Yes, Texas has the death penalty, and it uses capital punishment more than any other state in the country. Since executions resumed in 1982, Texas has put more than 590 people to death by lethal injection. The only offense that can carry a death sentence is capital murder, defined in Section 19.03 of the Texas Penal Code, and even then a jury has to make several additional findings before a death sentence can be imposed.
What Crimes Can Bring a Death Sentence
A standard murder conviction in Texas is not enough. Prosecutors can only seek death when the killing fits one of ten aggravating categories in the capital murder statute. Without one of those circumstances, the maximum sentence is life in prison.
The ten categories include killing a peace officer or firefighter on duty, murder committed during another serious felony such as kidnapping, robbery, burglary, aggravated sexual assault, or arson, and murder for hire (both the person who pays and the person who kills). They also cover killings during a prison escape, murders committed by inmates against staff or in furtherance of gang activity, and additional killings by people already serving time for murder, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, or aggravated robbery. Multiple murders in a single event or connected scheme qualify, as do the murder of a child under 10, the separate category covering a child aged 10 to 14, and the murder of a judge or justice because of their judicial role.1State of Texas. Texas Code Penal – 19.03 Capital Murder
Every category requires proof the defendant intentionally or knowingly caused the death. An accidental killing during a felony can support a lesser murder charge but will not reach capital murder without that intent.
How the Jury Chooses Between Death and Life Without Parole
A capital murder conviction does not automatically produce a death sentence. The only two possible punishments are death or life in prison without any chance of parole. The jury, not the judge, decides which one.
After the guilty verdict, the case moves to a separate punishment phase where both sides present additional evidence. The jury then answers what the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure calls “special issues.” The first asks whether the defendant would probably commit violent crimes in the future, posing a continuing threat to society. The prosecution has to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt. In cases where the defendant was convicted as a participant rather than the sole killer, a second question asks whether the defendant personally caused the death or at least intended that someone die.2State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure – Art. 37.071
If the jury answers yes on those issues, it moves to the mitigation question: is there anything about the defendant’s character, background, or the circumstances of the crime that justifies a life sentence instead of death? This is where defense lawyers put on evidence about childhood abuse, mental illness, addiction, intellectual limitations, military service, or anything else that might weigh against execution. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that capital juries must be allowed to consider any relevant mitigating evidence a defendant offers.3Legal Information Institute. Lockett v. Ohio, 438 U.S. 586 (1978)
The voting rules matter. The jury must be unanimous to answer yes on future dangerousness and unanimous to reject mitigation. But it only takes ten jurors agreeing that sufficient mitigation exists to spare the defendant’s life. A single holdout cannot force a death sentence, and if the jury cannot reach a unanimous verdict on future dangerousness, the judge automatically imposes life without parole.2State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure – Art. 37.071
Who Cannot Be Executed
Some defendants are categorically off-limits for the death penalty even when the crime fits the statute.
Anyone who was under 18 at the time of the offense cannot be executed. The U.S. Supreme Court established that rule in Roper v. Simmons, pointing to the diminished culpability of adolescents. A juvenile offender in Texas faces life without parole as the maximum.4Justia. Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005)
Defendants with intellectual disabilities are also ineligible under Atkins v. Virginia. The determination requires evaluation by qualified professionals of the defendant’s intellectual functioning and ability to handle everyday tasks, and the defendant has the burden of proving the disability applies.5Justia. Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002)
A third protection applies after sentencing. The Eighth Amendment forbids executing a prisoner who is insane, and the Supreme Court later clarified in Panetti v. Quarterman that a condemned inmate must have a rational understanding of why the state is executing them. Being aware the state has set a date is not enough. If severe mental illness prevents that understanding, the execution must wait until competency is restored, if it ever is.6Justia. Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 399 (1986)
How Long the Process Takes
A death sentence in Texas opens one of the longest review processes in American criminal law. Cases routinely spend a decade or more in the courts before an execution date holds, and some take considerably longer.
Every death sentence triggers an automatic direct appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state’s highest court for criminal matters. The defendant does not have to ask for it; the review happens by operation of law and cannot be waived. The court examines the trial record for legal errors in jury selection, evidence rulings, jury instructions, and more.7Office of the Attorney General, State of Texas. Capital Punishment Appellate Guidebook
Separately, the defendant can file a state habeas corpus petition under Article 11.071 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. Habeas addresses claims that depend on evidence outside the trial record, such as ineffective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial misconduct, or newly discovered evidence of innocence. After state remedies are exhausted, federal habeas review is available under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, though the standard for federal relief is deliberately high and most petitions are denied.8Supreme Court of the United States. Application for Stay of Execution
What Clemency Looks Like in Texas
Texas gives the governor far less unilateral clemency power than most people assume. Under the Texas Constitution, the governor cannot commute a death sentence or grant a pardon on their own. A majority of the Board of Pardons and Paroles must first recommend clemency. If the Board declines, the governor cannot act.9Justia. Texas Constitution Art. 4 – Section 11
There is one exception. The governor can grant a single 30-day reprieve in a capital case without any Board recommendation. It cannot be repeated. Beyond that one reprieve, only the Board can open the door to commutation, and the Board has recommended clemency in capital cases only a handful of times since 1982.10Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Board of Pardons and Paroles – Executive Clemency
How Executions Are Carried Out
Texas law requires that death sentences be carried out by lethal injection. The statute directs the head of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s correctional institutions division to determine and supervise the procedure, but specifies that the method must be intravenous injection of a substance in a lethal quantity.11State of Texas. Texas Code of Criminal Procedure – Article 43.14
Texas adopted lethal injection in 1977 and carried out its first execution using the method in December 1982. The state used a three-drug combination for decades, but supply problems forced a change. In July 2012, TDCJ switched to a single-drug protocol using pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate. Executions take place at the Huntsville Unit in Walker County, which has served as the state’s execution facility since the 1920s.12Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Death Row Information
Texas’s Execution Record
Texas has executed more people than any other state since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. The state’s first post-reinstatement execution came in 1982, and it has since executed close to 600 people. Virginia, historically the second-most-active state, executed 113 before abolishing the death penalty in 2021.12Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Death Row Information
The pace has slowed. Annual counts peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Texas sometimes executed more than 30 people in a year. Recently the number has dropped to single digits annually. As of early 2026, TDCJ lists four executions scheduled for the remainder of the year.13Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Death Row Scheduled Executions
Fewer death sentences are being imposed, juries are more willing to return life without parole, and the legal rules around capital punishment keep tightening. But Texas has shown no legislative movement toward abolition, and the death penalty remains firmly in place in the state’s criminal justice system.