Capital punishment convictions declined in 2008, but the Huntsville death machine did not slow – from June through November, the state executed 18 inmates, accounting for half of all executions nationwide.
The total number of inmates executed likely would’ve been higher were it not for the de facto stay that’s in effect pending the U.S. Supreme Court‘s decision in a case that challenged the lethal injection method as unconstitutional. The method is legal, the Supremes opined (at least as practiced in Kentucky, where the case originated), and their decision opened the doors of the Texas death chamber once more. Whether the practice will again be challenged by a state with a more extensive record of executions – read, Texas – remains to be seen.
Of the 18 people put to death, nine were black, six were white, and three were Hispanic, reports the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, in its second annual report on capital punishment in Texas. According to the report, 10 inmates received a stay of execution in 2008 (four were ultimately executed), and eight inmates were released from the row when their sentences were commuted to life in prison.
One inmate, Michael Blair, was exonerated after DNA testing failed to connect him to the rape-murder of 7-year-old Ashley Estell. Blair is the ninth inmate exonerated from Texas’ death row. He spent 14 years on the row for Estell’s murder. (Blair remains in prison, however, where he’s serving life for other crimes.)
This article appears in December 19 • 2008.