Texas has scheduled four death row inmates for execution in 2026, continuing the state’s consistent use of capital punishment after executing five men in 2025.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has announced execution dates spanning from January through May of 2026 for Charles Victor Thompson, Cedric Allen Ricks, James Garfield Broadnax, and Edward Lee Busby Jr.
Four Men Facing Execution
First in line is Charles Victor Thompson, a 55-year-old white man who has been on death row since 1999 after a conviction in Harris County. Thompson’s execution is scheduled for January 28, 2026, marking more than 26 years between his sentencing and planned execution date.
Following Thompson, Cedric Allen Ricks is set to be executed on March 11, 2026. Ricks, a 51-year-old Black man, was convicted in Tarrant County in 2014 and has been on death row for nearly a decade.
James Garfield Broadnax, who will be 37 at the time of his scheduled execution on April 30, 2026, has been on death row since 2009 following a conviction in Dallas County. Broadnax was reportedly seeking to “rob somebody” at the time of his crime.
The final scheduled execution for the announced period is Edward Lee Busby Jr., set for May 14, 2026. Busby, a Black man who will be 53 at the time, was received on death row in 2005 after being convicted in Tarrant County.
Texas’s Death Penalty Counties
Is there a pattern to these executions? Indeed, all four men were convicted in counties that have historically sent the most people to death row in Texas.
Harris County, where Thompson was convicted, has sentenced 64 people to death row — more than any other county in the state. Dallas County, where Broadnax received his sentence, has contributed 11 inmates to death row, while Tarrant County, responsible for both Ricks and Busby, has sent 14 people to await execution.
These three counties alone account for more than half of Texas’s current death row population, highlighting the geographic concentration of capital punishment within the state.
The 2026 executions will follow a busy 2025, when Texas put five men to death: Steven Nelson, Richard Tabler, Moises Mendoza, Matthew Johnson, and Blaine Milam. The state has long led the nation in executions since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.
While death penalty opponents continue to raise concerns about the fairness and application of capital punishment, Texas maintains its place as the most active death penalty state in America — a distinction that shows little sign of changing as these four new execution dates approach.
