INTRODUCTION
Texas procedure generally
In Texas, the district courts have original jurisdiction for all criminal felony cases. If an individual is convicted of a capital felony, he or she may be subject to punishment by death, if the State sought such punishment. A capital felony is one in which an individual "intentionally or knowingly causes the death of an individual," under special circumstances. In particular, the:
In Texas, a person must be of at least 18 years of age at the time of the crime to have the death penalty imposed upon him or her2.
After the verdict is rendered, if the defendant is found guilty, the case is automatically appealed to the Court of Criminal Appeals3.
If the prisoner loses in the Court of Criminal Appeals, he/she may then appeal the case to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and then finally to the United States Supreme Court.
Clemency
When the entire appeals process has been exhausted, the Governor of the State of Texas still may have a limited power to grant clemency to the prisoner. In capital cases, the Governor has the constitutional authority to grant an offender one 30-day reprieve of a scheduled execution without a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Upon recommendation from the Board, the Governor may grant one or more reprieves in a capital case for any period of time that does not exceed the period recommended by the Board members4. If the prisoner submits a timely request for a reprieve of execution, the Board must determine, by majority vote, whether to recommend to the Governor that a reprieve be granted. Similarly, if a death row inmate files a timely petition to the Board from for a commutation of sentence to a lesser punishment, such as life imprisonment, the Board will vote on whether to recommend the commutation to the Governor5.
Method of execution
Between 1819 and 1923, Texas executed its death row prisoners by hanging. Then, from 1924 to 1977, the electric chair became the legal means of execution. In 1977, execution by lethal injection became the legal method of enacting the death penalty in Texas. The first prisoner executed by lethal injection in the United States took place in Texas in 19826.
Lethal injection uses a solution consisting of sodium thiopental (a lethal dose to sedate the person), pancuronium bromide (a muscle relaxant which collapses the diaphragm and lungs), and potassium chloride (which stops the heartbeat). Other states utilize lethal gas, electrocution, hanging or a firing squad7.
GENERAL SECONDARY RESOURCES
Many resources about the death penalty are available to the user. There are several excellent web sites devoted to this topic. The Web and library resources presented here contain a general introduction to the subject.
Web sites
The Clark County (Indiana) Prosecuting Attorney's 1000+ Death Penalty Links
- Contains an extensive list of links to both pro- and anti-death penalty supporters
Cornell Law School Death Penalty Project
- Includes links to recent decisions.
Court TV Library: Death Penalty
- Contains news and documentation about death penalty cases and laws for all U.S. jurisdictions.
Death Penalty Information Center
- Reports and information about Death Penalty issues
Tarlton's current capital punishment legal literature
- In this current awareness service, the Tarlton Law Library identifies recent capital punishment scholarship in U.S. legal journals and non-U.S. legal journals published in English. This web site includes basic bibliographic information and an image of the first page of each article.
Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
- Provides a detailed description about the Texas death penalty procedures and links to relevant legislation.
ACLU Death Penalty Page
- Includes congressional news, ACLU briefing papers and other resources.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice Statistics
- Source for Texas death penalty facts and statistics.
Bureau of Justice Statistics
- Source for U.S. statistics and reports on the death penalty and correctional populations.
Bureau of Justice Statistics - Sourcebook of Criminal Justice statistics online
- The Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics brings together data about all aspects of criminal justice in the United States presented in over 600 tables from more than 100 sources.
Federal Death Penalty System
- Provides information regarding the federal death penalty system since the enactment of the first modern capital punishment statute in 1988. The survey explains the Department of Justice’s internal decision-making process for deciding whether to seek the death penalty in individual cases, and presents statistical information focusing on the racial/ethnic and geographic distribution of defendants and their victims. Published 9/12/2000.
Supplementary Data, Analysis and Revised Protocols for Capital Case Review
- Completes the survey and assessment of the federal death penalty system as noted above. Published 6/6/2001.
Legal Information Institute (LII) death penalty page
- Provides an overview of death penalty issues.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) list of offenders on death row
- Includes information on the age, race, and gender of the offender, the county in which the crime occurred. For many of the offenders also includes information about the crime leading to the death sentence as well as information about the co-defendants if any and the victim(s).
NCADP - The National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
- Includes related news, facts and figures, and links to government, research, and legal resources, as well as various advocacy groups and resources for victims.
NCSC National Center for State Courts death penalty FAQ
- Identifies states with the death penalty, crimes punishable by death, methods of execution in use in the United States, inmates currently on death row, costs to prosecute a capital case through to execution, states that have placed executions on hold, the frequency of executive clemency, and the answers to other frequently asked questions about the death penalty. Also includes links to related NCSC documents, state links, and a resource guide.
Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life death penalty page
- Includes a timeline of important court cases and legal milestones since 1972, a breakdown of 16 major religious groups' views on the subject, public opinion polls, state-by-state statistics, and an examination of candidates on the issue. The Forum describes itself as a “nonpartisan, non-advocacy organization” and states that it does not take positions on policy debates.
The Death Penalty – Pro and Con, from Frontline
- Opposing positions taken by justices Blackmun and Scalia, lawyers and legal scholars, the American Bar Association, and the Catholic church.
Print materials
The Tarlton Law Library has a very extensive collection relating to capital punishment. To find additional print and video materials about the death penalty, you will want to do a subject search in TALLONS using the term "capital punishment."
Selected print resources:
Against Capital Punishment: The Anti-Death Penalty Movement in America, 1972-1994 (2nd floor, HV 8699 U5 H35 1996)
America's Experiment with Capital Punishment: Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 A746 2003)
Arbitrary and Capricious: The Supreme Court, the Constitution, and the Death Penalty (4th floor, KF 9227 C2 F65 2003)
Article 37: Prohibition of Torture, Death Penalty, Life Imprisonment, and Deprivation of Liberty (6th floor, K 639 C65 art.37 2006)
The Bitter Fruit of American Justice: International and Domestic Resistance to the Death Penalty (4th floor, KF 9227 C2 C53 2007)
Beyond Repair?: America’s Death Penalty (4th floor, KF 9227 C2 B49 2003)
Capital Punishment (CQ’s Vital Issues series) (2nd floor, HV 8699 U5 G66 2002)
Capital Punishment: a Reference Handbook (2nd floor, HV 8699 U5 K76 2001)
Capital Punishment: Strategies for Abolition (6th floor, HV 8694 C2853 2004)
The Contradictions of American Capital Punishment (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 Z563 2003)
The Cultural Lives of Capital Punishment: Comparative Perspectives (6th floor, HV 8694 C77 2005)
Dead Certainty: The Death Penalty and the Problem of Judgment (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 C86 2008)
Dead Wrong: Violence, Vengeance, and the Victims of Capital Punishment (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 S72 2006)
The Death Penalty: An American Citizen’s Guide to Understanding Federal and State Laws (4th floor, KF 9725 P35 1998)
The Death Penalty: An American History (2nd floor, HV 8699 U5 B367 2002)
The Death Penalty: For and Against (2nd floor, HV 8694 P57 1998)
The Death Penalty: An Historical and Theological Survey (6th floor, K 5104 M44 1997)
Death Penalty in a Nutshell (4th floor, KF 9227 C2 S771 2005)
Death Row U.S.A. Reporter (4th floor, KF 9725 D42)
The Death Penalty: Beyond the Smoke and Mirrors (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 H44 2006)
The Death Penalty: A Worldwide Perspective (6th floor, HV 8694 H657 2008)
The Death Penalty on Trial: Crisis in American Justice (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 K87 2004)
Death Penalty on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents (4th floor, KF 9227 C2 G47 2005)
Death Nation: The Experts Explain American Capital Punishment (4th floor, KF 9227 C2 R63 2008)
Debating the Death Penalty: Should America have Capital Punishment?: The Experts on Both Sides Make Their Best Case (4th floor, HV 8699 U5 D635 2004)
The Decline of the Death Penalty and the Discovery of Innocence (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 B38 2008)
Determinants of the Death Penalty: A Comparative Study of the World (6th floor, HV 8694 A63 2004)
Evolving Standards of Decency: Popular Culture and Capital Punishment (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 A89 2004)
From Lynch Mobs to the Killing State: Race and the Death Penalty in America (4th floor, KF 9227 C2 F755 2006)
From Nose to Needle: Capital Punishment and the Late Liberal State (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 K38 2002)
The Hangman's Knot: Lynching, Legal Execution, and America's Struggle with the Death Penalty (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 S73 2003)
The International Sourcebook on Capital Punishment by the Center for Capital Punishment Studies (2nd floor, HV 8694 I58 1997)
The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology (4th floor, K 10 O85923)
A Life and Death Decision: A Jury Weighs the Death Penalty (4th floor, KF 9680 S86 2005)
Race, Class, and the Death Penalty: Capital Punishment in American History (6th floor, HV 8699 U5 A725 2008)
Racial Prejudice, Juror Empathy, and Sentencing in Death Penalty Cases (4th floor, KF 9685 E33 2006)
Understanding Capital Punishment Law (4th floor, KF 9227 C2 C37 2004)
Wrongful Capital Convictions and the Legitimacy of the Death Penalty 6th floor, HV 8699 U5 M54 2006)
When the State Kills: Capital Punishment and the American Condition (2nd floor, HV 8699 U5 S27 2001)
Texas print resources:
After the Death Sentence: Appeals, Clemency and Representation (5th floor, KFT 1765 C2 D86 1994)
Lethal Indifference: the Fatal Combination of Incompetent Attorneys and Unaccountable Courts in Texas Death Penalty Appeals (5th floor, KFT 1765 C2 L47 2002)
Lethal Injection: Capital Punishment in Texas during the Modern Era (4th floor, HV 8699 U5 S67 2006)
Minimizing Risk: A Blueprint for Death Penalty Reform in Texas (5th floor, KFT 1765 C2 M56 2005)
Prison City: Life with the Death Penalty in Huntsville, Texas (6th floor, HV 9481 H82 M37 2007)
The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990 (2nd floor, HV 8699 U5 M35 1994)
A Study of Representation in Capital Cases in Texas (5th floor, KFT 1765 C2 A87 1993)
Texas Sentencing (5th floor, KFT 1783.2 A95 1998)
Texas and the Death Penalty: A Documentary (Gavel Room & Media Center, Videocassette KFT 1765 C2 R53 1997)
TEXAS PRIMARY AUTHORITIES
Texas constitution
Article 5, section 5 of the Texas Constitution specifically discusses death penalty cases. Copies of the constitution are available on the Web at http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/txconst/toc.html. Print copies are also available in Vernon’s Annotated Constitution of the State of Texas (Stacks, Reference, and Microfiche: KFT 1230.5 V4 A1)
Texas legislation
Texas laws on capital punishment and the death penalty are covered in both the
You may also find the Code of Criminal Procedure on the Web at http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/cptoc.html. The Penal Code can be found online as well at http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/petoc.html.
Texas case law
West's South Western Reporter contains most of the Texas case law on capital punishment decisions (Stack 209). To find death penalty cases in the reporters, use secondary resources to help you find the citations. One good place to start is the West’s Texas Digest, under the Key Number Homicide 355 (Death Penalty). The digest is found in Stack 210.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ web site (http://www.cca.courts.state.tx.us/) includes the capability to search the appellate court index of capital punishment decisions.
Texas regulations
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is the agency responsible for incarcerating individuals who have been convicted of a capital felony and sentenced with the death penalty. You may find more information about the TDCJ at its web site, http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/index.htm. In addition, Tarlton maintains copies of the TDCJ’s Annual Report at HV 8363 A2 (2nd floor stacks).
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is responsible for recommending and supervising the parole of eligible inmates. In cases involving the death penalty, this board is the one to recommend to the Governor that a 30-day reprieve should be granted. The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles publishes its rules on the agency web site at http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/bpp/.
Rules of both agencies are also published in the Official Texas Administrative Code, which is located in the Stacks (KFT 1234.5 O43). Title 37 Chapter 5 relates to the Board of Pardons and Paroles, and Chapter 6 contains rules from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. You may also access a copy through the Internet at http://www.sos.state.tx.us/tac/index.shtml.
FEDERAL PRIMARY AUTHORITIES
United States constitution
The Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution are often used in discussing the death penalty. A copy of the Constitution may be found in Black’s Law Dictionary (KF 156 B53 2004 in the Reference Office). You may also review a copy at the U.S. Senate’s web site at http://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm or at the website of the National Constitution Center, http://www.constitutioncenter.org.
Federal legislation
Title 18, Crimes and Criminal Procedure, of the United States Code will be useful for researching information on the death penalty. The code is available in United States Code (USC), United States Code Annotated (USCA), and United States Code Service (USCS), all located in Stack 211 on the 2nd floor. (An additional copy of the USCA is in Stack 539). In addition, a copy of the Title 18 is available online at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18 .
Federal case law
Copies of decisions made by the United States Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeals or the District Courts regarding death penalty cases are available in many locations. To find death penalty cases, you will want to look in secondary sources. One good place to start is in the West’s Federal Practice Digest, under the Key Number Homicide 355 (Death Penalty). In paper, the digest is found on the 2nd floor stacks.
Capital Cases Outline: United States Supreme Court (KF 9227 C2 M32 1997) summarizes national cases which involve the death penalty. Death Penalty Cases: Leading U.S. Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishment (KF 9227 C2 L38 2002) identifies those most prominent cases that have been decided by the United States Supreme Court.
The Criminal Law Reporter (KF 9615 C7) is a weekly publication that provides a survey and analysis, and court decisions.
The full texts of federal cases are available in the following locations:
Supreme Court decisions
Historic - Available at http://www.fedworld.gov/supcourt/index.htm
U.S. Court of Appeals decisions
U.S. District Courts from 1789
Federal regulations
The United States Sentencing Commission is an independent federal agency whose mission is to recommend effective guidelines for the federal criminal justice system. These recommendations are published in the Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manual, which is located in the stacks at KF 9685 A875 or online at http://www.ussc.gov/guidelin.htm.
If you need any additional assistance, please contact the reference librarian on staff.
Last update: October 17, 20081 See Penal Code Sec. 19.03, available at: http://tlo2.tlc.state.tx.us/statutes/cptoc.html , and for more information see the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Death Row website at: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/deathrow.htm.
2See the Texas Penal Code, Sec. 8.07(c).
3See the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure, Sec. 37.071(h).
4See Code of Criminal Procedure, Art. 48.01.
5See the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole's website at: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/bpp/.
6For a more detailed history of the capital punishment in Texas, see the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's webpage, "History" http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/drowfacts.htm.
7For more facts about the Death Penalty in Texas and in the United States see the Death Penalty Information Center website, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org and The Texas Department of Criminal Justice's website, http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/drowfacts.htm.