Since 1982, Texas has executed 583 people, more than any state in the United States. The people that the state of Texas has executed includes, but is not limited to, innocent people, juveniles, foreign nationals, and people who are significantly impaired. As of March 2023, 184 people are confined to Texas’s death row, and most are people of color. Aside from legal executions, 2021 was one of the deadliest years at the US-Mexico border, and the number of deaths and the mortality rate in state prisons was the highest it has been since the federal government started collecting mortality data in 2001.
In Texas, we have established organizations to abolish death sentences; however, we have yet to create a united front, or even an ongoing coalition framework to end state-sanctioned lethal violence. This summer, the Texas People’s Tribunal Planning Committee will host “Lethal Violence & the Lone Star State: A Southwest Conference on State Authorized Executions,” which aims to: