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What Do Exonerations Tell Us About The Death Penalty?

Local Audio Posts 9

Public radio stations from across the state collaborated on this series looking at the death penalty in Texas – its history, how it’s changed, whom it affects and its future. The following story is from Texas Public Radio: Texas is slated to execute Terry Edwards on Thursday evening. Barring an unexpected reprieve , Edwards will be the second man executed by the state this year. In Texas, 242 people sit on death row awaiting execution. Long the leading executioner in the US, the Lone Star State put to death fewer people last year than it has in two decades. Death row is reserved for criminals who commit the most serious crimes, but Anthony Graves says not everyone who is sentenced to death is guilty. He should know. He spent almost two decades incarcerated after he was wrongfully convicted of murder. Most of those years were on death row, awaiting execution.