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Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2014: the Year in Review

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Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2014: the Year in Review Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2014: The Year in Review The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP) publishes this annual report to inform citizens and elected officials about issues associated with the death penalty in Texas during the past year. It presents information on new death sentences, executions, and stays; reduced sentences; wrongful convictions; judicial developments; and other issues affecting the administration of justice in Texas. Death Sentences New Death Sentences New death sentences in Texas have dropped nearly 80% since 1999. Juries condemned 11 new individuals to death in Texas to date this year, according to data compiled from media outlets and the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ).1 Death sentences peaked in 1999, when juries sent 48 people to death row. In 2010, new death sentences fell to their lowest number since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Texas’ revised death penalty statute in 1976. New death sentences in Texas 60 40 48 37 20 34 26 28 24 14 14 0 11 12 9 8 8 9 9 11 Death Sentences by County Four of this year’s eleven death sentences were imposed by juries in Harris County. A total of eight counties accounted for the new death row inmates in 2014: El Paso (1); Harris (4); Kaufman (1); Lubbock (1); McLennan (1); Tarrant (1); Travis (1); and Williamson (1). Among the four individuals sentenced to death in Harris County was Juan Balderas, who was convicted of murdering 16-year-old Eduardo Hernandez in 2005. Balderas waited more than eight years to be tried for a crime that occurred when he was 19 years old. A jury sentenced him to death on March 14, 2014. The death sentence imposed on Brian Suniga was the first in Lubbock County since 2008; a total of 20 people have been sentenced to death in Lubbock County. He was convicted of murdering 26-year-old David Rowser II in December 2011. 1 This includes the case of Eric Williams, who was sentenced to death on December 17, 2014. Williams was found guilty of murdering Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia McLelland in March 2013. The trial was moved from Kaufman to Rockwall County. 1 El Paso County imposed its first death sentence since 2009, condemning Fidencio Valdez to death for the December 2010 shooting of Julio Barrios. (See Jury Rejections below for information about another capital murder trial this year in El Paso.) The death sentence imposed on Steven Thomas on October 27, 2014 was the first in Williamson County in 15 years. The jury in his capital murder trial sentenced him to death for killing 73-year-old Mildred McKinney in 1980. The murder had gone unsolved until 2012, when police connected Thomas to the crime after obtaining DNA evidence through a drug arrest. An analysis of data from 2010 to 2014 reveals that only 21 Texas counties have imposed death sentences in the last 5 years; of these, only 13 counties have done so in the last 2 years. Just five counties – 2% of the 254 counties in Texas – account for more than 60% of new death sentences since 2010. Prosecutors in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office account for more than 20% of new death sentences since 2010. Out of a total 45 death sentences imposed in this time period, Harris County leads with 10, followed by Dallas County with 7, Tarrant County with 4, and Travis and McLennan Counties with 3 each. The other 16 counties imposed 1-2 sentences each. Notably, prosecutors in Dallas County did not pursue the death penalty in any new capital murder trials in 2014. Texas’ Highest Sentencing Counties Since 2010 Total Total 2010- Since 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2014 1976 Harris 2 3 0 1 4 10 294 Dallas 2 0 2 3 0 7 106 Tarrant 0 1 2 0 1 4 73 Travis 1 1 0 0 1 3 20 McLennan 0 0 1 1 1 3 18 Total 5 5 5 5 7 27 511 Total All Counties 8 8 9 9 11 45 1,087 View a map of new death sentences by county from 2010 to 2014 at http://tcadp.org/2010-2014-new-death-sentences/. 2 Death Sentences by Race Five of the new death row inmates in 2014 are African-American, four are white, and two are Hispanic. 2 All are male. Over the last five years, 60% of all new death sentences in Texas have been imposed on African-Americans. In the two highest sentencing counties, these patterns are even more pronounced: Death Sentences by Race • In Harris County, 15 of the last 18 defendants 2010-2014 sentenced to death are African-American and the other 3 are Hispanic. The last death sentence 24% People imposed on a white defendant in Harris County of color occurred in November 2004, when serial killer Anthony Shore was sent to death row. Whites 76% • Of the 11 men sentenced to death in Dallas County since 2008, 8 are African-American and 2 are Hispanic. While African-Americans comprise only 12% of the population of Texas, they comprise 41.8% of death row inmates, according to TDCJ.3 Hispanics comprise 28.2% of the death row population, and whites comprise 28.6%. New Death Sentences by Race of Defendant, 2010-2014 Total Sentences by 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Race African-American 4 4 7 7 5 27 Hispanic 1 2 1 1 2 7 White 3 2 1 1 4 11 Total People of Color 5 6 8 8 7 34 Total Sentences 8 8 9 9 11 45 As of November 6, 2014, TDCJ counted 273 death row inmates, which includes 7 women.4 This remains the lowest Texas death row population since the late 1980s, according to research by TCADP. More than one-third of these individuals were convicted in Harris County.5 Texas holds the third-largest death row population in the nation, after California (750) and Florida (395). See Appendix A for a list of new death row inmates in Texas. 2 The Texas Department of Criminal Justice lists Brian Suniga of Lubbock as white, although other records cite his race/ethnicity as Hispanic. 3 See http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/death_row/dr_gender_racial_stats.html for more information. 4 Cathy Henderson still appears on this list, even though her conviction was overturned in 2012. The Travis County District Attorney’s Office announced in 2013 that it would not seek another death sentence during her re-trial. 5 TDCJ counted 97 inmates from Harris County as of November 6, 2014. 3 Jury Rejections Death-qualified juries rejected the death penalty in two cases in 2014: • In the first Texas death penalty trial of 2014, an El Paso County jury determined that 23-year-old Christian Martinez should spend the rest of his life in prison for the 2011 murders of Amalia Flores, 58, and her daughter Jovana Flores, 20. In announcing their decision on February 5, ten of the twelve jurors agreed that mitigating evidence warranted a sentence other than death. Martinez had no history of violence and reportedly attempted suicide at the crime scene. • In June, Cornelius Harper received a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole after the jury in his trial in Fort Bend County determined that mitigating evidence warranted a punishment other than the death penalty. He was convicted of the 2010 murders of his cousin, Yancey Daniels, and Daniels’ girlfriend Leiah Jackson, who was pregnant at the time. Over the last five years, death-qualified juries have rejected the death penalty in at least 14 capital murder trials in Texas. Four of these rejections occurred in cases that were tried or originated in Bexar County. Bexar County, which has sentenced the third highest number of people to death in Texas since 1976, has not imposed any new death sentences since 2009. Resentenced to Death Two individuals were resentenced to death this year after courts ordered new punishment hearings: • On July 23, 2014, a Dallas County jury resentenced Kenneth Wayne Thomas to death for the murders of Fred and Mildred Finch in 1986. According to the Dallas Morning News, Thomas' initial trial in 1987 marked the first time that a black defendant in Dallas County faced the death penalty for killing a black person. An all-white jury sentenced him to death.6 The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered a new sentencing hearing in 2010 after determining that prior jurors could not properly consider whether Thomas’ mental impairments mitigated his actions. After deliberating for three hours, the new jury rejected defense attorneys’ contention that his low intelligence, brain damage, and mental illness should exempt him from execution. Thomas has an IQ in the low to mid-70s, which makes him “borderline retarded,” according to testimony and court records.7 • In November, a jury in Harris County resentenced Warren Rivers to death for the May 1987 slaying of 11-year-old Carl Nance Jr. in Houston. Rivers received a new sentencing hearing as the result of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the 6 “Kenneth Wayne Thomas sentenced to death for murder of prominent attorney,” Dallas Morning News, February 28, 1987 7 “Brother testifies against brother at capital trial in 1986 Dallas murders,” Dallas Morning News, July 14, 2014 4 case of Johnny Paul Penry, which determined that jurors must be given an opportunity to consider mitigating evidence in the punishment phase of death penalty trials. According to the Houston Chronicle, “The landmark Penry cases brought almost 20 cases back to Harris County that have slowly wound their way through the retrial process.”8 Executions The State of Texas executed 10 people in 2014, the fewest executions to take place in the state since 1996, when 3 people were put to death.
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