An Extreme Outlier: Race and the Death Penalty in Tarrant County
Dear Friends,
I am thrilled to share Texas Defender Service’s latest report, An Extreme Outlier: Race and the Death Penalty in Tarrant County, the Third Largest County in Texas. Even compared to the rest of Texas, historically the death penalty capital of the United States, Tarrant County is an extreme outlier, pursuing capital punishment almost exclusively against people of color.
No one should face execution because of the color of their skin or the zip code in which their case is tried. Yet at a time when most jurisdictions in Texas and around the country are moving away from the death penalty, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office continues to seek the ultimate punishment at a remarkable rate, and almost exclusively against people from racial and ethnic minority groups.
More than a decade ago, Texas began turning away from capital punishment, with prosecutors across the state increasingly citing the exorbitant cost of these cases and the wishes of victims’ survivors. In 2025, Texas judges set the fewest execution dates in three decades, and Texas juries imposed just three new death sentences. The Tarrant County DA’s Office has bucked the trend.
TDS reviewed every death penalty trial brought by the office since 2012, along with all 431 capital murder indictments in the county between 2003 and 2022, to assess whether the office is wielding this awesome power fairly and consistently. The answer is no:
- Tarrant County is home to only 7% of Texas’s population, yet it has accounted for nearly one-quarter of the state’s death penalty trials since 2020. Since 2024, that figure has risen to 42%.
- Since 2012, 12 of the 13 people the Tarrant County DA’s Office has sought to execute have been from racial or ethnic minority groups. 69% have been Black, even though Black residents make up just 20% of the county.
- The DA’s Office aggressively “upcharges” defendants with capital murder even when the evidence does not support those charges: Of the 431 cases TDS examined, 35% did not result in any homicide conviction, and 10% resulted in no jail time at all.
- Since 2012, every person acquitted of capital murder by a Tarrant County jury has been Black, as were eight of the nine people whom a grand jury refused to even indict.
Racism has no place in our criminal legal system, especially when the ultimate punishment is on the line. The Tarrant County DA’s Office has the power and the responsibility to change course. In the report, we offer four concrete recommendations for change. We will keep you posted on next steps and opportunities to promote change. In the meantime, please read the full report here.
With gratitude,
Burke Butler
Executive Director
Texas Defender Service
