Will Blue Wave Slow Executions in Texas?

The blue wave that swept over Texas last week has death penalty opponents wondering how the state’s new Democratic leaders will alter the rubber-stamping of capital punishment cases that Republicans have facilitated for decades.  

On Monday, Nov. 9, the Rev. Jeff Hood, founder of the Execution Intervention Project, urged Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa to declare an immediate moratorium on executions when she takes office in January. “We are asking for a 30-day reprieve on every single execution that comes forward,” Hood said. “We believe that that 30-day reprieve will offer space to ask more questions, to engage these situations more thoroughly.”

The call for a more thorough examination of capital punishment cases echoes sentiments Hinojosa expressed on CNN in October. Asked for her position on capital punishment, Hinojosa said she was personally opposed to it but would look at each death penalty case individually. She did not offer support for a blanket ban on executions.

Some of the more questionable cases Hinojosa could examine are those of Robert Roberson and Melissa Lucio, both of whom have presented compelling evidence that they are innocent. In September, the all-Republican Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a recommendation from Lucio’s trial court judge to overturn her 2008 conviction for murdering her daughter. The denial came on a slim majority: Five of the TCCA’s nine members voted against Lucio. But last Tuesday, Democrats won three seats on the court, including two of those occupied by judges who rejected the appeal. 

Kristin Houlé Cuellar of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty said she hopes the new judges on the TCCA will encourage a closer look at death penalty cases. But she noted that Texas governors are limited in their power over death sentences. They may issue 30-day reprieves but can only grant clemency on the recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. However, Cuellar noted, the governor does appoint the members of the board with the Senate’s consent. She said she hopes for change there.  

“We are optimistic that the board membership can be diversified to include people with different backgrounds and experiences,” Cuellar said. “For example, people with backgrounds in behavioral mental health and people who have had lived experience with the carceral system, either themselves or with a family member.”

Meanwhile, the Texas execution machine grinds on. The state is planning to kill Reinaldo Dennes on Nov. 19, its last scheduled execution of 2026. Unlike many of his fellow inmates, who committed murders in the course of mental health crises or senseless robberies, Dennes’ crime was part of a well-laid plan – a diamond heist. A jury concluded at Dennes’ 1997 trial that he masterminded an inside job to steal more than $3.5 million in diamonds from Janos “Johnny” Szucs, a plan that ended in Szucs’ murder and the wounding of a security guard. 

At the punishment phase of the trial, an associate of Dennes’ named David Balderas testified that the defendant had planned another diamond heist the previous year that had gone wrong. Balderas told the jurors he had acted as the link between Dennes and two men who descended on what they thought was a diamond courier’s residence, terrorizing a family of three before realizing it was the wrong address. 

In later appeals, Dennes’ attorneys argued that prosecutors used Balderas’ testimony to help prove that he would always be a threat in the future, a necessary finding for a jury in Texas to sentence someone to death. The attorneys further argued that the prosecutors had falsely presented Balderas as an honest witness who came forward out of the goodness of his own heart. But according to attorney Kenneth McGuire, Balderas was a confidential informant who had worked closely with Houston police for a decade at the time he testified against Dennes. 

“The prosecution knowingly presented Balderas’s false testimony, and failed to inform jury, defense, or judge,” McGuire wrote in a 2020 appeal before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. “Moreover, the prosecution lied to the court and to the defense on multiple occasions about Balderas, his abjectly false testimony, and his status as a longtime and ongoing informant for Houston police.”

State and federal courts have rejected Dennes’ request for a retrial over the alleged false testimony. McGuire did not respond to multiple inquiries about other arguments he may present on Dennes’ behalf.

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