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Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18. In 1982, the state became the first jurisdiction in the world to carry out an execution by lethal injection, when it executed Charles Brooks Jr.
Michael Ariens, Lone Star Law: A Legal History of Texas (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2011).Frank R. Baumgartner, Suzanna L. DeBoef, Amber E. Boydstun, The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008).Randolph B. Campbell, ed., compiled by William S. Pugsley and Marilyn P. Duncan, The Laws of Slavery in Texas (Austin ...
Find more fact sheets and resources on the death penalty in Texas here. The State of Texas has executed 591 people since 1982, more than any other state by far. Of these executions, 279 occurred during the administration of Texas Governor Rick Perry (2001-2014), more than any other governor in U.S. history. Texas executed five men in 2024.
In Texas, the earliest form of execution was by hanging. This eventually gave way to the firing squad. Between 1924 and 1964, all executions in Texas were by the electric chair in the Texas state prison facility known as the “Walls Unit” in Huntsville.
At that time, there were 52 men in Texas with death sentences. Governor Preston Smith commuted all of their sentences to life, and death row was clear by March 1973. In 1973, Texas passed a new statue to standardize the way the death penalty was assessed.
1924 - Texas carries out its first execution by electrocution in the execution of Charles Reynolds in Red River County. 1974 - Texas reinstates the death penalty following Furman v. Georgia. 1982 - Texas becomes the first state to carry out an execution by lethal injection.
Texas leads the nation in the number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. California, Florida, Texas, and Alabama have the largest death row populations. As of October 1, 2020, 2,557 inmates were under sentence of death in the United States.
