Texas

The latest edition of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund's Death Row USA shows a decrease of 31 inmates between January 1 and July 1, 2011.  Over the last decade, the total population of state and federal death rows has decreased significantly, from 3,682 inmates in 2000 to 3,220 inmates in 2011.  The percentage of Latino inmates facing execution, however, has steadily increased over the years.  In 1991, Latinos made up 6% of the nation's death row.  In 2011, Latinos or Latinas comprised 12% of death row inmates.  The states with the largest number of Hispanic death row inmates are California (167), Texas (95) and Florida (37).  The report also contains information on the race and gender of the victims in the underlying murders for those executed.  In cases where an execution has occurred since 1976, 77% of the victims in the underlying murders were white, even though generally whites constitute slightly less than 50% of all murders.

On December 19, Dallas District Court Judge Teresa Hawthorne held that Texas’s death penalty was unconstitutional because it could lead to death sentences that were arbitrarily sought and obtained.  In ruling in favor of a defense motion, Judge Hawthorne acknowledged that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and other courts have upheld the statute, but judges still have the obligation to review the law based on its current practice.  The judge found parts of Texas's statute regarding findings of future dangerousness and the definition of mitigating evidence to be vague or misleading.  The prosecution has filed a motion to recuse Judge Hawthorne from the case.  In 2010, another Texas judge, Kevin Fine of Harris County, found the same statute unconstitutional because it posed too great a risk of resulting in the execution of an innocent person. Judge Fine withdrew his ruling and began hearings on the issue until ordered to stop by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. UPDATE: Judge Hawthorne was required to recuse herself from the trial, though her constitutional ruling may still stand.

On December 15, the Death Penalty Information Center released its latest report, “The Death Penalty in 2011: Year End Report,” on statistics and trends in capital punishment in the past year.  The report noted that new death sentences dropped to 78 in 2011, marking the first time since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 that the country has produced less than 100 death sentences in a year.  It represents a 75% decline since 1996, when there were 315 new death sentences.  California, which has the country's largest death row, saw its death sentences drop by more than half this year - 10 compared with 29 in 2010.  Only 13 states carried out executions in 2011, 74% of which were in the South.  Only 8 states carried out more than one execution.  Texas led the country with 13 executions, but that number represents a 46% decrease from 2009, when there were 24 executions.  “This year, the use of the death penalty continued to decline by almost every measure," said Richard Dieter, DPIC’s Executive Director and the report’s author.  "Executions, death sentences, public support, the number of states with the death penalty all dropped from previous years.  Whether it’s concerns about unfairness, executing the innocent, the high costs of the death penalty, or the general feeling that the government just can’t get it right, Americans moved further away from capital punishment in 2011.”

DPIC is pleased to announce the completion of our State Information Pages for all 50 states and the District of Columbia.  These state profiles provide historical and current information on the death penalty for each state, including famous cases, past legislative actions, and links to key organizations and state officials.  For frequently updated information, such as execution totals, the size of death row, or the number of exonerations, see our State-by-State Database.  Readers are encouraged to send additional information, pictures, and links to organizations in their state.  You can reach the State Information Pages through the "State by State" button at the top of every page on our website or under the "Resources" tab in our main menu.