These are the execution case files of the Office of the General Counsel of Texas Governor George W. Bush created to track the cases of death row inmates and to document actions by the courts and the governor through appeals, requests for stays of execution, or clemency. The files consist of execution summaries by the Governor's General Counsel and summaries by the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP) (or by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for the BPP); memos and correspondence; clemency petitions; affidavits; court documents (judgements, opinions, appeals, motions, orders, etc.); notes; records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice inmate files, including medical or psychological summaries or reports, disciplinary reports, social histories, and other internal reports about specific inmates, police reports, investigative reports of detectives, crime lab reports, fingerprint records, and occasionally, crime scene and/or autopsy photos; Department of Public Safety criminal history records; clippings; case summaries from the South Western Reporter or similar court reports; citations from online legal sources; and audio and video tapes. Dates covered for the execution case files are 1886, 1903, 1912-1914, 1921, 1939, 1950-2000, the bulk dating 1986-2000.

Files are present for most of the inmates executed during Bush's term. Correspondents include staff of the General Counsel's Office, the Governor, the Board of Pardons and Paroles, the Department of Criminal Justice, the Attorney General's Office, appeals courts, district attorneys, local law enforcement officials, inmates or their attorneys, and family and friends of victims and of the inmates. The letters are generally addressed to either the Governor or his General Counsel; some letters are copies of items addressed to and forwarded by the Board of Pardons and Paroles to the Governor for his review. While many of the letters are directed to the Governor, they are stamped as received at the General Counsel's office and there is no indication that the Governor reviewed them. What the Governor did review are the execution summaries prepared by the General Counsel. Most of these have a place for the governor to check deny or grant and for him to sign. Some of these are originals, most are copies. Execution summaries prepared by the General Counsel are not present in all inmate execution case files. They are present in the Legal opinions and advice (LOA) series and in the Death penalty notebooks series of the General Counsel's Office. And, the majority of the execution summaries in the LOA records have the original signature of the governor.

Execution case summaries prepared by the Board of Pardons and Paroles (BPP) or for the BPP by the Department of Criminal Justice are confidential by statute, and there is no indication (such as signature sheets or notes) that the Governor reviewed these. There is a difference between the execution summaries prepared by the governor's general counsel and those done by or for the BPP. The summaries by the BPP contain more information about the crime, the criminal history, and the defendant's prison record than do those prepared by the governor's general counsel. Additionally, execution summaries prepared by TDCJ or BPP often contain attachments, including correspondence between the BPP and inmates or with victims and inmates families, correspondence or memoranda to the BPP from its legal counsel, recommendations from trial officials, medical and psychological reports, and criminal histories. The summaries and attachments are confidential. The BPP correspondence, TDCJ records, law enforcement reports, medical or psychological reports, and court records were generally sent over to the governor's office as part of a review packet, though not often identified as part of the BPP's execution summary. Regardless of whether they were part of the execution summary or part of a separate review packet from the BPP, these materials are confidential.

Affidavits, court records, and other materials were often included as exhibits or attachments to clemency petitions sent to governor by the inmate and/or his/her attorney. Most materials included as attachments to the clemency petition to the governor are open. If the petition was sent to the BPP and not directly to the Governor's Office, it is confidential. Clemency petitions are not present for all inmates; not all death row inmates submitted a petition. In a very few cases petitions missing from the execution case files can be found in the series, Death penalty notebooks.

Although the inmates were executed, some materials are still confidential - medical/psychological reports; any reports or documents produced by TDCJ, such as disciplinary reports on the inmates, social histories, etc.; most files gathered or created by the Board of Pardons and Paroles for its review and most correspondence with the BPP; etc. See the Restrictions statement for further information about confidential records.

Confidential information in the execution case files is not limited to the notations in the folder listing. The notations present were added because the confidential nature of the information is not obvious.

This series was removed from this finding aid and is split into two separate finding aids due to the electronic file size limitations imposed by the online finding aid web site (TARO). If you are reading this electronically, click on the following link to access the finding aid for the case files - Texas Governor George W. Bush General Counsel execution case files. If you are reading this in paper, the series finding aid is in a separate divider within the binder.

The General Counsel to the Texas Governor is responsible for tracking inmates on death row as their cases move through the judicial process, including all appeals to the governor for commutations or stays of execution. The death penalty notebooks seem to have served as a reading file on inmates scheduled for execution and consist of two notebooks of subject clipping files and fourteen notebooks of execution files (execution summaries, clippings, clemency petitions), with a separate section for each inmate executed during Texas Governor George W. Bush's terms in office. Dates covered are 1952, 1966-2000, the bulk dating 1995-2000.

Subjects found in the clipping files include the appeals system, bias, instructions to jurors, lawyers, juveniles, the mentally incompetent, DNA, executing the innocent, a moratorium on executions, opposition to executions, court rulings, and legislation. There is also a packet with answers to frequently asked questions about the death penalty.

Each inmate's section generally includes a copy of the execution summary prepared by the governor's general counsel for the governor's review, consisting of a summary of the facts, background and personal history, criminal history, a summary of court proceedings, a brief discussion or mention of applicable law, legal claims, clemency request, and a conclusion. The inmate's sections also contain clippings or articles from newspapers, usually dated just prior to or shortly after the execution. In a few cases, articles are present about the case dating months or years before or after the execution. Starting late in 1995 a signature page was added to the execution summary containing a place for the governor to note if he granted or denied the clemency request. While many summaries include this page, it is generally does not indicate the governor's decision, seemingly being a blank form placed in the notebook prior to the governor's review. There is one original execution summary here, in the file for Tony Chambers. The majority of the original execution summaries are in the series Legal opinions and advice, with a few originals (though mostly copies) in the series Execution case files. A few inmates do not have execution summaries filed in the notebooks, but the summaries may be found in the aforementioned series.

The last item present in most of the inmates' sections is a copy of the clemency petition sent to the governor and/or the Board of Pardons and Paroles by the inmate or his attorneys. The petitions contain a summary of the case, usually some background information and personal history of the inmate, and the reasons for the clemency request. Most of these petitions are accompanied by attachments (exhibits or appendices), including letters to the governor and/or BPP, letters in support of clemency, psychological or psychiatric evaluations, and, occasionally, trial transcripts, parole records or school records. In a few instances, the clemency petition will be a signed copy instead of a photocopy. Petitions are not present for all inmates. Additional copies of the petition, often with more material, can be found in the series Execution case files. If the clemency petition was sent directly to the Board of Pardons and Pardons and then forwarded to the governor, it is confidential; if it was sent directly to the governor by the inmate or his attorney, it is open, though some of the attachments may be confidential. Many of the materials filed with the clemency petition are confidential, such as psychiatric and psychological evaluations, medical records, law enforcement investigation files, TDCJ records, autopsies, and grand jury records. See the Restrictions statement for further information about confidential records.

The General Counsel to the Texas Governor is responsible for tracking inmates on death row as their cases move through the judicial process, including all appeals to the governor for commutations or stays of execution. This series consists of largely incoming letters and postcards, a few outgoing letters, petitions, etc., dating 1991-1995. Letters were written to the governor, generally protesting the scheduled execution of specific inmates on death row. A few other record types are present in the these files, including a videotape, certificates, and publications, however, the vast majority of the files are letters. The letters were written to Texas Governor Ann Richards. Very few outgoing letters from the Governor's Office are present. The letters to Richards were maintained in the General Counsel's Office after she left the governor's office because the inmates had not yet been executed. Letters written to protest executions during Bush's term are largely filed in the General Counsel General correspondence series, with a small amount present in the Execution case files. Additional letters are in the Correspondence/Constituent Services Office bulk mail not logged, Capital punishment correspondence series. Letters concerning inmates not executed during Bush's term are likely still in the Governor's Office. The letters were all date stamped as received in the Governor's Office, given a unique ID number, then forwarded to the General Counsel's Office, where they were again date stamped as received. In cases where large groups of postcards were received en mass, only a few were date stamped.

The letters were written by groups of people involved with amnesty organizations, primarily Amnesty International, others were written by citizens without noting an affiliation with a specific organization. There are printed form letters and cards designed for specific inmates, hand-written or typed letters following a standard format, and non-standard letters. Letters were received from states all over the United States and countries throughout the world, including Sweden, Great Britain, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Australia, Japan, Switzerland, Belgium, etc. A few letters are written in foreign languages, including French, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, and Japanese. A small number of letters, primarily from Texans, urge the governor not to delay the execution or not to grant any clemency. This series does not contain letters from family members or legal staff of the death row inmate; those are filed in the execution file of the inmate, see the series Execution case files.