Four men convicted of murder will face execution in Texas this year, with dates scheduled between January and May.
The executions mark the continuation of capital punishment in Texas, which leads the nation in carrying out death sentences, as the state prepares to execute inmates convicted of particularly heinous crimes committed over the past two decades.
Charles Victor Thompson, 55, faces execution first on January 28. Thompson killed his ex-girlfriend, Dennise Hayslip, 39, and her new boyfriend, Darren Keith Cain, 30, during a 1999 break-in at their Houston apartment following an argument.
Thompson made national headlines in 2005 after escaping from a Houston jail. Authorities found him days later at a Louisiana liquor store, drunk and talking on a payphone 200 miles from where he’d fled.
Cedric Allen Ricks, 51, will die on March 11 for stabbing to death Roxann Sanchez, 30, and her 8-year-old son, Anthony Figueroa, in 2013. Her 12-year-old son, Marcus, survived 25 stab wounds and testified at trial about faking death sounds to make Ricks stop attacking him.
James Garfield Broadnax, 37, faces execution on April 30 for the 2008 murders of Christian singer Matthew Butler and his employee Stephen Swan outside Butler’s Garland recording studio. Broadnax and his cousin, Demarius Dwight Cummings, took the DART train to target “rich white folks,” according to a Fox 4 KDFW interview, but netted only $2 from the robbery.
When asked what he would say to the victims’ families in that interview, Broadnax replied, “f— ’em.”
Edward Lee Busby Jr., 53, will be executed on May 14 for the 2004 murder of retired TCU professor Laura Lee Crane, 77. Busby abducted Crane from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot, robbed her of $775, then drove to Oklahoma with her in the trunk, where she died of asphyxiation after he taped her nose and mouth closed.
Meanwhile, Robert Roberson’s execution remains in limbo after being stayed twice. The East Texas man convicted of shaking his 2-year-old daughter to death in 2002 had his October 2025 execution halted by the Court of Criminal Appeals, which sent his case back to the trial court.
Roberson’s defense team argues his conviction relied on “junk science” regarding shaken baby syndrome. They claim his daughter, Nikki Curtis, died from pneumonia after inadequate medical treatment, and note Roberson was diagnosed with autism after his conviction, explaining his “unemotional” demeanor criticized at his 2003 trial.
The state of Texas carries out its death penalty executions at its penitentiary in Huntsville, using lethal injection.