Executions in Texas down in 2020, lowest since 1996
Anti-death penalty group says there were fewer executions partially due to COVID-19
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SAN ANTONIO – The state of Texas executed three convicted killers and juries across the state handed down just two death sentences in 2020.
In Bexar County, where the capital murder trial of accused cop killer Otis McKane is on hold due to COVID-19 concerns, there have been only two death sentences imposed since 2009.
”I think Bexar County is really emplematic of this shift, both in terms of jury rejections of the death penalty and prosecutors who are moving the county away from it,” said Kristin Cuellar, of the Texas Coalition Against the Death Penalty.
Decline in death penalty driven by COVID-19 pandemic, shift in prosecutor support
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Geronimo Gutierrez, 24, was convicted in the 1999 shotgun murder of Rick Marin. Earlier this year, Gutierrez’s death sentence was reduced to life in prison after prosecutors and judges agreed he had an intellectual disability. He was one of six men whose sentences were reduced based on claims of intellectual disabilities, according to a new report.Jerry Lara /Staff photographer
Use of the death penalty in Texas has dropped sharply in recent years, partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the election of prosecutors focused on criminal justice reform, a new report found.