executions. Scarcity of the drugs has propelled the cost of an execution from about $83 to $1,286 in only a year, the Austin newspaper reported.

On Friday, TDCJ reported that it has 46 2.5-gram vials of pentobarbital, a drug administered to sedate the condemned inmate; 290 10-mg vials of pancuronium bromide, a muscle relaxant used to halt breathing; and 737 20-milliequivalent vials of potassium chloride, a drug injected to stop the heart.

The agency, which has executed five killers this year, did not indicate how many individuals could be put to death with the existing stock.

The AP filing is, "Texas prison officials say they have enough drugs for 23 executions," by Michael Graczyk.  It's via the Longview News-Journal.

Texas prison officials disclosed Friday they have enough lethal drugs to execute as many as 23 people.

In response to this week’s opinion from the state attorney general’s office that said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice could not withhold information about the drug supply, the department said it currently has 46 2.5-gram vials of pentobarbital. A 5-gram dose — about 3.4 ounces — is the first lethal drug used during each execution in Huntsville, according to Texas execution procedures.

The prison agency said it had similar supplies of two other drugs also administered to condemned inmates. It did not, though, identify suppliers of the lethal drugs, which the opinion also had addressed.

Executions also involve 100 milligrams of pancuronium bromide and 140 milliequivalents of potassium chloride. Texas has 290 10-milligram vials of the pancuronium bromide — 10 are required per execution — and 737 20-milliequivalent vials of potassium chloride — seven per punishment.

The department’s written procedures call for a matching set of drugs and syringes “in case unforeseen events make their use necessary.” But in a brief statement emailrd to reporters late Friday, the agency said a backup set of lethal drugs for executions “is not actually prepared, but an additional dose is available if needed.”

The attorney general’s opinion, dated Monday, was an answer to public information requests filed earlier this year by the Austin American-Statesman and British newspaper The Guardian.

Prison officials had argued that releasing the information could be harmful to employees and provide death penalty opponents a way to harass the drug suppliers with the hope firms would refuse to do business with the state.

“We find your arguments as to how disclosure of the requested drug quantities would result in the disruption of the execution process or otherwise interfere with law enforcement to be too speculative,” Sean Opperman, an assistant attorney general, wrote in the opinion.

Earlier coverage of Texas lethal injection issues begins at the link.  The Attorney General's Open Record Decision OR2012-07088 is available in Adobe .pdf format.

According to TDCJ, six Texas executions are currently scheduled; the next is set for June 6.

Related posts are in the lethal injeciton index.