Texas

Texas executes Charles Thompson for 1998 double murder, the first U.S. execution this year Texas on Wednesday put to death Charles Thompson, 55, by lethal injection for the 1998 murders of his ex-girlfriend and her boyfriend, marking the first execution in the United States this year and renewing attention to the nation’s use of capital punishment. Thompson was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. Central time at a state prison in Huntsville, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said. He was sentenced to death for killing…

The Texas Supreme Court has delivered a last-minute halt to the execution of Robert Roberson, a man on the autism spectrum, whose conviction for murder stems from what his attorneys argue was a grave misdiagnosis related to "shaken baby syndrome." This 57-year-old man faced lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville after being sentenced for the tragic death of his two-year-old daughter, Nikki, in February 2002. However, in a dramatic twist, the state's highest court intervened, granting a temporary stay following…