Scheduled Executions in Texas

Texas is nearing 500 executions in the modern era since the 1976 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the death penalty was constitutional. Texas conducted its first execution after the ruling in 1982.

To express your opposition to any execution, you can contact Governor Rick Perry’s office at 512 463 2000. If you call after business hours, you can leave a voice mail message. During business hours, someone should answer the phone. You can also send a message using a form on Perry’s official website.

497) Carroll Parr, May 7, 2013

TDCJ Info on Parr

498) Jefferey Williams, May 15, 2013

TDCJ Info on Williams

499) Robert Pruett, May 21, 2013

TDCJ Info on Pruett

500) Elroy Chester III, June 12, 2013

TDCJ Info on Elroy Chester

501) Kimberly McCarthy, June 26, 2013

TDCJ Info on McCarthy

502) Rigoberto Avila Jr July 10, 2013

TDCJ Info on Avila

503) John Quintanilla Jr. July 16, 2103

TDCJ Info on Quintanilla

504) Vaughn Ross, July 18, 2013

TDCJ Info on Ross

505) Douglas Feldman, July 31, 2013

TDCJ Info on Feldman

506) Robert Garza, September 19, 2013

TDCJ Info on Garza

507) Arturo Diaz September 26, 2013

TDCJ Info on Diaz

Next Tuesday, April 16, the House Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence will hear testimony on HB 2458 that would prohibit seeking or imposing the death penalty on the basis of a person’s race.

Next Tuesday, the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee will also hear testimony on HB 189 by Rep Dutton that would affect what is allowable testimony in death penalty cases.

(b) Testimony of an informant or of an alleged accomplice of
the defendant is not admissible if the testimony is given in
exchange for a grant or promise by the attorney representing the
state or by another of immunity from prosecution, reduction of
sentence, or any other form of leniency or special treatment.
Article 38.14 does not apply to accomplice testimony described by
this subsection.
(c) A statement against interest made by the defendant to a
person who at the time of the alleged statement was in custody with
or imprisoned or confined with the defendant is admissible only if
the statement is corroborated by an electronic recording.

We had a successful hearing today on HB 319, the bill to prohibit the death penalty under the law of parties. One of the people testifying was Terri Been, the sister of Jeff Wood, who is on Texas death row sentenced to death under the Law of Parties even though he did not kill anyone. Terri took the day off from work today and spent all day waiting to testify. She did a great job testifying. Thank you Terri! You can watch a video of the testimony on the Texas House site on Criminal Jurisprudence Committee April 9, 2013. The testimony on HB 319 starts around hour 5:58 and ends about 25 minutes later.

There were many, many names read of people who signed in in support of HB 319, it sounded like more people signed in in favor of this bill than many or all of the other bills heard today in this committee.

There was a lot of interest from the committee members judging from the questions they had. They seemed to have understood better this time than in previous years the distinction in the proposal having to do with the different sections of the current law of parties statute. A lot of the reason the committee members seemed to be better informed on the proposal was because of the work everyone did on the Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty back in March, when many people went to the offices of the committee members and talked to them about the Law of Parties.

Now, we have to get everyone to contact the committee members and urge them to vote the bill out of committee.

Contact the members of the Committee on Criminal Jurisprudence and urge them to vote in favor of HB 319.

HB 319, the law of parties bill by Rep Harold Dutton that we lobbied for back in March on the 2013 Statewide Lobby Day Against the Death Penalty, is on the agenda of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee for next Tuesday, April 9. This bill would prohibit executions of people convicted under the Law of Parties even though they themselves did not kill anyone although a co-defendant did kill someone. Jeff Wood and Kenneth Foster Jr are examples of Law of Parties cases. Wood is still on Texas death row while Foster had his sentence commuted to life in 2007 shortly before his scheduled execution. Of the 1,325 people executed in the U.S. in the modern era, 10 people have been executed under the law of parties or as it is known in some states the felony murder rule, 5 of those people have been executed in Texas. Please plan to come to the hearing and sign the form indicated your support for HB 319. 

Kenneth Foster Sr and Lawrence Foster.

HB 319 by Dutton
Relating to the extent of a defendant’s criminal responsibility for the conduct of a coconspirator in certain felony cases.

Burnam declares, ‘I’m a 21st-century abolitionist and I’m proud of it’

Posted Thursday, Mar. 14, 2013

By Dave Montgomery, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

AUSTIN — With Texas moving closer to its 500th execution, Rep. Lon Burnam on Wednesday described himself as a “21st-century abolitionist” and denounced the death penalty as “a gross example of institutionalized racism.”

The Fort Worth Democrat joined other death penalty opponents in a “Day of Innocence” to promote legislation to repeal capital punishment. They acknowledged that they are overwhelmingly outnumbered in a state that leads the nation in executions but nevertheless vowed to keep on fighting.

“We are right and the people who are on the other side are wrong,” Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., D-Houston, told about a dozen death penalty opponents in a legislative committee room. “Don’t be discouraged. … Today we have a new beginning.”

Dutton filed his first anti-death penalty bill 10 years ago to stop what he called the “madness” of executions. “Every time I read in the paper that they executed somebody, I as a legislator take full responsibility,” he said. “Everybody in the Legislature had a part in it because we didn’t stop it.”

Burnam, the senior member of Tarrant County’s 11-member House delegation, drew applause as he told fellow death penalty opponents: “I’m a 21st-century abolitionist and I’m proud of it.”

“There is no more gross example of institutionalized racism in this state today than in the death penalty,” Burnam asserted, saying that prisoners put to death in Texas are overwhelmingly poor and “people of color.”

Of the 287 inmates now on Death Row, according to the Texas Department of Corrections, 40 percent are black and 30 percent are Hispanic.

Texas has executed more than 490 inmates since 1976 and is nearing its 500th execution of a prisoner. Depending on appeals, that could come May 7 with the scheduled execution of Carroll Parr, convicted of killing a man in a robbery outside a convenience store in McLennan County in 2003.

“We have executed in Texas almost 500 people,” said Burnam, describing the upcoming threshold as “one of shame.”

Clarence Brandley, a former Death Row inmate who was wrongly convicted in the rape and murder of a 16-year-old student in Conroe, also participated in the event.

In addition to seeking a ban on capital punishment, Texas death penalty opponents are seeking to change Texas’ “law of parties” doctrine under which people can be sentenced to death for assisting in a capital crime even though they didn’t commit the murder.

Dave Montgomery is the Star-Telegram’s Austin

bureau chief.