Editor’s Note, March 6 2023: This story has been updated with information from one of Arthur Brown’s trial lawyers.
Two men, Gary Green and Arthur Brown Jr., are set to be executed by the State of Texas next week. Lawyers for both men have raised concerns about their intellectual disability, and in Brown’s case, his defense argues the state has withheld evidence for nearly 30 years that could have cleared his name.
Texas has already executed three people in 2023—Robert Fratta, Wesley Ruiz, and John Balentine—with five more scheduled before the end of the year. (Henry Skinner was also scheduled to be executed in September, but he died from surgery complications last month). This is an uptick from 2022, when the state executed five people total, but the past three years of five or fewer executions have been an anomaly.
