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.
Execution
Politics & Policy
September 4, 2019
The Governor Wants “Expedited Executions” For Mass Shooters. But Who Would That Deter?
Of the four major mass shooting suspects in Texas in recent years, the only one it would impact is the man who wants to die as soon as possible.
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.
Health
March 31, 2015
The American Pharmacists Association Says It’s Unethical to Manufacture Execution Drugs
Another roadblock appears to be in place as Texas’s supply continues to dwindle.
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.
The Daily Post
May 19, 2014
Should Texas Bring Back The Firing Squad?
As the drugs used in lethal injections become more difficult to come by, one state lawmaker in Utah is proposing an old-school replacement: The firing squad. Should Texas consider a similar move?
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 Daily Post
December 12, 2013
The Death Row Inmates Who Sued Over the Execution Drug Have Appealed the Ruling
A Houston judge threw out the lawsuit against the state by three death row inmates who claimed that Texas was planning to kill them using unknown and untested drugs, so they're taking it to a higher court.
The Daily Post
October 8, 2013
What Running Out of Pentobarbital Means For Texas
According to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Associated Press, Texas is down to its last eight vials of the lethal injection drug pentobarbital—and the Houston-area "compounding pharmacy" that made them wants them back. What happens when the state runs out?
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.
January 21, 2013
Texas Performs Fifteenth and Final Execution of 2012
Preston Hughes III was executed Thursday night for the 1988 slayings of a 15-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy.
January 21, 2013
Texas Executes Thirteenth Man of 2012
Mario Swain, convicted of the murder of a Longview woman, had a history of stalking and assault.
January 21, 2013
Meet the One Man Whose Death Sentence Rick Perry Chose to Commute
A full 250 executions—more than half that the state has performed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976—have occurred on Rick Perry's watch.
January 21, 2013
Texas Performs 250th Execution on Rick Perry’s Watch
Donnie Lee Roberts, 41, was put to death for the 2003 slaying of his girlfriend in their Lake Livingston home. He was the twelfth man executed by Texas this year.
January 21, 2013
Texas Executes Eleventh Man of 2012
Texas put Bobby Lee Hines to death Wednesday for the 1991 slaying of Michelle Haupt inside her Carrollton apartment.
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
Analyzing the Final Statements of Death Row Inmates
A blogger looked at the final statements of 478 executed Texas inmates and determined that "love" was uttered more than any other word.
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
Texas Began Stockpiling Execution Drugs Before Shortage
A scoop from the Austin American-Statesman reveals the state spent $50,000 buying up the drugs last year before other states scrambled to get them from sources abroad.
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
“On Death Row” Documents Texas Prisoners
The German auteur Werner Herzog interviews prisoners on death row in Texas and Florida for his gripping new television series.
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.
January 21, 2013
Leader of “Texas Seven” Set to be Executed
Texas is set to execute George Rivas, who killed an Irving police officer on Christmas Eve 2000 after a legendary jail bust.
News & Politics
January 20, 2013
Separated At Death
Ernest Willis spent seventeen years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. And he has a few things to say about the case of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was executed in 2004 for a strangely similar crime that many experts believe he didn’t commit either.
December 14, 2012
The 15 Men Executed by the State of Texas in 2012
In 2012, the state executed its 250th inmate under Gov. Rick Perry and changed the drugs used for the lethal injection.
September 26, 2012
Texas Executes Ninth Person of 2012
The U.S. Supreme Court, which had stayed Cleve Foster's execution three times in the last year, declined to intervene Tuesday.
May 16, 2012
Did Texas Execute an Innocent Man?
The Columbia University Human Rights Law Review published a 400-page investigative article that alleges that in 1989, Texas executed the wrong man for a 1983 murder.
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.
News & Politics
December 1, 2007
Motion to Dismiss
Sharon Keller must go!
Politics & Policy
September 30, 1997
Seven Women
Should Texas execute a woman? You could debate that question to death.
News & Politics
February 1, 1983
Charlie Brooks’ Last Words
Charlie Brooks was the first man to die by lethal injection, but everyone wondered whether he or his partner was the real murderer. In his last days, Brooks answered that, and other questions.