News & Politics
October 23, 2023
Will Speer Found Hope Enough to Share on Texas’s Death Row
He’s one of the first faith-based coordinators for Texas inmates facing the death penalty. He’s scheduled to be executed this week.
Death Penalty
Latest
1-50 of 55 Articles
Politics & Policy
January 13, 2023
Opinion: Lethal Injection Was Once Considered a “Less Barbaric” Form of Execution. Now It’s Clear It’s Inhumane.
After what’s been deemed “the year of the botched execution,” Texas should end the practice.
News & Politics
September 23, 2022
Bearing Witness at Texas’s First Execution by Lethal Injection
In 1982, Dick J. Reavis chronicled the first government-led lethal injection in world history—and the last moments of Charlie Brooks's life.
News & Politics
November 11, 2021
What Do We Owe Those We’ve Condemned to Die?
The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether John Henry Ramirez, a Texan convicted of murder, is entitled to have his pastor by his side when he’s executed.
News & Politics
October 26, 2021
Why Doesn’t Texas Execute People Anymore?
Texas will put only three inmates to death in 2021. So much for our hang-’em-high reputation.
Film & TV
July 2, 2021
Texas Executed Carlos DeLuna for Murder in 1989. A New Documentary Says He Was Innocent.
The Phantom stylishly portrays what most everybody knows: the 27-year-old Texan didn’t kill Wanda Lopez.
Books
January 28, 2021
Why Is the Death Penalty on the Decline in Texas?
Maurice Chammah’s “Let the Lord Sort Them” is a searing history of the rise and fall of capital punishment.
Politics & Policy
December 9, 2019
Who Gets to Live and Die When the State Relies on False Testimony in Death Penalty Cases?
A.P. Merillat helped send at least 15 people to death row. On Wednesday, Travis Runnels will become the third this year to be executed, even though a former prison official calls Merillat’s testimony “bullshit.”
News & Politics
November 15, 2019
Rodney Reed Will Not Be Executed on November 20
The case, which has attracted huge amounts of attention, will go back to the trial court.
News & Politics
November 13, 2019
Inside the Death Row Case That Has Everyone From Ted Cruz to Kim Kardashian Speaking Out
Rodney Reed has been on Texas’ death row for 21 years, but new evidence and witnesses have drawn national attention ahead of his upcoming execution date.
Politics & Policy
September 9, 2019
The Texas Death Penalty Machine Has Become Increasingly Grotesque
There’s something dishonest in the state’s bureaucratic approach to killing its own citizens.
August 3, 2018
Witness to More Than 400 Executions, Michael Graczyk Reflects on His Career
The Associated Press reporter discusses his 17,000 days on the job in our Reporter podcast.
News & Politics
June 4, 2018
Is Andre Thomas Too Crazy to Be Executed?
The case of a man who slaughtered his family, then gouged out his eyes, will be reviewed Tuesday by an appellate court panel in New Orleans.
Infographic
November 18, 2015
Life and Death
A death penalty in decline.
Health
October 27, 2015
The FDA Confiscated A Supply Of Execution Drugs Texas Is Thought To Have Imported Illegally
With the increased difficulty of maintaining a pentobarbital supply, Texas and Arizona are accused of importing an unapproved drug.
The Daily Post
September 22, 2015
Why Would It Matter If Deputy Goforth Was Having An Affair?
The personal life of the slain sheriff’s deputy is no one’s business, but it could be important to his alleged killer's defense.
Politics & Policy
December 3, 2014
Why Did the Conservative Fifth Circuit Stay Panetti’s Execution?
Maybe it had something to do with the dissent written last week by Judge Tom Price, of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Politics & Policy
November 21, 2014
Will Rick Perry Grant Clemency to Max Soffar?
More than 115,000 people think he should.
News & Politics
August 12, 2014
The Witness
For more than a decade, Michelle Lyons’s job required her to watch condemned criminals be put to death. After 278 executions, she won't ever be the same.
Politics & Policy
June 10, 2014
Perry Report Card: Criminal Justice
Yesterday, when we unveiled the cover of our July issue featuring Rick Perry, we also told you about “The Perry Report Card,” an upcoming magazine feature where, as the title suggests, we graded the tenure of the governor on eight areas of public policy. We invited you to weigh
Politics & Policy
June 9, 2014
The Many Lives of a Death Drug
The State of Texas uses pentobarbital for lethal injections, a drug with a long and complicated history. But the question everyone wants answered remains: Is it a painless way to die?
Politics & Policy
April 30, 2014
Oklahoma’s Botched Execution
That might not happen in Texas, but the risk should concern people who support capital punishment.
The Daily Post
April 2, 2014
Questions Remain About Texas’ Pentobarbital Supply
The state, the prisoners who face execution, the attorneys who represent them, and the courts have a lot to figure out, and not a lot of time to do it.
Business
March 20, 2014
Texas Isn’t Saying Where It Got Its New Supply of Pentobarbital
The state managed to find a new supply of Pentobarbital, the drug it uses to perform lethal injections, but officials aren't saying where it came from.
The Culture
November 12, 2013
Executions Are So Common, Even Protesting Them Has Become Routine
A small group of committed protesters show up to nearly every execution in Huntsville to exercise their civil rights in what has become a sort of ritual.
Politics & Policy
March 18, 2013
The Death Penalty Has a Face: A DA’s Personal Story
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?
The Culture
February 22, 2013
Texas Executes First Man of 2013
Carl Henry Blue was put to death Thursday for setting an ex-girlfriend on fire.
The Stand Up Desk
February 20, 2013
A Mighty Collaboration
The story from our March issue about the case of Andre Thomas is the fruit of an exciting collaboration with our pals at the Texas Tribune.
Longreads
February 12, 2013
Trouble in Mind
Andre Thomas is deeply mentally ill. He is also a vicious murderer. How should he be punished?
The Culture
January 21, 2013
It’s Spelled Y’all, Y’all.
If there’s one thing Texans love more than saying y’all, it’s a good argument. Texas Monthly readers react to the Department of Criminal Justice’s use of “ya’ll” instead of “y’all.”
January 21, 2013
Death Row Population Drops to Lowest Level Since 1989
Texas executed 15 people in 2012 and sent only nine new inmates to death row.
January 21, 2013
Texas Executes Tenth Man of 2012
Jonathan Green was put to death Wednesday for the 2000 murder of a 12-year-old girl, but his lawyers maintained until the end that their client was mentally ill and thus unsuitable for execution.
January 21, 2013
Texas Executes Eighth Man of 2012
Robert Wayne Harris, who was convicted of killing five people at a car wash in Irving, was executed by Texas after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to stay his execution.
January 21, 2013
Texas Executes Seventh Man of 2012
Marvin Wilson, an inmate with an IQ of 61 and the reasoning skills of a grade school student, was the latest to die in the Huntsville death chamber.
January 21, 2013
Texas Performs Sixth Execution of 2012
Yokamon Hearn was also the first person in Texas to be executed with the new single-ingredient lethal formula, pentobarbital.
January 21, 2013
Death Penalty Drugs: From Three to One
A shortage of pancuronium bromide forced the state to abandon the three-drug cocktail it has used to execute prisoners since 1982. But another drug has surfaced that will do the job.
January 21, 2013
Texas Performs Fifth Execution of 2012
Beunka Adams, who was pronounced dead on Thursday night at 6:25 p.m., participated in a deadly convenience store robbery in 2002.
January 21, 2013
Texas Executes Fourth Man of 2012
Jesse Joe Hernandez, who was pronounced dead on Wednesday night at 6:18 p.m., had beaten a 10-month-old baby to death in 2001.
January 21, 2013
Third Execution of 2012 Slated for Wednesday Night
Texas plans to execute Keith Thurmond Wednesday night for the 2001 murders of his estranged wife and her new boyfriend.
Behind the Lines
January 20, 2013
Life After Death
It’s time to halt executions in Texas.
Politics & Policy
January 20, 2013
TRANSCRIPT: “Very Few People Get off of Texas Death Row Alive”
Michael Hall’s exclusive interview with Ernest Willis.
January 20, 2013
Searching for Truth
Pamela Colloff talks about reporting on an eighteen-year-old murder case and interviewing Anthony Graves, who was sent to death row for the crime.
Editor's Letter
January 20, 2013
Tenacious P
If it’s something you’d just as soon not think about, chances are Pamela Colloff has written about it for TEXAS MONTHLY. Here is a partial list of the subjects she’s covered since coming to work at the magazine thirteen years ago: murder, arson, abortion, heroin addiction, hate crimes, illegal immigration,
April 5, 2012
TDCJ Wants to Keep a Secret
Why does the Texas Department of Criminal Justice want to block the release of information about its lethal drugs stock?
Web Exclusive
March 31, 2012
Justice in Time
Fifteen years after being released from death row, Kerry Max Cook is still looking for freedom.
January 26, 2012
Texas Set to Execute First Man of 2012
Rodrigo Hernandez, who was convicted of the rape and murder of Susan Verstegen, a 38-year-old single mother and Frito-Lay employee, is set to die.
December 16, 2011
Texas Executions Drop to Fifteen-Year Low
The number of people Texas executes each year is steadily declining as public sentiment in America turns against the death penalty.
Hollywood, TX
December 1, 2011
Perfect Execution
Into the Abyss dives deep into the death penalty debate.
Web Exclusive
June 30, 2011
Rick Perry v. Forensic Science
Larry Swearingen has ten scientists and doctors who say he isn't a killer. He also has a new execution date.
True Crime
September 27, 2010
Innocence Lost
Anthony Graves has spent the past eighteen years behind bars—twelve of them on death row—for a grisly 1992 murder. There was no plausible motive nor any physical evidence to connect him to the crime, and the only witness against him repeatedly recanted his testimony. Yet he remains locked up. Did