A history of capital punishment in Texas

In this photo taken June 12, 2013, death penalty
opponents gather outside the Huntsville Unit
before the execution of confessed killer
Elroy Chester in Huntsville, Texas.
(AP Photo/Pat Sullivan)

~~By The Associated Press

Jun 26, 2013:Milestones in capital punishment in Texas:

1819 - George Brown is first person executed in Texas, by hanging.

1863 - Chipita Rodriguez is first woman executed in Texas, by hanging.

1923 - Lee Nathan becomes the last of 394 people executed by hanging.

1924 - Charles Reynolds becomes first inmate to die in the electric chair in Huntsville as state takes over executions.

1963 - Joseph Johnson is the last of 361 Texas prisoners to die in the electric chair.

1972 - U.S. Supreme Court finds death penalty "cruel and unusual;" death sentences of 52 people in Texas are commuted to life in prison.

1976 - U.S. Supreme Court holds Georgia death penalty statute constitutional, setting stage for resumption of executions.

1977 - Texas adopts lethal injection method.

1982 - Texas inmate Charlie Brooks becomes first in U.S. to receive lethal injection.

1998 - Karla Tucker becomes first woman executed in Texas since Civil War.

2000 - Texas executes a record 40 prisoners in one year.

2013 - Texas schedules execution of Kimberly McCarthy, number 500 by lethal injection.
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Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, "Espy File" database compiled by historians M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla.
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Courtesy: CTV News