Kristin Houle strikes again!

The amazing Kristin Houle,former AISUA PADP staff (shown to the right with Bill Pelke and Connie Nash) has been down in Texas for the past year or so, focusing on mental illness and the death penalty in her home state of Texas. Below is a link to her blog, as well as her summary of TCADP's recent report.


Today, on the 25th anniversary of the resumption of executions in Texas, the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP) released a report on the state of the death penalty in Texas in 2007. Texas
Death Penalty Developments: The Year in Review covers such information as executions, stays, and new death sentences; judicial and legislative activity; and other developments impacting the state's criminal justice system.

On December 7, 1982, Charlie Brooks was the first person executed by the State of Texas under its revised statute – and the first person executed by lethal injection. His execution ushered in a new era in which Texas emerged as the uncontested leader in the use of the death penalty in the United States.

The State of Texas accounted for 62% of all executions carried out in the United States this year (26 out of 42). Only nine other states carried out executions in 2007; none executed more than three people.

Texas Death Penalty Developments in 2007: The Year in Review is available online at http://www.tcadp.org/contents/2007annualreport.pdf.