Milestones in capital punishment in Texas:
1819 — George Brown is first person executed in Texas, by hanging.
1863 — Chipita Rodriguez is first woman executed in Texas, by hanging.
1923 — Lee Nathan becomes the last of 394 people executed by hanging.
1924 — Charles Reynolds becomes first inmate to die in the electric chair in Huntsville as state takes over executions.
1963 — Joseph Johnson is the last of 361 Texas prisoners to die in the electric chair.
1972 — U.S. Supreme Court finds death penalty “cruel and unusual;” death sentences of 52 people in Texas are commuted to life in prison.
1976 — U.S. Supreme Court holds Georgia death penalty statute constitutional, setting stage for resumption of executions.
1977 — Texas adopts lethal injection method.
1982 — Texas inmate Charlie Brooks becomes first in U.S. to receive lethal injection.
1998 — Karla Tucker becomes first woman executed in Texas since Civil War.
2000 — Texas executes a record 40 prisoners in one year.
2013 — Texas schedules execution of Kimberly McCarthy, number 500 by lethal injection.
__
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, “Espy File” database compiled by historians M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla.
Leave a Reply