Some states have abolished the death penalty. California has a moratorium but holds the most people on death row. Texas, where Murphy is held, has carried out five executions so far this year.
The case that landed Jedidiah Murphy on Texas' death row is not remarkable, at least not by death row standards. After a childhood of abuse and years in foster care, by his teens he had begun showing signs of severe mental illness, including hallucinations and dissociative blackouts. Soon, he began drinking to self-medicate. It was during a blackout in the fall of 2000, he says, that he carjacked an elderly woman near Dallas. He shot her to death, which he does not deny.
The top prosecutor for the county in which Murphy’s crime occurred — Dallas County Dist. Atty. John Creuzot — is one of the progressive prosecutors who has stopped using the death penalty quite as much. His office declined to comment for this story, referring questions to the state attorney general’s office, which is handling the case. Prosecutors there did not offer comment. :: It might seem logical that a decades-long decrease in executions would swell the nation's death row population.
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