Texas is scheduled to carry out an execution tonight, and two more are set for the coming week in Florida and Tennessee. The nation has put 27 people to death so far in 2026, and more than half of those executions took place in Florida. When I read a case file, I keep returning to the same questions. Who stood beside this person at trial, who sat on the jury, and what did that jury never get to hear? Here is where the facts stand today.
Execution Alert: Texas
Ker’Sean Ramey, tonight, Wednesday, September 23
Texas plans to execute Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, by lethal injection tonight in Huntsville, with the time listed as 6 p.m. Central. He was 20 in August 2005 when Samuel Roberts, 24, Tiffani Peacock, 18, and Celso Lopez, 38, were shot to death in their home in Edna during an attempted robbery. His co-defendant, LeJames Norman, was executed a week ago. If tonight goes forward, Ramey would be the sixth person executed in Texas this year, with three more dates already on the calendar.
The state’s side deserves a fair hearing. Prosecutors have told the lower courts that Ramey raised nothing that justifies revisiting his conviction. Norman testified at Ramey’s trial that both men fired, and about a year later Norman pleaded guilty to capital murder and received his own death sentence from a jury. Ramey’s trial lawyers blamed Norman for the shootings.
Ramey’s advocates describe a very different trial. According to the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, his lawyer was a full-time dentist who ran a small law practice in the evenings, had never tried a capital case, and was suspended from practicing law a few years later after a court found he neglected another client’s case. They say that lawyer did no independent investigation, hired no ballistics or forensic expert, and called no witnesses in the guilt phase, even though no physical evidence tied Ramey to the scene and the murder weapons were later lost by the State. The case, they say, leaned on Norman and on jailhouse informants who had undisclosed deals.
They also point to the jury. The State struck every potential Black juror, leaving 11 white jurors and one Hispanic juror to judge a Black defendant in a county with a documented history of racially skewed jury selection. The jury reportedly deliberated under two hours on guilt and only 14 minutes on punishment. Jurors never heard about his childhood abuse, his poverty, or his cognitive impairment, including an IQ of 81, because only two witnesses were called at the penalty phase. They did hear future dangerousness testimony from a State expert whose approach courts have since found unreliable. These are allegations from his advocates and his appeals, not findings, and no court has granted relief so far. But they describe a capital trial where nearly every safeguard depended on one lawyer who, by his advocates’ account, was not equipped to do the job.
Here is where the litigation stands. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted not to recommend commutation or a reprieve. The Court of Criminal Appeals denied a stay without reviewing the merits. Ramey has asked the U.S. Supreme Court for emergency relief on two grounds: a Batson claim over the race-based jury strikes, and ineffective assistance of counsel at the punishment phase. His lawyers also say the Jackson County District Attorney’s office withheld documents that could bear on his claims. The Texas Attorney General ordered them released last week, but as of today the defense says it has not received them. Without a Board recommendation, Gov. Greg Abbott’s only tool is a single 30-day reprieve, and Ramey’s lawyers have asked him to use it to allow time to review those files.
One more data point, from TCADP: if the execution proceeds, Ramey would be the fifth Black man in a row executed in Texas, and all three of the state’s remaining 2026 dates involve men of color.
Sources: TCADP, AP via CBS Texas, Death Penalty Action, NBC DFW
Execution Alert: Florida
Curtis Wilkie Beasley Sr., Tuesday, September 29
Florida is set to execute Beasley, 77, at 6 p.m. next Tuesday for the 1995 hammer killing of Carolyn Monfort, 62, in Polk County. If it proceeds, it will be the state’s 16th execution of 2026. On Tuesday, the Florida Supreme Court rejected his appeal and his request for a stay. The court said his challenge to a 10 to 2 jury recommendation for death was procedurally barred and that the law requiring more than a bare majority does not apply retroactively to his case. It also turned aside his argument that the governor’s unchecked discretion over which warrants to sign is unconstitutional. Court records note that Beasley has maintained his innocence throughout. Justice Jorge Labarga concurred only in the result, and the court ordered that no rehearing motions will be considered.
Remember what that jury vote means. Two jurors were unwilling to vote for death, and under today’s Florida law that split would not be enough to impose it. He is being executed under the rule that existed when he was sentenced.
Sources: Tampa Free Press, WUSF and News Service of Florida, FOX 35 Orlando
Execution Alert: Tennessee
Christa Pike, Wednesday, September 30
Pike, 50, is scheduled to die by lethal injection at 10 a.m. Central next Wednesday for the 1995 murder of Colleen Slemmer, a fellow Job Corps student in Knoxville. She was 18. If the execution proceeds, she would be the first woman executed in Tennessee since 1819. Her 226-page clemency petition is still on Gov. Bill Lee’s desk, and I found no report of a decision as of this afternoon. It asks him to reduce her sentence to life without parole and details severe abuse beginning around age two, along with bipolar disorder and PTSD that went untreated for years. The state’s lawyer has said in court that the state does not dispute the abuse she suffered, and that the legal standard is not a painless execution.
Two new details this week. Reports say her lawyers have asked that only female staff be present in the execution chamber, citing her history of abuse by men, and the state opposes her broader challenge to the lethal injection protocol. And her co-defendants tell a story worth pausing on. Tadaryl Shipp, who was 17, received a life sentence with the possibility of parole, because the Constitution bars executing anyone under 18. Shadolla Peterson cooperated with prosecutors and received probation. Pike, who turned 18 only months before the offense, received death. I do not offer that comparison to minimize what happened to Colleen Slemmer. I offer it because her petition argues that the science of brain development does not respect a birthday, and that is a question a governor can weigh.
Sources: Tampa Free Press, WLT Report, WVLT, UNILAD
Stays and Reprieves
Stacey Humphreys (Georgia): stay holds while the courts decide
Georgia’s first execution in more than two years did not happen on September 16. The Georgia Supreme Court left in place a Cobb County judge’s stay so it can decide whether Humphreys may seek a reduced sentence under the state’s Survivor Justice Act, which lets people argue that abuse contributed to their crimes. Oral arguments are set for December 8. I found no new developments today.
Source: WABE
William Thompson (Florida): October 13 date paused for a competency review
Gov. Ron DeSantis paused Thompson’s October 13 execution and appointed three psychiatrists to evaluate whether the 74-year-old is competent to be executed. Per the schedule reported last week, they examine him on October 1. His attorneys say prison records note dementia and that he has been repeatedly hospitalized since August. I have not seen a report of any change since.
Source: Floridians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty via Rick Halperin
Other Developments
Ohio: Tyrone Noling still waits on Gov. DeWine
Three weeks after the Ohio Parole Board recommended clemency for Noling, there is still no decision from Gov. Mike DeWine, who has no deadline and is in his final months in office. The board split 5 to 1 to 2, with one member urging an immediate pardon, five recommending commutation with parole eligibility in 2029, and two opposed. Noling has maintained his innocence in the 1990 murders of Cora and Bearnhardt Hartig since his 1996 conviction. Two developments this week: a hearing on his request for a new trial has been postponed, and Ken Howe, who was Portage County sheriff from 1989 to 1993 and was at the crime scene, publicly urged DeWine to grant a full pardon, citing official misconduct. Noling’s hearing was the first clemency hearing for an Ohio death row prisoner since 2020, and it is unusual because those hearings normally wait until an execution date is set. The governor has called for Ohio to abolish the death penalty.
Sources: DPIC, Yahoo News, DPIC
Utah: Douglas Carter’s retrial, still without a trial date
Carter, 71, was sentenced to death in 1985 for the murder of Eva Olesen in Provo. A judge vacated the conviction over police and prosecutor misconduct, and the Utah Supreme Court affirmed in 2025. Prosecutors are still pursuing a retrial. A hearing was scheduled for yesterday to set a trial date and deadlines for the state to answer discovery requests, some of which date to fall 2025, and I did not find a report on what happened. His lawyers have moved to dismiss over lost or destroyed evidence, including a tape of his confession, plaster molds of footprints, and some DNA evidence. Judge Derek Pullan denied bail on September 16, and reports indicate any trial would be no earlier than 2027. Pullan retires December 6, and both sides have said the pending DNA results are likely to decide the case. A man who has spent four decades in custody is still waiting for a jury.
Texas: a competency fight ahead of Jamaal Howard’s October 7 date
Texas is also scheduled to execute Jamaal Howard on October 7 for the May 2000 killing of Vickie Swartout, a clerk at a Silsbee convenience store. He was 20. His spiritual advisor, Rev. Jeff Hood of the Execution Intervention Project, says that in 26 years no court has held a hearing on whether Howard understands why he is being executed, and that he has a long documented history of severe mental illness. Under Texas law, a competency hearing had to be held more than 20 days before the execution, which put the deadline at September 17. I could not confirm whether one took place. These are advocates’ claims, and I would encourage readers to check the court record and the TDCJ schedule as the date approaches. The Constitution bars executing someone who cannot rationally understand the reason for the punishment, and the question deserves an answer from a courtroom, not just a press release.
Sources: Execution Intervention Project, Action Network
Coming Up
- Tonight, Wednesday, September 23: Texas execution of Ker’Sean Ramey, 6 p.m. Central
- Tuesday, September 29: Florida execution of Curtis Beasley Sr., 6 p.m. Eastern
- Wednesday, September 30: Tennessee execution of Christa Pike, 10 a.m. Central
- Thursday, October 1: Florida competency evaluation of William Thompson
- Wednesday, October 7: Texas execution of Jamaal Howard
- Tuesday, October 20: Florida execution of William Reaves, per current schedule listings
Since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the country has carried out 1,680 executions through Norman’s on September 16, so tonight would bring the total to 1,681. About ten more are on the calendar for the rest of 2026. Each one raises the same questions about who defended the person, what the jury heard, and what the state cannot undo once the sentence is carried out. I will keep putting the facts in front of you.
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