Bearing Witness to the Traumas of the Death Penalty in Texas
In 2008, Gabriel Solis traveled around the state collecting stories from Texans whose loved ones had been sentenced to death.
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In 2008, Gabriel Solis traveled around the state collecting stories from Texans whose loved ones had been sentenced to death.
Johnson, 52, was sentenced to death in 1993, when he was in his early 20s. Tried as a âdrug kingpinâ alongside two other men under the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act, he was convicted of seven murders â a shocking body count that many would associate with the âworst of the worst.â Yet the case would not likely end in a death sentence today. There was significant proof that Johnson had an intellectual disability, which should have forbidden him from being sentenced to death. But reviewing courts refused to consider the evidence. Regardless, Breedenâs task was not to ...