death row
Arthur Brown Jr., TDCJ# 999110
Date of Execution: March 9, 2023
Last Statement:
"What is occurring here tonight is not justice, it’s murder of an innocent man for a murder that occurred in 1992. For the last 30 years I’ve proven my innocence to the courts, but the courts blocked me and then refused me access to the ballistics for 20 years; I’ve proven facts and ballistics to be false. It’s been 30 years now, the state refused to turn over evidence. Nine of the ten trial motions were filled for discovery of evidence, but each were denied each time. I asked for DNA, I was denied DNA. My co-defendant was executed in 2006 and if I’m innocent he was innocent and they killed an innocent man, and the state doesn’t want the truth to come out. They won’t allow me DNA. The victim’s son identified on audio tape it wasn’t me or the co-defendant. The state hid the evidence so long and good that my own attorneys couldn’t find it. Tonight, Texas will kill a second innocent man for a murder that occurred in 1992. I have no further words." ✦ ✦ ✦
Texas leads the nation in the number of executions since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
California, Florida, Texas, and Alabama have the largest death row populations.
As of October 1, 2020, 2,557 inmates were under sentence of death in the United States.
There are five methods of execution in the United States: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, and firing squad.
Hanging was means of execution from 1819 to 1923.
The State of Texas executed the first inmate by electrocution on February 8, 1924. Charles Reynolds (Red River County) was executed. On that same date, four additional inmates, Ewell Morris, George Washington, Mack Matthews, and Melvin Johnson were executed.
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Texas Capital Offenses:
Pursuant to Texas Penal Code Section 19.03, the following crimes constitute Capital Murder in Texas:
- murder of a peace officer or fireman who is acting in the lawful discharge of an official duty and who the person knows is a peace officer or fireman;
- murder during the commission or attempted commission of kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated sexual assault, arson, obstruction or retaliation, or terroristic threat;
- murder for remuneration or promise of remuneration or employing another to commit murder for remuneration or promise of remuneration;
- murder during escape or attempted escape from a penal institution;
- murder, while incarcerated in a penal institution, of a correctional employee or with the intent to establish, maintain, or participate in a combination or in the profits of a combination;
- murder while incarcerated in a penal institution for a conviction of murder or capital murder;
- murder while incarcerated in a penal institution serving a life sentence or a 99-year sentence for a conviction of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated sexual assault, or aggravated robbery;
- murder of more than one person during the same criminal transaction or during different criminal transactions but the murders are committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct;
- murder of an individual under 10 years of age, or older than 10 years of age but younger than 15 years of age; or
- murder in retaliation for or on account of the service or status of the other person as a judge or justice of the supreme court, the court of criminal appeals, a court of appeals, a district court, a criminal district court, a constitutional county court, a statutory county court, a justice court, or a municipal court.