Protesters demonstrate against the death penalty in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Protesters demonstrate against the death penalty in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. Credit: Unsplash / Maria Oswalt

Anti-death-penalty group the Execution Intervention Project on Monday asked Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa to end capital punishment in Texas.

The advocacy group’s call to action comes a week after a blue tsunami swept Republicans from power, meaning Democrats will be in every statewide executive office starting in January. Dems also will control three seats on the nine-member Texas Court of Criminal Appeals — the court charged with reviewing capital punishment appeals — although they will remain in the minority.

“Governor-elect Hinojosa has said that she is opposed to the death penalty,” Execution Intervention Project founder Rev. Jeff Hood said during Monday’s press event. “Now she holds power over the chamber that has killed more people than any other in the country. The only question that remains is whether she will follow her convictions and stop further executions.”

Indeed, then-gubernatorial candidate Hinojosa said during an appearance on CNN last month that she personally opposed the death penalty. However, she stopped short of calling herself a capital punishment abolitionist.

“I personally do not support the death penalty,” Hinojosa said at the time. “But, as governor, I think it is my responsibility to look at each case individually. That is the responsibility given to the governor of Texas, and one I take very seriously.”

Hinojosa’s team did not immediately respond to the Current’s request for comment about whether her stance on the issue has changed or whether the death penalty is among her administration’s top priorities.

The Democrat’s comments to CNN came after the botched execution of Tennessee woman Christa Pike, who survived two lethal injections in September and has remained in the hospital since.

A judge sentenced Pike to death in 1996 after a jury found her guilty of murdering Colleen Slemmer.

Unlike in other states, the governor of Texas does not have the unilateral authority to grant clemency or commute a death sentence to life imprisonment. Instead, the governor can independently grant a one-time, 30-day reprieve to pause an execution.

Even so, Gov.-elect Hinojosa will have the authority to appoint members of the 18-person Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, where a majority vote is required to recommend commuting a death sentence.

Hood and the Execution Intervention Project are calling on Gov.-elect Hinojosa to, at the very least, grant 30-day reprieves for every death row inmate.

“If Governor Hinojosa needs or wants money to better fund education in the state, then stop executions and use all that money to educate our young people,” Hood said. “Governor Hinojosa wants to bring about better health care and better health outcomes for young mothers and older citizens — then stop spending millions and millions of dollars on killing people.”

Texas has led the nation in capital punishment, executing 603 inmates since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (TCADP) estimated in a 2024 fact sheet that each death penalty case costs the state $3.8 million, compared to only $1.3 million for a life-in-prison case.

The death penalty and criminal justice reform are just two policy issues that Gov.-elect Hinojosa and her incoming administration will need to evaluate, along with public education, Medicaid expansion, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) cooperation and border security.

Meanwhile, during her first press conference as governor-elect, Hinojosa adopted more moderate, bipartisan rhetoric than the populist platform she ran on might have suggested.

“This is not about being a Democratic administration,” Hinojosa said last week in Austin. “I’m not going to be the governor for just Democrats. I’m going to be the governor for all people.”

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Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...