Death Row Cases

In October 2001, someone cut the brake lines on Rob Andrew's car in Oklahoma City. He went to the police and named the two people he believed wanted him dead: his wife, Brenda Andrew, and her lover, James Pavatt, the insurance agent who had sold Rob an $800,000 life insurance policy. Eighteen days later, Rob was shot twice with a shotgun in his own garage.Six days after the killing, Brenda and Pavatt drove to Mexico with Rob's children. Pavatt's own daughter became the key witness against him. Both were convicted of first-degree murder and both were sentenced to death, in two separate trials. But according to Pavatt's lawyers, prosecutors told one jury Pavatt was the shooter and told the other it was Brenda.In this episode we follow the full case: the insurance policy, the brake lines, the night of November 20, 2001, the evidence in the attic next door, the flight to Mexico, both trials, the "sharpshooter bonus" dissent in the federal appeals court, and the October 2026 clemency hearing where the jury foreman from 2003 said Pavatt should not be on death row.Status: James Pavatt is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on November 12, 2026, at 10 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. The Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board denied clemency 3–2 on October 14, 2026. Brenda Andrew remains on death row with no execution date.This episode is based on public court records, appellate rulings and published news coverage. We do not take a position on the death penalty; we present what is known and what is still disputed.#truecrime #deathrow #oklahoma #jamespavatt #brendaandrew #execution #deathrowcasesJames Pavatt, Brenda Andrew, Rob Andrew, Oklahoma execution 2026, Oklahoma death row, Oklahoma City murder 2001, McAlester execution, clemency hearing, true crime podcast, Death Row Cases

In March 2003, police in Brownsville, Texas found three young children dead in a small windowless apartment: Julissa (3), John (14 months) and Mary Jane (2 months). Their parents, John Allen Rubio and Angela Camacho, were arrested the same day.Rubio claimed the children were possessed. Prosecutors said the family was out of money and one day away from a homeless shelter. Camacho took a plea deal and received three life sentences. Rubio was sentenced to death twice, in 2003 and again in 2010, after his first conviction was overturned.In this episode we follow the full case: the night of March 11, 2003, the insanity defense, the 2007 reversal, the retrial, 23 years of appeals, the October 2026 competency ruling, and the last-minute emergency appeal over testimony about his antipsychotic medication.Status: John Allen Rubio is scheduled for execution on November 12, 2026, at the Huntsville Unit in Texas. An emergency motion for a stay is pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals at the time of publication.This episode is based on public court records, appellate rulings and published news coverage. We do not take a position on the death penalty; we present what is known and what is still disputed.#truecrime #deathrow #texas #johnallenrubio #brownsville #execution #deathrowcasesJohn Allen Rubio, Brownsville Texas, Texas execution 2026, death row Texas, Angela Camacho, Cameron County, true crime podcast, Texas death row case, competency to be executed, Death Row Cases

Jesse Guardado is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on November 5, 2026 at Florida State Prison. In September 2004, in DeFuniak Springs, Walton County, Florida, he killed 75-year-old Jackie Malone, the woman who had given him a place to live, money and a job after he got out of prison.

Two weeks into a crack cocaine binge, Guardado went to her house in the middle of the night. She trusted him, so she opened the door. He took $80, her checkbook and her jewelry, then went to work. Days later he confessed without a lawyer, pleaded guilty without a deal and asked to be sentenced to death. Then he spent the next 18 years fighting that sentence, over three jurors with ties to the case, a jury told its vote was only a recommendation, and his time at Florida's Dozier School for Boys. Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant on October 5, 2026, the 20th of the year.

Death Row Cases covers U.S. death penalty cases using public court records and news reporting, with a neutral and factual approach.

#JesseGuardado #DeathRow #Florida #TrueCrime #DeathPenalty

On November 4, 1991, 19-year-old Michael Shannon Taylor knocked on the door of Ivan and Lucille Moore, an elderly couple he knew in Gadsden, Alabama. They let him in, gave him a glass of water and a doughnut, and asked if he wanted anything else. Minutes later, Taylor attacked them with a metal barbell bar he had left outside in a duffel bag.

Taylor was AWOL from the U.S. Navy and had no significant criminal record. After the attack he took the Moores' wallet, purse, checkbook and 1986 Cadillac, cashed about $1,500 in checks in Birmingham, and went shopping at the Galleria mall. The Moores were found two days later. Ivan was dead. Lucille died days later.

In this episode we cover the crime, his confession and the disputed statement about intent, the 1993 Etowah County trial, the unanimous death sentence, more than 20 years of appeals, and the fight over nitrogen hypoxia versus lethal injection that shaped his execution date.

Case status: Michael Shannon Taylor is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection at Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama, during a window from 12:00 a.m. on November 5, 2026, to 6:00 a.m. on November 6, 2026. Status as of recording; check current news for updates.

All information comes from public court records, appellate rulings and published news coverage.#truecrime #deathrow #alabama #execution #michaeltaylor

Tanner Horner had no criminal record when he started driving a FedEx route in North Texas. But three people say he sexually abused them when they were children: a 16-year-old girl in 2013, another teenage girl in 2014, and his 10-year-old cousin. None of them went to the police.

On November 30, 2022, Horner delivered a box of Barbie dolls to a home in Paradise, Texas. It was a Christmas present for 7-year-old Athena Strand. Within an hour, she was dead.

In this episode we go back through everything that came before that delivery: the accusations, the years he spent free, the van camera he covered the day before, and the audio recorded inside his FedEx truck. Then we follow the case to a Fort Worth courtroom, where Horner pleaded guilty to capital murder and a jury sentenced him to death in May 2026.

Case status: Tanner Horner is on Texas death row at the Polunsky Unit in Livingston. His automatic appeal is pending before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. No execution date has been set. The earlier child sexual assault accusations have not been proven in court.

This episode is based on court testimony, public records and published news coverage. It contains descriptions of child abuse and the death of a child.

#TannerHorner #AthenaStrand #DeathRow #TrueCrime #TexasDeathPenalty

In April 2010, 8-year-old Alyssa Lynch and her 5-year-old brother Caleb fell asleep watching a Disney movie with the man who was about to become their stepfather. Hours later, their home outside Evansville, Indiana, was on fire. Jeffrey Weisheit was already gone.

In this episode, we cover the full case. We look at the planning in the weeks before that night, the escape to Kentucky and the 2013 trial in which Weisheit denied setting the fire. From there we follow the appeals that ended at the U.S. Supreme Court. We also cover his October 2026 clemency hearing, where he could not explain why he did it. And we look at the children's father, who has asked the governor to spare his life.

Status: Execution scheduled before sunrise on November 5, 2026, at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. The Indiana Parole Board will make a recommendation to Governor Mike Braun, who has the final decision. A request to delay the execution to November 19 is pending before the Indiana Supreme Court.

This episode is based on public court records, appellate rulings and published news coverage.

#truecrime #deathrow #indiana #execution #jeffreyweisheit

On September 23, 1986, Indian River County Deputy Richard "Rudy" Raczkoski answered a 911 hang-up call outside a convenience store near Vero Beach, Florida. He helped the caller, William Reaves, get a taxi. Minutes later he was shot four times. He was 29, engaged, and had a son on the way.

William Reaves, a Vietnam War combat veteran, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Then the Florida Supreme Court threw out the conviction, because one of the prosecutors had once been his defense attorney. A second jury convicted him again and voted 10 to 2 for death. A federal judge later ruled for Reaves twice, and both times the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed.

Nearly 40 years later, Governor Ron DeSantis signed his death warrant. Reaves, now 77, is scheduled to be executed at Florida State Prison on October 20, 2026.

In this episode we go through the full case using court records, appellate rulings and published news coverage:

• The night of the shooting and the note the deputy left in his patrol car

• Vietnam Syndrome vs. PTSD, and how it played out in two trials

• The conflict-of-interest ruling that forced a retrial

• Why federal court wins were taken away under AEDPA

• Hurst v. Florida and the non-unanimous jury

• The deputy's family, Reaves's family and the clemency request

Death Row Cases covers US death penalty cases using public records, with a neutral, factual approach.

#WilliamReaves #FloridaExecution #DeathRow #TrueCrime #RichardRaczkoski #VeroBeach #DeathPenalty #Execution2026 #FloridaDeathRow #TrueCrimePodcast

In December 2008, inside a close-management cell at Charlotte Correctional Institution in Florida, James Robertson strangled his cellmate, Frank Hart, with a garrote made of knotted socks. The night before, Hart had told an officer he felt threatened and asked to be moved. There was no other cell available.

Robertson never denied what he did. He told investigators he killed Hart for one reason: to be sentenced to death. When prosecutors charged him with second-degree murder, he wrote to the State Attorney's Office demanding a first-degree charge. He turned down a plea deal for life, waived his jury and his mitigation, and asked the court for the death penalty. In 2012, he got it.

The Florida Supreme Court then ordered his own lawyer to keep fighting the sentence he wanted. In this episode, we follow the case from Robertson's decades behind bars to the strange legal fight that followed, his appearance in Netflix's I Am a Killer, and his scheduled execution on October 13, 2026.

This episode is based on public court records, Florida Supreme Court rulings, the Florida Department of Corrections investigation report, and published news coverage.

New episodes every Monday and Thursday.

#TrueCrime #DeathRow #JamesRobertson #FloridaExecution #DeathPenalty #DeathRowCases #IAmAKiller

In 1976, 23-year-old Sally Ivester was tortured and killed in a North Miami Beach motel room after she couldn't get enough money from her mother. Two men were convicted. One got life. The other, William Lee Thompson, has spent nearly 50 years on Florida's death row.

Now 74, in a wheelchair and, according to his lawyers, suffering from dementia, Thompson is scheduled to be executed on October 13, 2026. Governor Ron DeSantis has temporarily stayed the execution while three psychiatrists decide whether he is mentally competent to be executed.

In this episode:

• The 1976 murder of Sally Ivester and the phone call to her mother

• Why co-defendant Rocco Surace got life while Thompson got death

• Three death sentences, three death warrants, and a 7–5 jury vote

• The U.S. Supreme Court debate over 30+ years on death row

• The intellectual disability claim that never got a hearing

• Dementia, competency, and the Ford v. Wainwright standard

Death Row Cases covers U.S. death penalty cases using public court records, appellate rulings and published news coverage. We don't take sides on guilt or punishment. We lay out the facts.

🔔 Subscribe for new cases every Monday and Thursday.

#DeathRowCases #TrueCrime #WilliamLeeThompson #SallyIvester #FloridaExecution #DeathPenalty #DeathRow #TrueCrimePodcast #Florida #Execution2026

Jamaal Howard is scheduled to be executed in Texas on October 7, 2026, for the 2000 murder of convenience store clerk Vickie Swartout in Silsbee, Hardin County. A doctor told him he could face the death penalty, and he laughed. This is the full story of the crime, the trial, and the mental health questions that have followed this death row case for 25 years.

On May 12, 2000, 20-year-old Jamaal Howard shot Vickie Swartout during a robbery at a Chevron store. He took $114 and a carton of cigarettes. The crime was caught on security video. He confessed and told a Texas Ranger he felt no remorse. He was convicted of capital murder in 2001 and sentenced to death.

But his case raises serious questions about the death penalty and mental illness. A court-appointed psychologist estimated his IQ at 65 to 70. A defense psychiatrist diagnosed schizophrenia. He was shot in the head at 17, but the jury never heard about it. And for more than two decades, the Texas prison system has treated him for chronic schizophrenia. His supporters argue that no court has ever held a hearing on his intellectual disability under current law, or on whether he is competent to be executed.

In this episode:

Jamaal Howard's childhood in Silsbee, Texas, and his early school records

His juvenile record and the head injury at 17

The murder of Vickie Swartout and the confession

Two competency trials and the capital murder trial

Atkins v. Virginia, Moore v. Texas and the intellectual disability claim

25 years of appeals, from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court

Schizophrenia on death row, and the fight for a competency hearing before his execution

Death Row Cases is a true crime podcast covering real American death row cases, built from public court records, appellate rulings and published news coverage. We don't take sides on the death penalty. We tell the story.

New case every Monday

#JamaalHoward #TexasDeathRow #TrueCrime #DeathRow #DeathPenalty #TexasExecution #TrueCrimePodcast #Execution2026 #DeathRowCases