Robert Roberson is still waiting, along with three other men, to find out if the state of Texas will execute him. His lawyer, Gretchen Sween, continues to try to save her client–who says he is innocent–from that fate. Her latest court filing points to a Georgia conviction that was vacated last month that bears a striking similarity to Roberson’s, right down to the conviction year.
So far this year, the state of Texas has executed four men, and another four have active death warrants, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Those executions include James Broadnax, who was executed in April for the 2008 shooting deaths of Stephen Swan and Matthew Butler in Garland, and Edward Busby, who was executed in May for the 2004 death of Laura Lee Crane, a retired professor from TCU. Forty-six execution dates have been scheduled by eight states for 2026. Nineteen have been carried out. There are more than 20 people on death row whose cases originate in North Texas.
Last year, Texas set seven executions and carried out five of them, the fewest in at least three decades for the state, the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said. Two received stays—David Wood and Robert Roberson. Tarrant County accounts for 23 percent of death penalty trials in the state since 2020, despite only having 7 percent of the state’s population, the Texas Defender Service reported recently. The same report also says that 92 percent of the cases where Tarrant County prosecutors have sought the death penalty involved racial and ethnic minorities. Roughly 40 percent of the county’s population is white.
There are four men facing execution dates for crimes committed in North Texas. Here’s where their cases stand:…