Texas death row shrinking, but state still leads U.S. in executions

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

49% : For instance, one would expand the ability for courts to reconsider old cases based on new evidence, one sets new rules for the consideration of clemency proposals in capital cases; another would require courts to rescind executions dates at the request of the local district attorney, exactly what did not happen in the Ramirez case, and one would abolish the death penalty entirely.
47% : One death penalty case in Texas received national and international attention earlier this year, that of Melissa Lucio, although the execution was not ultimately carried out.
43% : Texas executed five men this year, tied with Oklahoma for the most of any state: Carl Buntion from Harris County, the oldest man put to death in Texas in the modern era of the death penalty; Kosul Chanthakoummane from Collin County, Tracy Beatty from Smith County, Stephen Barbee from Tarrant County and John Ramirez from Nueces County.
41% :There are vast racial disparities in the administration of the death penalty.
40% : Melissa Lucio case spotlights a troubling listExecutions, new death penalties and the total number of people on death row in Texas are all at or near historic low levels for the modern era of the death penalty, which dates back to 1977.
40% :"Because of the high hurdles that state and federal courts have erected for review and relief, these older cases from a bygone era of zealous use of the death penalty in Texas remain frozen in time, allowing their executions to proceed despite egregious constitutional violations," Cuellar said.
40% : The Ramirez and Lucio cases have led to proposed legislation from Texas Rep. Joe Moody, an El Paso Democrat who has advocated for years for the abolition of the death penalty.
33% : Moody was among the lawmakers who called attention to the Lucio case, and he has filed five bills so far to reform capital punishment in Texas.
28% : Tighter legal protections for defendants against misconduct from police or prosecutors have made it harder to carry out a death penalty, and prosecutors have grown less willing to seek capital punishment because of the cost and effort associated, but those already sitting on death row from earlier convictions don't benefit from those reforms.
25% :Kristin Houlé Cuellar, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which published the report, described the administration of capital punishment as a "lethal lottery."

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