Texas Defender Service (TDS)

05/28/2026

"Police hypnotized a witness. Now a Texas man faces death.

My honest error once put a man in prison. Now I’m fighting for another innocent."

Read the full article here:

My honest error once sent a man to prison. Now I’m fighting to save another innocent man.

05/21/2026

"...it is an eye-opening report, and it is right here in my own backyard."

Incredible op-ed by Cory Session covering our Tarrant County report.

Read more:

A new report concludes Tarrant County is an “extreme outlier” in its unfair targeting of racial and ethnic minorities for the death penalty.

05/19/2026

Texas banned hypnosis in criminal cases but a man on death row says it helped convict him.

https://www.nbcnews.com/video/testimony-from-witness-that-had-been-hypnotized-helped-send-man-to-death-row-263546949868

Charles Flores sits on death row in Texas, convicted with the help of testimony from a witness that had been hypnotized in the days after her murder. Since then, Texas banned hypnosis in criminal investigations. Flores tells NBC News’ Dan Slepian he’s innocent.

Charles Flores sits on death row in Texas, convicted with the help of testimony from a witness that had been hypnotized in the days after her murder. Since then, Texas banned hypnosis in criminal investigations. Flores tells NBC News’ Dan Slepian he’s innocent.

05/15/2026

Rest in peace, Edward Busby.

05/15/2026

Dear Friends,

Today is a dark day in Texas. Last night, Texas executed its 600th person since the United States first reinstated the death penalty in 1976. His name was Edward Busby, and he was a Black man whom experts agreed had intellectual disability.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals had stayed Mr. Busby's ex*****on but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the stay at the 11th hour, allowing the ex*****on of Mr. Busby to proceed.

Dissenting from the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling, Justice Jackson wrote: “In capital cases, we rarely intervene to preserve life. I cannot understand the Court’s rush to extinguish it, much less in the circumstances of this case. With respect, I dissent.”

Mr. Busby was from Tarrant County, one of the nation's most aggressive death-sentencing counties. As we documented in our recent report, An Extreme Outlier: Race and the Death Penalty in Tarrant County, the Third Largest County in Texas, Tarrant County has disproportionately targeted people of color for the death penalty—especially Black men.

Mr. Busby’s case exposes so much that is wrong with the Texas death penalty: it targets the most vulnerable populations, especially people with intellectual disability and mental illness; it is infected by racism; and it is isolated to just a handful of counties, where it is driven by the political whims and ideology of the local prosecutors.

Even as we mourn the loss of Mr. Busby, it is important to recognize the broader context surrounding the death penalty in Texas and the growing calls for change. For more context for this sobering moment you can read the Death Penalty Information Center's report on Texas's 600th ex*****on or read the powerful statement from the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Texas's killing of Mr. Busby last night is an unconscionable milestone—one that inspires us to keep fighting for fairness and building toward a Texas where justice is truly attainable.

With genuine thanks,

Burke Butler & Randi Chavez
Co-Executive Directors
Texas Defender Service

05/11/2026

Co-Executive Director of the Texas Defender Service Burke Butler said, “The days of racial terror lynchings may be over, but racism continues to infect the Tarrant County DA’s Office, influencing who it decides should face the death penalty.”

Read more at:

A report by the Texas Defender Service found that Tarrant County is an outlier in Texas for its aggressive pursuit of death sentences, particularly against racial and ethnic minorities, with 92% of death sentences sought by Tarrant County prosecutors since 2012 being against minorities.

05/11/2026

"Texas has long been known as the death penalty capital of the United States. And the death penalty capital of Texas, according to a report released this week, is Tarrant County." The Dallas Morning News covering our new report on Tarrant County and the death penalty here:

Almost a quarter of the death penalty trials held in Texas since 2020 have been in Tarrant County, a jurisdiction that contains only 7% of the state’s population, the report said.

05/08/2026

“No one should face ex*****on because of the color of their skin or the zip code in which they live,” Burke Butler, co-executive director of Texas Defender Service, said. “But the reality is that that's exactly what's happening in Tarrant County right now.”

Read more at KERA News' article by Penelope Rivera at

Texas Defender Service released a report highlighting details from 431 capital murder cases over a 20-year period in Tarrant County.

05/08/2026

"Busby’s ex*****on date [May 14] looms over a group of North Texas advocates, lawyers and faith leaders, who argue that his intellectual disability should make him immune to the state’s pursuit of capital punishment. He is also a stark reminder of the way Tarrant County officials have cemented the county’s legacy as a death row hardliner."

Read more about the Dallas Observer's coverage by Emma Ruby of our recent report on Tarrant County's DA Office's racist use of the death penalty at https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/tarrant-county-leaders-protest-death-penalty-40672028/.

A new study warns that Tarrant County disproportionately seeks capital punishment sentences against defendants of color.

05/08/2026

“Tarrant County needs to do better, society needs to do better, we need to do better,” Cantor Sheri Allen said.

Read the full article on our recent report on Tarrant County and the death penalty on by Kamal Morgan at https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/article315660828.html?giftCode=bb9b3984db34dc95bb754b3a5b198d7ee746f2d854eebfbb88c94ede88692895[2.

05/08/2026

Great new article by Leah Roemer with Death Penalty Information Center - New Analysis: In Seeking Firing Squad, Electrocution, and Nitrogen Gas Executions, DOJ Misrepresents American History and Law

On April 24, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released a report propos­ing an expan­sion of the fed­er­al death penal­ty, includ­ing adding fir­ing...