04 December 2006 :

a new report out shows that Texas death sentences have dropped by 65 % in the past 10 years.
The numbers show that in 1996 there were 40 scheduled executions. That number dropped to 14 in 2006.
In 2005 there were 15 new death sentences.
The decrease is in line with the national trend which cropped from about 200 per year in the 1990s to 125 in 2005.
Harris County, which produced the most death sentences of any county in the nation, experienced the biggest drop.
There were 16 death sentences from Harris County in 1996. That figure dropped to 3 in 2006 and 2005.
"The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty is not surprised by the information provided by the Death Penalty Information Center in the face of the many news reports about concerns of the accuracy of the Houston crime lab, the multiple cases over the last year of innocent people being executed (Ruben Cantu, Carlos Deluna, and Cameron Willingham), and with Texas juries now having the option of Life without Parole”.