Several appeals in some of Texas\u2019 highest-profile capital punishment cases are set for 2026 as the state continues to maintain a historically low number of executions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2025 marked the second year Texas was not the leading state in executions in a single year, but the state is still the overall leader nationally in the death penalty. Harris County alone, which handed down its 300th death sentence last year, accounts for more executions than any other state.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Texas\u2019 executions have gradually declined<\/a> in the last decade, and in 2025 the low number of executions was in part fueled by two last-minute stays. Their resolutions, however, along with a third successful appeal for another death row inmate, may still ultimately result in executions.<\/p>\n Robert Roberson<\/a> and David Wood both had appeals granted by state courts, resulting in stayed executions days before they were scheduled to be put to death. Brittany Holberg had her capital conviction overturned in March and awaits a hearing in January. The three inmates have had their trials called into question for years before their successful appeals \u2014 but appeals themselves on death row are common. Many sentenced to death are caught in sometimes decades-spanning legal limbo as their cases make their way through the courts.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say it is a natural part of being under a sentence of death that there is going to be an appeal,\u201d said Kristin Houl\u00e9 Cuellar, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a grassroots advocacy group. \u201cI think the difference is what [appeals] would be considered active versus inactive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n On Jan. 21, all 17 judges for the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in Louisiana in Holberg\u2019s case. Her conviction was overturned<\/a> in March 2025 in a 2-1 ruling from the court, citing the district attorney\u2019s failure to disclose that Holberg\u2019s cellmate, who provided key testimony during her trial, was a paid informant for the City of Amarillo police.<\/p>\n Holberg was 23 years old when she received the death penalty in 1998 after being convicted of murdering A.B. Towery. Then a sex worker, Holberg said she killed her 80-year-old former client in self defense when he attacked her in his home, where she sought refuge after a car accident.\u00a0<\/p>\n Prosecutors claimed Holberg intended to kill and rob Towery, and used testimony from Holberg\u2019s cellmate, Vickie Kirkpatrick, who provided a statement that Holberg admitted to purposefully killing him. Kirkpatrick was released on bond the same day she provided her statement against Holberg.<\/p>\n Two attorneys representing Holberg in her upcoming appeal declined interview requests about the case. If the appeals court rules in her favor, Holberg\u2019s case will be sent back to trial court for a rehearing.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Roberson, new evidence<\/a> brought forth by state Rep. Lacey Hull<\/a>, R-Houston, helped win his second stay of execution<\/a> in as many years, sending the case back to trial court. A bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers blocked a previously scheduled execution in 2024 by issuing a subpoena for his testimony for a legislative committee after he was to be put to death.<\/p>\n Roberson\u2019s case caught nationwide attention as lawmakers and public advocates have long asserted his innocence. Roberson was convicted of capital murder in 2003 for the death of his 2-year-old daughter Nikki after she was diagnosed with shaken baby syndrome, which supporters have said was based on now-debunked science.<\/p>\n