Is anyone really shocked that Texas still believes in capital punishment? With Texas being a republican state the history of death row is well expected. Execution by was hanging was used from 1819 to 1923 and each county was responsible for their own executions. The use of the electric chair began in 1923 by the state of Texas. That same year The State of Texas required that all executions be completed in Huntsville.
On February 8, 1924, the state’s first execution by electrocution was Charles Reynolds who ended up on death road for murder. On that same day, four other inmates were also executed, Ewell Morris, George Washington, Mack Matthews, and Melvin Johnson. A total of 361 inmates were electrocuted in the State of Texas.
On June 29, 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court declared capital punishment as “cruel and unusual punishment. At this time there were 45 men on death row and 7 in county jails with a death sentence. All sentences were then changed to life sentences by the Governor of Texas and death row was clear by March of 1973. By January 1, 1974, they had revised the Texas Penal Code and “allowed assessment of the death penalty and allowed executions to continue.
By February 15, 1974, John Devries was the first man placed on death row, he then committed suicide on July 1, 1974. In 1977 the state of Texas began using lethal injection for executions. On December 7, 1982, Charlie Brooks was the first to be executed in the State of Texas using the lethal injection. It was not until January 12, 1996, that close relatives and friends of the witness were allowed to witness the executions. More than 550 people in Texas were executed since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Looking at death penalties as a country 30 states, the federal government, and the U.S. Military still authorize them. Maryland and New Mexico do not have death penalty laws they do have incarcerated inmates with death sentences. In New York, the death penalty laws are being reviewed. California, Florida, Texas, and Pennsylvania have the largest death row populations and as of December 31, 2013, about 2,979 offenders were under sentence of death in the United States. Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty states that 565 people were executed in Texas since 1982; which 279 of them occurred during Rick Perry’s administration. Perry was governor from 2001 to 2014, averaging out to roughly 22 executions a year which is more than any other U.S. history.
These last few weeks Rodney Reed has been receiving plenty of attention for claiming he is innocent while being on death row. Reed was charged for the murder of 19-year-old Stacy Stites in 1996. She was a white woman and he is a black man, interracial relationships in rural texas were uncommon. A Texas Tribune says that Reed and his lawyers at the Innocence Project maintain that he had a consensual affair with Stites but did not kill her.
If Reed is found innocent, he will not be the only one to have been wrongfully convicted in Texas. 13 people have been wrongfully convicted. In 1987, after 10 years of being incarcerated Vernon McManus charges were dropped because a key witness refused to testify. Most recently, Alfred Dewayne Brown was released and exonerated from death row on June 8, 2015. He spent a decade on death row for the murder of a Houston Police Officer and a store clerk. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office had withheld material evidence that was in favor of Brown and the lack of evidence left them with no other option than to drop all charges on Brown. Here is a list of the other 11 who have been wrongfully convicted and the four people who were wrongfully executed; more information on their cases can be found on TCADP under wrongful convictions and wrongful execution.
Anthony Graves, Texas conviction: 1994, Charges dismissed: 2010
Robert Springsteen, Texas conviction: 2001, Charges dismissed: 2009
Michael Toney, Texas Conviction: 1999, Charges Dismissed: 2009
Michael Blair Texas Conviction: 1994, Charges Dismissed: 2008
Ernest Ray Willis Texas Conviction: 1987, Charges Dismissed: 2004
Ricardo Aldape Guerra Texas Conviction: 1982, Charges Dismissed: 1997
Muneer Deeb Texas Conviction: 1985, Acquitted: 1993
Federico M. Macias Texas Conviction: 1984, Charges Dismissed: 1993
Clarence Brandley Texas Conviction: 1981, Charges Dismissed: 1990
John C. Skelton Texas Conviction: 1983, Acquitted: 1990
Randall Dale Adams Texas Conviction: 1977, Charges Dismissed: 1989
Wrongful Execution
Ruben Cantu, August 24, 1993
Carlos DeLuna, 1983
Claude Jones, December 7, 2000
Cameron Todd Willingham, February 17, 2004
