Allan B. Polunsky Unit (TL, formerly the Terrell Unit) is a prison in West Livingston, unincorporated

Polk County, Texas Polk County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 50,123. Its county seat is Livingston. The county is named after President James K. Polk. The Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation of the f ...

, United States, located approximately southwest of

Livingston Livingston or Livingstonemay refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North Am ...

along Farm to Market Road 350. - Note the 2010 U.S. Census maps
index
and page
1
an
2
/ref>
"

Texas Department of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails ...

. Retrieved on January 27, 2012. The

(TDCJ) operates the facility. The unit houses the State of Texas

death row Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting executio ...

for men, and it has a maximum capacity of 2,900. Livingston Municipal Airport is located on the other side of FM 350. The unit, along the

Big Thicket The Big Thicket is the name given to a somewhat imprecise region of a heavily forested area of Southeast Texas in the United States. This area represents a portion of the mixed pine-hardwood forests or " Piney Woods" of the Southeast US. The Nat ...

, is east of

Huntsville Huntsville is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the 100th-most populous city in the U.S. The Huntsville metropolitan area had an estimated 525,465 ...

.Perkinson, Robert. '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition.

Metropolitan Books Henry Holt and Company is an American book-publishing company based in New York City. One of the oldest publishers in the United States, it was founded in 1866 by Henry Holt and Frederick Leypoldt. The company publishes in the fields of American ...

, 2010. p
37
. Polunsky was named after Allan B. Polunsky, a former chairman of the

Texas Board of Criminal Justice The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails ...

and former chairman of the

Public Safety Commission In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociological concept of the ''Öffentlichkei ...

, the governing board of the

Texas Department of Public Safety Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous state in the South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and has an international border wi ...

.''Texas Department of Criminal Justice''. Turner Publishing Company, 2004
103
, . Polunsky houses Texas' "

supermax A super-maximum security (supermax) or administrative maximum (ADX) prison is a "control-unit" prison, or a unit within prisons, which represents the most secure level of custody in the prison systems of certain countries. The objective is to ...

" units and is notable for being the location of Texas's death row for men (executions, though, are conducted at the

Huntsville Unit Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Ins ...

in Huntsville).

History

The Polunsky Unit opened in November 1993. At the time of its opening the public did not associate the prison with the death penalty, as the state's male death row inmates were housed at the

Ellis Unit O. B. Ellis Unit (E1, previously Ellis I Unit) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison located in unincorporated area, unincorporated Walker County, Texas, north of Huntsville, Texas, Huntsville. The unit, with about of space,‌ now h ...

near Huntsville. In November 1998

Martin Gurule Martin Edward Gurule (November 7, 1969 – November 27, 1998) was an American prisoner who successfully escaped from death row in Texas in 1998. It was the first successful breakout from Texan death row since Raymond Hamilton was broken out by Bonn ...

, a death row inmate in the Ellis Unit, escaped. He drowned in a nearby creek and his body was found a week later.Staff and Wire Reports
"Death-row inmates take officer hostage Warden negotiates with prisoners"
''

The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation in 2022 of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885, by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the ' ...

''. February 22, 2000. Retrieved on May 7, 2010. "He was later found dead near the prison, but his escape hastened the decision to house death-row inmates at the Polunsky Unit, prison officials have said." After the incident occurred, the TDCJ considered moving the death row for men, and the Polunsky Unit was the favored choice for the relocation. According to the TDCJ, the prison escape attempt had hastened the agency's decision to move death row inmates to a new location. TDCJ officials also stated that overcrowding at Ellis was another factor in the death row move.Prison board OKs moving death row
"

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

at the ''

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' is a newspaper based in Lubbock, Texas, United States. It is owned by Gannett. History ''The Lubbock Avalanche'' was founded in 1900 by John James Dillard and Thad Tubbs. According to Dillard, the name "Avalanche" ...

''. Saturday May 22, 1999. Retrieved on March 24, 2016. Six months after the escape attempt, the TDCJ decided to move the death row."Prisoners at new Death Row unit face increased isolation Inmates caged 'like animals waiting for slaughter', activist says"
''

Fort Worth Star-Telegram The ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram'' is an American daily newspaper serving Fort Worth and Tarrant County, the western half of the North Texas area known as the Metroplex. It is owned by The McClatchy Company. History In May 1905, Amon G. Car ...

''. February 28, 2000. 1 News. Retrieved on May 7, 2010. The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty criticized the move of the death row, saying that the conditions of the prisoners were worse than those in their previous location. The Texas Board of Criminal Justice approved the relocation of the men's death row on Friday May 21, 1999. Polunsky took the death row inmates on Friday June 18, 1999, with the first 55 inmates all classified as being troublesome.First condemned inmates moved to new death row near Livingston
"

at ''

Lubbock Journal-Avalanche ''Lubbock Avalanche-Journal'' is a newspaper based in Lubbock, Texas, United States. It is owned by Gannett. History ''The Lubbock Avalanche'' was founded in 1900 by John James Dillard and Thad Tubbs. According to Dillard, the name "Avalanche" ...

''. Saturday, June 19, 1999. Retrieved on March 24, 2016. The death row transfer, which took ten months, was the largest transfer of condemned prisoners in history and was performed under heavy security. In February 2000 two death row inmates took a 57-year-old female corrections officer hostage, forcing negotiations involving the warden.Staff and Wire Reports
"Death-row inmates take officer hostage – warden negotiates with prisoners"
''

''. February 22, 2000. Retrieved on May 7, 2010. One of the hostage-takers,

Ponchai Wilkerson Ponchai Kamau Wilkerson (July 15, 1971 – March 14, 2000) (also Ponchai Kamau, Kamau Wilkerson, Ponchai "Kamau" Wilkerson) was a convicted murderer executed by lethal injection by the U.S. state of Texas. He was convicted for the 28 November 1990 ...

(TDCJ#999011), was scheduled to be executed on March 14, 2000, and was, in fact, later executed on that date.Executed Offenders
"

. Retrieved on January 27, 2012. The other, Howard Guidry, had no scheduled execution date. Guidry remains on death row. On May 9, 2000, 33-year-old death row inmate Juan Salvez Soria (TDCJ#837), who was scheduled to be executed on July 26, 2000, pulled the arm of 78-year-old William Paul Westbrook, a prison chaplain from

, into his cell. The offender tied a sheet around the chaplain's arm and tied the other end to a toilet; Soria began cutting Westbrook's arm with a razor blade. The offender nearly tore Westbrook's arm off. The authorities used

tear gas Tear gas, also known as a lachrymatory agent or lachrymator (), sometimes colloquially known as "mace" after the Mace (spray), early commercial self-defense spray, is a chemical weapon that stimulates the nerves of the lacrimal gland in the ey ...

to stop the attack. Authorities treated Soria's former cell as a crime scene and moved Soria to a more restricted area within the prison. Soria was executed on schedule. The Texas Board unanimously approved giving former Terrell Unit its current name, ''Allan B. Polunsky Unit'',Timms, Ed
"Terrell Unit is renamed"
''

''. July 21, 2001. Retrieved on January 1, 2010. on July 20, 2001. The board also voted to rename the Ramsey III Unit in

Brazoria County, Texas Brazoria County ( ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population of the county was 372,031. The county seat is Angleton. Brazoria County is included in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land metropolitan stat ...

to the Terrell Unit. The former namesake, a

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

insurance executive named Charles Terrell, requested the name change because he did not want his name associated with death row because of questions about the administration of the death penalty. In addition he reportedly was ambivalent regarding capital punishment. In exchange, the former Ramsey III Unit was renamed the Terrell Unit. In 2010, the TDCJ accused five men who were serving life sentences of attempting to break out of the unit. Robert Perkinson, author of '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire'', said in 2010 that Polunsky "probably" is "the hardest place to do time in Texas." Perkinson added that while the prison is not in a "gloomy" location and that the facility is not "dangerously dilapidated", the prison's "existential problem" is the fact that it is the state death row. In May 2013 '' Mother Jones'' magazine ranked Polunsky as one of the ten worst prisons in the US, based on Congressional testimony from former inmate Anthony Charles Graves (TDCJ Death Row#999127, released due to overturning of conviction on September 7, 2006Offenders No Longer on Death Row
( )

. Retrieved on March 16, 2014.) and research conducted by the magazine during a three-year period. As of 2014 the prison had 691 employees and 2,936 prisoners. As of that year there were 279 men on Polunsky's death row.Hannaford, Alex.
Inmates Aren't the Only Victims of the Prison-Industrial Complex
( ). ''

The Nation ''The Nation'' is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's '' The Liberator'', an abolitionist newspaper ...

''. September 16, 2014. Retrieved on January 20, 2016.

Operations

The facility has twenty-three buildings, on of land. The surrounding area includes fields and forests. It has a capacity of about 2,900 prisoners. David Casstevens of the ''

'' described Polunsky as "a somber complex of putty-gray concrete buildings trimmed in blue on 470 fenced acres." Miriam Rozen of the ''

Houston Press The ''Houston Press'' is an online newspaper published in Houston, Texas, United States. It is headquartered in the Midtown Houston, Midtown area. It was also a weekly print newspaper until November 2017. The publication is supported entirely ...

'' said that the unit "sits amid the same kind of lush, green and hilly

East Texas East Texas is a broadly defined cultural, geographic, and ecological region in the eastern part of the U.S. state of Texas that consists of approximately 38 counties. It is roughly divided into Northeast Texas, Northeast, Southeast Texas, Sout ...

terrain that surrounds

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

Bush's lake house 100 miles to the north in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

." Marc Bookman of '' Mother Jones'' said that the prison "looks as one might imagine a death row would look—a series of imposing concrete structures surrounded by excessive razor wire and four guard towers."Bookman, Marc. "How Crazy Is Too Crazy to Be Executed?" '' Mother Jones''. Tuesday February 12, 2013
3
Retrieved on March 23, 2013. Alex Hannaford of ''

'' described it as a "bleak, foreboding complex". The Polunsky Unit was designed to house more problematic and dangerous inmates; the officials designed the unit to be more secure than the older TDCJ units. Throughout its history the unit housed administrative segregation offenders (offenders in solitary confinement due to chronic misbehavior or violence). The building housing death row inmates is separate from the rest of the compound. Polunsky has a kitchen, a medical treatment clinic, psych interview rooms, and classification office space. Robert Perkinson, author of '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire'', said that Polunsky, a white concrete building with blue steel supports, is "functionally designed and pleasantly asymmetrical" and that a person would mistake the building for a

community college A community college is a type of undergraduate higher education institution, generally leading to an associate degree, certificate, or diploma. The term can have different meanings in different countries: many community colleges have an open enr ...

"if not for the three-inch window slits."

Death row operations

As of March 2013 about 290 male death row prisoners are housed in Polunsky.Grissom, Brandi.
Trouble in Mind
" ''

Texas Monthly ''Texas Monthly'' (stylized as ''TexasMonthly'') is a monthly American magazine headquartered in Downtown Austin, Texas. Founded in 1973 by Michael R. Levy, ''Texas Monthly'' chronicles life in contemporary Texas, writing on politics, the Natura ...

''. March 2013. Volume 41, Issue 3. p. 192 As of March 2013 eight are instead housed in

Jester IV Unit The Wayne Scott Unit (J4), formerly known as the Beauford H. Jester IV Unit, is a psychiatric facility of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice located in unincorporated Fort Bend County, Texas, United States, east of Richmond. It is a part ...

, a psychiatric unit near

Richmond, Texas Richmond is a suburb of Houston and the county seat of Fort Bend County, Texas, United States. The city is located within the metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city population was 11,627. History In 1822, a group of Austin's ...

. Photographs taken inside

were provided by the State of Texas in response to a

Freedom of Information Act (United States) The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA ), , is the United States federal Freedom of information in the United States, freedom of information law that requires the full or partial disclosure of previously unreleased or uncirculated information a ...

request filed by attorney Yolanda Torres in 2009. The death row prisoners reside in Building 12, a two-story facility which opened in 1993 to house administrative segregation prisoners in solitary confinement.Ward, Mike.
Prison officials propose limits to interviews on death row
" ''

Austin American-Statesman The ''Austin American-Statesman'' is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is owned by Hearst Communications. The distribution of the following ''The New York Times'', ''The Washington Post'', '' ...

''. June 9, 1999. B1. Retrieved on July 19, 2010. "On Tuesday, Texas reporters toured the Terrell Unit, soon to be death row's third home in 150 years. Building 12, a two-story, concrete-and-steel lockup designed with death row in mind when it was opened in 1993, has housed "administrative segregation" convicts – those whose chronic misbehavior or violence has earned them a place in solitary confinement." This building has three rectangular sections, and a recreational area, in the shape of the circle, is in the center of each section. The death row offenders live in single person, cells,Death Row Facts
"

. Retrieved on January 27, 2012. with each cell having a slit window and a concrete door. There is a "tempered air" system intended to keep inside temperatures at 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius) or below. The death row buildings have a total of 504 cells. Prior to the relocation of the men's death row, prison authorities held non-death row "administrative segregation" prisoners in these cells. These prisoners were relocated when the men's death row changed locations. Death row offenders receive no programming and are not allowed to work.Perkinson, Robert. '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition.

, 2010. p
39
. Death row prisoners receive meals through bean slots, gates in the cell doors. Whenever an offender is taken from his cell, such as when the offender goes to take a shower, the offender is

strip search A strip search is a practice of searching a person for weapons or other contraband suspected of being hidden on their body or inside their clothing, and not found by performing a frisk search, but by requiring the person to remove some or al ...

ed. Graczyk, Michael
"Connally escapee Rivas moves into new home on Texas' death row"
(). ''

'' at the ''

Corpus Christi Caller-Times The ''Corpus Christi Caller-Times'' is the newspaper of record for Corpus Christi, Texas. History There has been a newspaper in Corpus Christi for almost as long as there has been a town. In 1883, the ''Caller'' was started in a frame building ...

''. Friday August 31, 2001. Retrieved on July 23, 2010. The offenders receive individual recreation in a caged area. Depending on the custody level, death row offenders may be eligible for having radios. Death row inmates wear white jumpsuits, and the death row uniforms have the letters "DR" in black on the backs. Perkinson said that the wait times that the offenders have before execution make the prison stressful for the inmates, visitors, and employees.Perkinson, Robert. '' Texas Tough: The Rise of America's Prison Empire''. First Edition.

, 2010. p
38
. Jonathan Bruce Reed (TDCJ Death Row #642, now TDJC#1743674 due to a reduction of the sentence to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence (law), sentence of imprisonment under which the convicted individual is to remain incarcerated for the rest of their natural life (or until pardoned or commuted to a fixed term). Crimes that result in life impr ...

on November 3, 2011), a death row offender, said that the mentality of the death row unit is "we keep you kenneled until your date." Larry Todd, a spokesperson of the prison, said that "when a person walks on to death row, there is a sense of change. It's just a different atmosphere." During a US Judiciary hearing on solitary confinement, Anthony Graves, a former prisoner in the death row who was released in 2010, said that conditions were making prisoners lose their sanity. In 2013 James Ridgeway and Jean Casella of '' Mother Jones'' stated that "Some have been known to commit suicide or waive their appeals rather than continue living under such conditions." '' In This Timeless Time: Living and Dying on Death Row in America'', a 2012 book by Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian discusses the Polunsky Unit. According to one passage: "Whenever a condemned prisoner goes anywhere outside his cell, he must back up to the door, drop to his knees, and extend his hands backward through the narrow slot to be handcuffed. Then he stands, turns around, and waits for the door to be opened. The whole process of dropping to the knees and extending the arms backward is particularly difficult and painful for the older convicts with arthritis." Jackson and Christian point out that the state laws for Texas, and most other states, do not lay out "the specific conditions under which condemned prisoners live."

Polunsky in the media

Polunsky is a setting of the book '' Blow Fly'' by

Patricia Cornwell Patricia Cornwell (born Patricia Carroll Daniels; June 9, 1956) is an American crime writer. She is known for her best-selling novels featuring medical examiner Kay Scarpetta, of which the first was inspired by a series of sensational murders ...

. The popular novel by John Grisham, ''The Confession'', is set around Polunsky. The Confession ohn Grisham Paperback: 464 pages; Publisher: Arrow (May 1, 2011); Language: English; The Mexican novel ''Llegada la hora'' by Karla Zárate talks about a fictional chef cooking the last meals for Death Row inmates in Polunsky. Llegada la hora (Spanish) Paperback: 214 pages; Publisher: Dharma Books (June, 2019); Language: Spanish; The

National Public Radio (NPR) National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

Podcast series ''Consider This'' devoted an episode about the death row radio station, The Tank 106.5, based on the reporting of

Keri Blakinger Keri Lynn Blakinger (born June 15, 1984) is an American journalist and author. She is an investigative reporter for The Marshall Project, where she covers criminal justice, and the ''Los Angeles Times'', where she investigates the Los Angeles C ...

for the

Marshall Project The Marshall Project is an American nonprofit news organization covering the U.S. criminal justice system. The organization's mission is to impact the system through journalism, and states that its goal is to create and sustain a sense of nation ...

for The Guardian.

Notable inmates

Death row prisoners

All death row prisoners on this list are and were under death sentences given by the State of Texas.

Executed

* Arthur Lee Burton – convicted of the 1997 murder of Nancy Adleman and executed on August 7, 2024. * Quintin Phillippe Jones – executed on May 19, 2021. * John William King ( murder of James Byrd, Jr.) – executed on April 24, 2019. * John David Battaglia – executed on February 1, 2018.
Lawrence Russell Brewer
( murderer of James Byrd, Jr.)Keys, Perryn
JASPER: THE ROAD BACK: Did prison time turn man into one of Byrd's killers?"
''

Beaumont Enterprise ''The Beaumont Enterprise'' is a newspaper of Hearst Communications, headquartered in Beaumont, Texas. It has been in operation since 1880. History John W. Leonard founded the initial ''Enterprise'' as a weekly newspaper in 1880. It became a dai ...

''. June 9, 2008. Retrieved on July 23, 2010. – executed on September 21, 2011.
Peter Anthony Cantu
(convicted of the murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña); transferred from

– executed on August 17, 2010. * James Lee Clark, executed on April 11, 2007, at

despite questions of Clark's IQ not meeting mental retardation * Jeffrey Dillingham – perpetrator of the

murder of Caren Koslow On March 12, 1992, in the Rivercrest area of Fort Worth, Texas, intruders attacked Jack Koslow and Caren Courtney Koslow, a husband and wife, in their house. Caren Koslow's throat was slashed, killing her, while Jack escaped the house and survived. ...

,Jeffrey Dillingham
"

. Retrieved on July 17, 2016. executed November 1, 2000. * Robert Alan Fratta – executed on January 10, 2023, for masterminding the murder of his estranged wife Farah Fratta. * James Garrett Freeman – executed January 7, 2016.Freeman, James
"

. Retrieved on February 4, 2016. * Gustavo Julian Garciagarciagustavo.jpg
"

. Retrieved on February 18, 2016. – executed February 16, 2016. *

Humberto Leal Garcia Humberto Leal García Jr. (January 16, 1973 – July 7, 2011) was a Mexican national who was sentenced to death in the US state of Texas for the May 21, 1994, rape, torture, and murder of Adria Sauceda in San Antonio. Despite calls from US Presi ...

, transferred from Ellis Unit – executed on July 7, 2011. *Joseph Christopher Garcia (member of the

Texas Seven The Texas 7 were a group of prisoners who escaped from the John B. Connally Unit near Kenedy, Texas, on December 13, 2000. Six of the seven were apprehended over a month later, between January 22–24, 2001, as a direct result of the television s ...

) – executed on December 4, 2018. * Juan Martin Garcia – executed October 6, 2015. * Gary Graham a.k.a. Shaka Sankofa – executed June 22, 2000. *

Jesús Ledesma Aguilar Jesús Ledesma Aguilar (November 28, 1963 – May 24, 2006) was a Mexican national who became the 365th person executed by the U.S. state of Texas. His execution sparked an international incident between the United States and Mexico, which led t ...

– executed on May 24, 2006. *

José Medellín José Ernesto Medellín Rojas (March 4, 1975 – August 5, 2008), born in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, was a Mexican national and serial killer who was executed by lethal injection for the murders of murder of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña, Jen ...

(convicted of the murders of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña); transferred from Ellis Unit – executed on August 5, 2008. * Travis James Mullis – found guilty of murdering his son in 2008 and executed on September 24, 2024. *

Steven Lawayne Nelson Steven Lawayne Nelson (February 18, 1987 – February 5, 2025) was an American convicted murderer, executed for the 2011 murder of 28-year-old Arlington, Texas, Arlington pastor Clinton "Clint" Dobson in Texas. Nelson was found guilty of the murd ...

– convicted of the 2011 murder of Arlington pastor Clint Dobson and sentenced to death in 2012. * Donald Keith Newbury (member of the

) executed on February 4, 2015. * Derrick Sean O'Brien (perpetrator of the murder of Jennifer Ertman and Elizabeth Peña); transferred from Ellis Unit – executed on July 11, 2006. * Michael James Perry – convicted of the murder of Sandra Stotler, suspected of murdering her son James Adam Stotler (age 16) and Arnold Jeremy Richardson (age 18) - executed July 1, 2010. *

Robert Lynn Pruett Robert Lynn Pruett (September 18, 1979 – October 12, 2017) was a Texas man convicted and executed for the 1999 murder of TDCJ Correctional Officer Daniel Nagle (September 9, 1962 – December 17, 1999) at the McConnell Unit, Bee County. Pruett ...

– executed October 12, 2017, at

Huntsville unit Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Ins ...

. *

Ángel Maturino Reséndiz Angel Maturino Reséndiz (August 1, 1959 – June 27, 2006), known as The Railroad Killer, was a Mexican serial killer suspected in as many as 23 murders across the United States and Mexico during the 1990s, some of which involved sexual assau ...

– executed on June 27, 2006. * George Rivas (member of the Texas Seven) – executed on February 29, 2012.
Michael Anthony Rodriguez
(member of the Texas Seven) – executed on August 14, 2008. * Rosendo Rodriguez III (Suitcase Killer) – executed on March 27, 2018. *

Tommy Lynn Sells Tommy Lynn Sells (June 28, 1964 – April 3, 2014) was an American serial killer who became known as the Coast to Coast Killer. Although he was convicted of only two murders, one of which he was sentenced to death and eventually executed for, Sel ...

– executed on April 3, 2014. * Shannon Charles Thomas – transferred from Ellis Unit and executed on November 16, 2005. *

Richard Lee Tabler Richard Lee Tabler (February 5, 1979 – February 13, 2025) was an American spree killer who was responsible for four murders committed in 2004. On Thanksgiving Day of 2004, Tabler and a co-defendant shot and killed two men at a nightclub in Ki ...

, convicted of a 2004 double murder case and suspect of two slayings of teenage girls. * Edgar Tamayo – executed on January 22, 2014.Edgar Arias Tamayo
"

. Retrieved on April 21, 2016. * Pablo Lucio VasquezVasquez, Pablo Lucio
"

. Retrieved on April 10, 2016. – executed on April 6, 2016. * Adam Kelly Ward – executed on March 22, 2016. * Coy Wesbrook – executed on March 9, 2016. * Melvin White – executed November 3, 2005. *

– executed on March 13, 2000. *

Cameron Todd Willingham Cameron Todd Willingham (January 9, 1968 – February 17, 2004) was an American man who was convicted and executed for the murder of his three young children by arson at the family home in Corsicana, Texas, on December 23, 1991. Since Willingham' ...

– transferred from Ellis Unit – executed on February 17, 2004. * Steven Michael Woods, Jr. – executed on September 13, 2011 * Marvin Lee Wilson – executed on August 7, 2012, at

Awaiting execution

* Jason Thornburg, murdered 3 women and 2 men between 2017 and 2021. * Edgardo Cubas, perpetrator of the 2002 East End murdersCubas, Edgardo Rafael
"

. Retrieved on May 23, 2017.
Randy Ethan Halprin
(member of the

) * William George Davis – serial killer nurse. *Bartholomew Granger – murdered a bystander while trying to kill his daughter. * Howard Paul Guidry, who was convicted of the murder of Farah Fratta by shooting the victim on her husband's orders. * Ruben Gutierrez, who was convicted and sent to death row for the murder of Escolastica Harrison, a retired schoolteacher, during a robbery in 1998. His execution had been postponed several times due to legal issues and appeals. * Ronald Lee Haskell, perpetrator of the 2014 Harris County shooting *

Ali Irsan Ali Mahmood Awad Irsan (; born December 27, 1957
"

Irsan, Ali Awas Mahmoud
"

. Retrieved on September 9, 2018. – convicted and sentenced to death for

honor killings Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valo ...

* Patrick Henry Murphy, Jr. – member of the

* Joseph Andrew Prystash, who was convicted of the murder of Farah Fratta by helping the victim's husband to hire a hitman to kill the victim. * Rodney Reed * Robert Leslie Roberson III – convicted of the murder of his daughter in 2002. * Víctor Saldaño * Walter Alexander Sorto, perpetrator of the 2002 East End murders *

Faryion Wardrip Faryion Edward Wardrip (born March 6, 1959) is an American serial killer who sexual assault, sexually assaulted and murdered five women. Four of the women were killed in Wichita Falls, Texas, Wichita Falls, Texas, and the surrounding countie ...

– serial killer responsible for the murders of five women between 1984 and 1986. * Eric Lyle Williams – perpetrator of the

Kaufman County murders In 2013, two prosecutors and a prosecutor's wife were murdered in Kaufman County, Texas. The case gained national attention in the United States due to speculation that the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang was responsible, but this was later found ...

in which he murdered Kaufman County, Texas prosecutor Mark Hasse, along with Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia. Williams was a former Justice of the Peace who was previously charged with theft. Williams killed Mr. Hasse out of revenge for the guilty verdict he received over the robbery charge, which was brought on by Mr. Hasse. *Robert Gene Will – convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of police officer in Houston, TX, on December 4, 2000. Awaiting execution but moved out of Polunsky: *

Andre Thomas Andre Lee Thomas (born March 17, 1983) is an American convicted murderer and death row inmate known for removing both of his eyeballs in separate incidents and ingesting one of them. In 2004, Thomas killed his estranged wife Laura Boren, his f ...

– Moved to the

due to mental health issues

Commuted

* Kenneth Foster *

Thomas Bartlett Whitaker Thomas Bartlett Whitaker (born December 31, 1979) is an American convicted under the Texas law of parties of murdering two family members as a 23-year-old. Whitaker was convicted and sentenced to death in March 2007 for the December 10, 2003 m ...

– Commuted to life in prison * Anthony Charles Graves – Exonerated

Non-death row

* Matt Dee Baker – Former pastor convicted of killing his wife and featured in the non-fiction book ''

Deadly Little Secrets ''Deadly Little Secrets: The Minister, His Mistress, and a Heartless Texas Murder'' is a 2012 true crime book written by the non-fiction author and novelist Kathryn Casey and released by HarperCollins about the 2006 murder by Baptist minister Mat ...

''. *

Steven Jay Russell Steven Jay Russell (born December 31, 1957) is an American con artist, known for escaping from prison multiple times. '' I Love You Phillip Morris'', a film about his life and crimes, was produced in 2009. Life and crimes Russell was adop ...

– Repeated escapee and con artist, portrayed by actor

Jim Carrey James Eugene Carrey (; born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian and American actor and comedian. Known primarily for his energetic slapstick performances, he has received two Golden Globe Awards, in addition to nominations for BAFTA Awards and ...

in the film ''

I Love You Phillip Morris ''I Love You Phillip Morris'' is a 2009 black comedy film based on a 1980s and 1990s real-life story of con artist, impostor and multiple prison escapee Steven Jay Russell, as played by Jim Carrey. While incarcerated, Russell falls in love wi ...

''.RUSSELL, STEVEN L
().

. Retrieved on December 28, 2015. TDCJ ID: 00760259, SID: 05138971Stein, Joshua David.
Ewan McGregor: Filthy and Gorgeous
." ''

Out Out or OUT may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films *Out (1957 film), ''Out'' (1957 film), a documentary short about the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 *Out (1982 film), ''Out'' (1982 film), an American film directed by Eli Hollander *O ...

''. Friday February 12, 2010. Retrieved on December 10, 2010. " ..the two live lavishly until Russell gets caught and goes to prison for good (Escape, Case No. 9,856-C). Russell -- Inmate No. 00760259 -- has a maximum sentence that would keep him imprisoned until July 12, 2140 -- 47,595 days after the film opens." * Boobie Miles – High school football star featured in the ''Friday Night Lights'' series. Released from TDCJ in 2018. * Lyle Brummett – Serial killer *

William Lewis Reece William Lewis Reece (born July 1, 1959) is an American serial killer, rapist, and trucker formerly active in the U.S. States of Oklahoma and Texas. He is currently incarcerated in Texas and awaiting a death penalty sentence in Oklahoma. In 2015 ...

– Serial killer *Curtis Gambill- One of three perpetrators of the 1996 rape and

Murder of Heather Rich The murder of Heather Rich was the 1996 child murder of a Waurika, Oklahoma, 16-year-old by three local teenagers. After Rich's body was found, an investigation led to the trials and convictions of the three perpetrators. Saddled with a recent ...

. The case experienced renewed attention after Curtis, one of his co-defendants, and a few other inmates escaped custody in 2002, after a 10 day manhunt they were apprehended.