A New Year, a New Life Saved
Dear Friends,
As we enter the New Year, we want to share important news: a prosecutor has agreed to not pursue the death penalty against one of our pretrial clients. After vigorous advocacy by Texas Defender Service and our partners at the Gulf Region Advocacy Center and Advancing Real Change, Inc., the prosecutor agreed to a life sentence.
Texas Defender Service has now saved 58 lives since 2018. Through our deep life history investigations and compassionate legal advocacy, we protect people from execution or death sentences in Texas, historically the most voracious user of capital punishment on the planet. Those saved lives include 44 people who, like our recent client, faced capital charges and whose cases were settled for less than death, sometimes even a term of decades.
The death penalty drains taxpayer resources, targets the innocent, and perpetuates racial disparities, all while failing to promote public safety. We need to focus on other approaches to crime and violence that actually make us safer. Through storytelling and legal advocacy, Texas Defender Service works to move legal actors—courts, prosecutors, and juries—away from the death penalty so that as a society, we can focus on solutions that work. As 2026 unfolds, let’s advocate for justice, humanity, and safety for all.
With gratitude,
Burke Butler
Executive Director
Texas Defender Service
