News & Politics
October 20, 2021
The State of Texas Tried to Kill Ernest Willis. But He Still Had a Lot of Living to Do.
The wild times of a gentle roughneck who beat the Texas criminal-justice system.
Death Row
Politics & Policy
July 13, 2020
How a New Jersey Divinity Student Helped Transform the Texas Criminal Justice System
Jim McCloskey, the godfather of the innocence movement, changed the way we think about crime and 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.
News & Politics
September 10, 2018
‘He Never Got an Apology’: Death Row Exoneree Clarence Brandley Dies at 66
Brandley died last week, 31 years after the state of Texas tried and failed to kill him.
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.
The Daily Post
June 7, 2017
Rabbit’s Got the Gun
Kerry Max Cook, who spent almost twenty years on death row for a murder he maintains he didn't commit, sues the people who sent him there.
March 29, 2017
Intelligence Quotient
The Supreme Court says Texas must change the way it determines who can be executed.
Criminal Justice
July 28, 2016
Does This Man Deserve to Die?
Op-ed: Jeffrey Wood was sentenced to death under the Texas law of parties. But should someone who didn’t pull the trigger be executed?
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.
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.
Politics & Policy
October 9, 2014
Governor Perry, Have Mercy on This Man
Max Soffar is dying on death row, where he sits for a crime I'm certain he didn't commit. Maybe this letter will convince you to let him spend his last days at home with his family.
National Magazine Award Nominee
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?
Essay
April 15, 2014
Witness to an Execution
Why I decided to watch my father’s killer die.
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.
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 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.
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?
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?
Criminal Justice
March 6, 2013
Reasonable Doubt: The Manuel Velez Case
UPDATED: A Brownsville construction worker named Manuel Velez was sent to death row in 2008 after he was convicted of killing his girlfriend’s baby. Five years later, new testimony from a number of forensic experts suggests that the medical evidence against Velez was deeply flawed. Now he may receive the
January 21, 2013
Texas Executes Fourteenth Man of 2012
Ramon Hernandez, put to death for a 2001 slaying, was also linked to three other murders, prosecutors said.
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 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 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.
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.
Politics & Policy
January 20, 2013
TRANSCRIPT: “Very Few People Get off of Texas Death Row Alive”
Michael Hall’s exclusive interview with Ernest Willis.
News & Politics
January 20, 2013
A New Lease On Life
Freedom for Earnest Willis?
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.
Web Exclusive
January 1, 2009
The Science of Murder
Someone killed Melissa Trotter and dumped her body in the Sam Houston National Forest. But according to six forensic experts, that someone was not Larry Swearingen.
News & Politics
February 1, 1999
The Getaway
There’s something romantic about a jailbreak, even when the escapee is a cold-blooded killer on death row. That’s why our feelings about Martin Gurule were more than a little complicated.
News & Politics
July 31, 1992
A System Gone Bad
Kenneth McDuff is just one among hundreds of violent criminals who never should have been paroled—but they were.
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.
True Crime
June 30, 1976
The Girl, the Con Man, and the Massage Parlor King
The girl wanted love, the men wanted money, and when they all got together it was murder.