Death penalty

Roberson was scheduled to be executed on Thursday but an unprecedented legal move, a subpoena from the Texas House, saved him from lethal injection. Legislators are investigating why the state’s junk science law has not been applied in Roberson’s case and others on death row.

Texas death row inmate Robert Roberson lost one of his final appeals on Friday. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused to stop his Oct. 17 execution.

Texas has executed 588 people since 1982—all by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit. This is more than any other state in the country. Texas Public Radio's David Martin Davies was a witness for the most recent Texas execution. He has this reflection.

The day would have been Bridget Townsend’s 41st birthday. Instead of having a party, her family was in Huntsville watching her killer be put to death.

Melissa Lucio's family, attorneys, the Cameron County District Attorney and now a county judge say she should be exonerated from a 2008 murder charge.

The state of Texas on Thursday executed Brent Ray Brewer for the 1990 robbery and murder of Robert Doyle Laminack in Amarillo. As Brewer faced his execution, his final words expressed remorse for the murder: "I hope you find peace."

Activists for the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement will be in various Texas cities on Tuesday to protest the scheduled execution of Jedidiah Murphy.

The federal government has largely avoided pursuing the death penalty under President Biden.

NPR's Daniel Estrin speaks with Maurice Chammah, a staff writer for The Marshall Project, about his reporting this week on South Carolina's restoration of the firing squad as a method of execution.

The Harlingen woman's attorneys say new evidence proves her innocence in plea to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.