Dear Friends, Signed just hours after he returned to office, President Trump’s Executive Order to “restore” the death penalty demanded that the United States Attorney General try to overturn long-standing U.S. Supreme Court precedents that protect the constitutional rights of people facing a capital sentence. Then, just yesterday, the U.S. Attorney General issued a sweeping memo announcing their intentions […]
Dear Friends, In 2024, Texas Defender Service launched our Pro Bono Parole Program, which connects deserving candidates seeking parole with pro bono attorneys who can advocate for their release home. In just a few months, four of our clients have already been granted parole. One of them is Christopher, a father of four who had been […]
Dear Friends, Today, President Biden has taken the historic step of commuting the sentences of nearly 2,500 people serving long prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, the broadest commutation of individual sentences ever by a U.S. president. This act recognizes the importance of second chances and acknowledges the racial inequalities caused by extreme sentences in the […]
Dear Friends, We are heartbroken to share that our client Ramiro Gonzales was killed last night by the State of Texas, after the United States Supreme Court denied his lawyers’ final plea for his life. Thank you to the thousands of you who spoke out for Ramiro’s humanity. We find comfort that his story of […]
Dear Friends, Please help save Ramiro Gonzales. Sign the petition calling on the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles and Governor Abbott to spare his life. Ramiro Gonzales is set to be executed by the State of Texas on June 26, 2024, for a murder he committed just a few months after his 18th birthday. Today a […]
Dear Supporters, Please join us for an important conversation about race and the death penalty in Texas. On May 30th from 6:30-7:30 pm central time, Estelle Hebron-Jones, Texas Defender Service’s Director of Special Projects, will co-lead a Zoom discussion about the legacy of lynching and slavery in Texas and its impact on the modern death penalty. You […]
