Execution Watch

10/09/2025

COURT STAYS ROBERSON EX*****ON

AUSTIN, Tex. — An appeals court today gave Robert Roberson a stay of ex*****on, canceling his Oct. 16 death date and sending his case back to the trial court.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has blocked the ex*****on of Robert Roberson a week before it was scheduled to occur.

09/25/2025

HIGH COURT DENIES MILAM
STAY OF EX*****ON

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Texas prison officials are preparing to execute Blaine Milam after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected without commentary his request for a stay.

Ex*****on Watch will provide live news coverage and analysis of the state killing, starting in a few hours:

Thurs., Sept. 25, 2025
6-7 p.m. Central Standard Time

— VIDEO, Facebook Live.
— AUDIO, KPFT Houston 90.1 FM HD https://kpft.org/listen-live-hd1/ or
https://ex*****onwatch.org > Listen.

TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE
BLAINE MILAM, condemned in the 2008 slaying of his infant daughter. He has argued on appeal that he is intellectually disabled and that none of the evidence prosecutors gave at trial connects him to the murder. Milam’s lawyers have sued the district attorney of Rusk County, where he was tried, to try to force the release of DNA evidence found on Milam’s clothing during the murder investigation. On Sept. 25, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Milam’s last-minute request for a stay of ex*****on.

HOST
PAT McCANN, a Houston criminal defense attorney with extensive experience in death penalty work, at trial and on appeal.

LEGAL ANALYSTS
Criminal defense attorneys MEREL PONTIER and AFSHIN ZANT.

REPORTERS
LINDA SNYDER and SOPHIA MOREAU, anti-death penalty activists, reporting live from outside the death house in Huntsville.

FEATURED INTERVIEW
DANI ALLEN, in conversation with MARLO BLEU. Allen is a frequent visitor to Texas death row, where she became good friends with Milam.

NEXT EX*****ON
ROBERT ROBERSON is scheduled by Texas to be executed Oct. 16.

Ex*****on Watch is a live news show that since 2008 has broadcast coverage of all Texas ex*****ons. More information — podcasts, videos, scheduled ex*****ons — is at http://ex*****onwatch.org. For updates follow us on Facebook.

Additional credits:
Video Supervisor, Mark Pirtle
Technical Director, Otis Maclay
Engineer, Howard Reynolds
Social Media, Elise Bentch & Elyse Heuvelman
Theme Song, Victoria Studer
Executive Producer, Elizabeth Ann Stein

(End)

06/08/2025

NY TIMES PUBLISHES OBIT FOR DEATH ROW’S SCOTT PANETTI, WHO DIED 5/26

Diagnosed with a psychotic disorder, he spent 30 years on death row. In 2007, the Supreme Court raised the bar for executing the mentally ill, though Texas still tried to put him to death.

04/23/2025

MENDOZA PETITIONS DENIED
BY US SUPREME COURT;
EX*****ON SET TONIGHT

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Ex*****on Watch will broadcast live coverage and legal analysis of the ex*****on of Moises Mendoza in a few hours.

The U.S. Supreme Court rejected his emergency petition earlier today.

Here is a summary of tonight’s show:
Ex*****on Watch
MOISES MENDOZA
Wed., April 23, 2025
6-7 p.m. Central Standard Time

— VIDEO, Facebook Live, Houston MediaSource https://www.hmstv.org/hms-livecheck.
— RADIO, KPFT Houston 90.1 FM HD https://kpft.org/listen-live-hd1/ or
https://ex*****onwatch.org > Listen.

TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE
MOISES MENDOZA, sentenced to death for the kidnapping, sexual assault and murder if a Dallas-area woman. He was born in Mexico but lived most of his life in Texas. Mendoza’s appellate lawyers said he received substandard representation at trial. They also accused prosecutors of presenting false testimony during the crucial sentencing phase of the trial. They said Mendoza’s defense attorneys failed to investigate or refute it.

HOST
MARLO BLUE, program director, KPFT; producer, video photogeditor, and former anchor of KPFT Local News.

LEGAL ANALYSTS
Criminal defense attorneys MEREL PONTIER and MONIQUE SPARKS.

REPORTER
LINDA SNYDER, anti-death penalty activist, reporting from outside the death house in Huntsville.

FEATURED INTERVIEW
JAMILA HODGE, CEO of Equal Justice USA, a national organization that seeks to transform the criminal justice system through community-based solutions to violence. Its goal to knEvangelical Network works to end the death penalty by enlisting influential spiritual leaders to advocate against it and violence of all kinds.

NEXT EX*****ON
Texas’s next planned state killing is May 20, when MATTHEW JOHNSON faces the needle.

Ex*****on Watch is a live news show that since 2008 has broadcast coverage of all Texas ex*****ons. More information — podcasts, videos, scheduled ex*****ons — is at http://ex*****onwatch.org. For updates follow us on Facebook.

Additional credits:
Video Supervisor, Mark Pirtle
Technical Director, Otis Maclay
Engineer, Howard Reynolds
Social Media, Elise Bentch & Elyse Heuvelman
Theme Song, Victoria Studer
Executive Producer, Elizabeth Ann Stein

(End)

03/12/2025

STAY OF EX*****ON GRANTED
DAVID WOOD BY TX COURT

The order came just over 48 hours before David Leonard Wood was set to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday.

02/05/2025

NELSON EX*****ON TO PROCEED; SUPREME COURT NIXES PETITION

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Steven Nelson is slated to be executed within the next couple of hours after the Supreme Court rejected his bid for a stay.

Live news coverage and legal analysis of Nelson’s case will be provided by Ex*****on Watch.

Show Summary:
Ex*****on Watch
STEVEN NELSON
Wed., Feb. 5, 2025
6-7 p.m. Central Standard Time

— VIDEO, check for live video on KPFT’s page: 90.1 FM KPFT Houston. If not streaming, listen listen via…
— RADIO, KPFT Houston 90.1 FM HD or
http://ex*****onwatch.org > Listen.

TEXAS PLANS TO EXECUTE
STEVEN NELSON, Given the death penalty in 2012 for the suffocation death of a preacher near Dallas during a botched robbery. Defense attorneys asked jurors to spare Nelson's life, saying he was a neglected child who never received the help he needed. They also said he should not face death, because his participation was limited to acting as lookout for two other men while they robbed the church.

HOST
MARLO BLUE, program director, KPFT; producer, video photographer, editor, and former anchor of KPFT Local News.

LEGAL ANALYSTS
Criminal defense attorneys MEREL PONTIER and AFSHIN ZAND.

REPORTER
LINDA SNYDER, anti-death penalty activist, reporting from outside the death house in Huntsville.

FEATURED INTERVIEW GUESTS, Author-activists JODIE AND BILLY SINCLAIR, who met in the Angola State Prison Death House in 198. She was a glamorous TV journalist, he was under death sentence for an unintentional slaying during a robbery. Their secret proxy marriage, 25-year battle to free Billy from prison, and years of activism have generated much material for their books and podcasts.

NEXT EX*****ON
Texas’s next planned state killing is Feb. 13, when Richard Tabler faces the needle.

Ex*****on Watch is a live news show that since 2008 has broadcast coverage of all Texas ex*****ons. More information — podcasts, videos, scheduled ex*****ons — is at http://ex*****onwatch.org. For updates follow us on Facebook.

Additional credits:
Video Supervisor, Mark Pirtle
Technical Director, Otis Maclay
Engineer, Howard Reynolds
Livestream Cameras, A.D. Hatton
Board Operator, Bleu Villato
Phones and Traffic, Elise Bentch
Theme Song, Victoria Studer
Executive Producer, Elizabeth Ann Stein

(End)

11/18/2024

DEATH ROW’S HALPRIN TO GET
NEW TRIAL DUE TO BIAS CLAIMS

Texas death row inmate Randy Halprin, who was once part of the "Texas 7" gang of escaped prisoners, is being granted a new trial by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

11/18/2024

JUDGE DECLARES TX DEATH ROW’S
LUCIO “INNOCENT” IN TODDLER DEATH

GATESVILLE, Tx. — The family of Melissa Lucio, a death row inmate whose ex*****on was delayed in 2022, expressed hope that the Texas woman would be freed after a judge concluded last month that Lucio is "actually innocent" after she was convicted of capital murder in 2008 for the death of her 2-ye...

11/15/2024

COURT CLEARS THE WAY
FOR ROBERSON EX*****ON

AUSTIN, Tex. — The ex*****on of Robert Roberson may go ahead, the Texas Supreme Court ruled today.
(https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/15/us/texas-robert-roberson-death-row/index.html)

The Texas Supreme Court on Friday denied a state house committee’s attempt to delay the ex*****on of a man convicted of murder in the 2002 death of his 2-year-old daughter, clearing a path for a new ex*****on date.

10/19/2024

TEXAS TAKE Column Gives Political
View of Roberson Stay Machinations

AUSTIN, Tex. — Jeremy Wallace’s column in the Houston Chronicle Friday neatly summarized the twisty path that led to a reprieve for Robert Roberson.

He wrote: “Just over two hours before Robert Roberson’s death warrant expired [at midnight], the Texas Supreme Court granted him a temporary reprieve, thanks in large part to an unexpected bipartisan push in the Texas Legislature to delay it.

“It’s the latest twist in an unprecedented legal back-and-forth that raged through the Texas political and legal worlds most of this week and brought international attention to the state’s death penalty laws. The Texas Supreme Court’s unusual intervention came shortly after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a successful motion with the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals to follow through with Roberson’s ex*****on.

“Roberson was condemned in 2002 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter, Nikki Curtis, in the East Texas city of Palestine. The murder conviction was tied to a diagnosis of shaken baby syndrome, a theory that critics now call “junk science.”

“Both Democrats and Republicans made appeals to Gov. Greg Abbott to stay the ex*****on. And even Phillip C. McGraw - better known as Dr. Phil - was taking to social media to call for the ex*****on to be halted.

“Just before the ex*****on was to take place, state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, and Rep. Joe Moody, D-El Paso, joined forces to have a subpoena issued for him to testify before a committee in the Texas House. They argued before the Texas Supreme Court that the subpoena was within their jurisdiction and that allowing the ex*****on would prevent them from having Roberson testify.

“It worked.

“In the court’s ruling, Justice Evan Young wrote ‘a committee of the Legislature has subpoenaed an inmate subject to a sentence of death to appear as a witness. If the sentence is carried out, the witness obviously cannot appear.’

“How long that reprieve will last isn’t entirely certain, though Roberson will testify before the Texas House on Monday.”

10/18/2024

ROBERSON WINS REPRIEVE
FROM TX SUPREME COURT

Travis County Judge Jessica Mangrum granted a temporary restraining order halting Roberson's ex*****on. The state's top appeals court overturned it soon after.

10/18/2024

TEXAS LEGISLATORS BATTLE
ATTORNEY GENERAL IN
BID TO SAVE ROBERSON

Travis County Judge Jessica Mangrum granted a temporary restraining order halting Roberson's ex*****on. The state's top appeals court overturned it soon after.