Tarrant County is overcharging people in criminal cases and disproportionately seeking the death penalty in cases against minorities, according to a new report from a legal nonprofit advocacy group.
“No one should face execution because of the color of their skin or the zip code in which they live,” Burke Butler, co-executive director of Texas Defender Service, said. “But the reality is that that's exactly what's happening in Tarrant County right now.”
Overcharging refers to a prosecutor adding harsher or multiple charges to a single crime, usually meant to intimidate a defendant to take a plea deal.
Texas Defender Service (TDS) is made up of lawyers working to end mass incarceration and excessive punishment in Texas.
Tarrant County is the third-largest county in Texas with a population of 2.23 million and makes up roughly 7% of the population of the state.
According to the report, titled "An Extreme Outlier: Race and the Death Penalty in Tarrant County, the Third Largest County in Texas," Tarrant County has sought the death penalty in 13 cases since 2012. Of those, 12 defendants were from racial and ethnic minority groups.
The report also shows Tarrant County sought the death penalty at six trials — more than any other county in Texas — since 2020.
“My job is to seek justice and give a voice to the victims of these horrific crimes and hold defendants accountable,” Tarrant County DA Phil Sorrells said in a statement. “In my time as the elected District Attorney, Tarrant County juries have heard six death penalty trials and they have returned a death sentence in 5 of the 6 trials. Only a jury can sentence a defendant to death.”
Sorrells has been Tarrant County DA since 2022. The district attorney’s office is responsible for filing a motion to seek the death penalty in capital murder.
TDS report says the district attorney’s office is more likely to seek the death penalty against Black defendants in cases where an unplanned murder occurs during a burglary or robbery. A defendant can be charged with capital murder if they kill someone while committing another felony, such as aggravated burglary or robbery.
Those specific crimes have been the basis for capital murder charges in 46% of the death penalty cases the Tarrant County DA’s Office has brought to trial since 2020 — more than double the rate of the rest of the state, according to the report, and is the only county in Texas to have brought a death penalty case to trial based on those charges.
The nonprofit group obtained the information through records requests with the county and cross-checked the data about demographics and certain charges, according to Butler.
Sorrells says in his statement that his office considers the facts of each case when seeking the death penalty, including the individual’s criminal history, likelihood to commit another crime and input from the victim’s family.
“In making this determination I do not know the race of the defendant,” Sorrells’ statement read. “The death penalty laws of this State, the process used in my office, and the resulting trial is not an arbitrary process based on demographics. Every case must be evaluated on its own facts under the law in light of our high burden.”
The group also claims the DA’s office presses capital murder charges against minorities and lacks evidence to move forward with those charges at trial or indictments.
The report shows a clear pattern in how race plays a role in these cases, said Estelle Hebron-Jones, director of special projects at TDS, at a press conference Thursday on the front steps of the Tarrant County Courthouse.
Hebron-Jones called on the county commissioners court to request an audit of what's happening in the DA's office and sent a letter to Sorrells — also signed by local faith leaders — asking him to address the issues discussed in the report.
“Regardless of if it's conscious or unconscious, it's still something concerning and that any responsible public official or public office should want to review and address,” Hebron-Jones said.
Its data shows 431 capital murder cases were filed in Tarrant County over a 20-year period. Among those, 35% ended up with different convictions unrelated to homicide, and another 10% of defendants got no jail time.
Pamela Young, executive director at the grassroots organization United Fort Worth, called the report's findings a tragedy during Thursday’s press conference.
"They represent family after family, person after person, and community after community that has been decimated, ignored, and treated inhumanely by all of the actors that make up and perpetuate the violent culture of the Tarrant County criminal legal system,” Young said.
But there could be other factors that impact such statistics, said Alex Burton, assistant professor in the criminology and criminal justice program at the University of Texas at Dallas.
“There are many different justice systems in the United States,” Burton said. “And justice systems are heavily influenced by politics, cultures, history, regions, the composition of those that they're serving.”
Burton told KERA News it can be hard to pinpoint why certain minority groups get harsher sentences or charges, but cumulative disadvantages can contribute to it.
“Being in areas that are more heavily policed, being in areas of greater violence, sometimes they are more likely to be impoverished,” Burton said. “And so when that individual comes before a prosecutor, with that accumulated disadvantage, they might be more likely to get the strictest and harshest penalties.”
Burton also said a victim’s race can impact what kind of sentencing someone receives.
“When it comes to the death penalty, there's a lot of research showing that when white individuals are murdered, especially from someone of a minority group, that's when the death penalty is more likely to be used,” Burton said.
The report says 67% of the people initially charged with capital murder who ended up receiving no jail time were Black.
Additionally, eight of the nine people that a grand jury did not indict for capital murder despite the initial charges were Black, and one was Latino.
“I'm sure you heard the phrase, 'You can even indict a ham sandwich,' ” Butler said. “Grand juries usually indict in the cases that go in front of them, and the standard to get an indictment is really low. So, the fact that they have not been able to get indictment in nine whole cases and that eight of those people were people of color says a lot about the system and the lack of precision in terms of how they're pursuing capital charges.”
Penelope Rivera is KERA's Tarrant County Accountability Reporter. Got a tip? Email Penelope Rivera at privera@kera.org.
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