Joseph Garcia
Joseph Garcia, 47, was executed by lethal injection at the Huntsville Unit in Texas on December 4, 2018, after state and federal courts rejected his final appeals. His lawyers described a childhood marked by abuse, poverty, his mother's heroin addiction, the death of a sister and his father's abandonment. Garcia said from death row that he never fired a gun and did not understand why he was being killed for the actions of someone else, and his lawyers argued the accomplice law applied in his case was unconstitutional. Attorneys also challenged the fairness of the clemency process and the safety of the state's lethal drugs, and anti-death penalty activists argued the execution could violate the Eighth Amendment. In his final words, he asked God to forgive the people carrying out his execution.
Cause of death, as reported: Executed by the state. Lawyers argued the lethal drug supply was unsafe and the clemency process unfair, and he maintained he never fired a gun and that the Law of Parties was unconstitutional.
Reported by: Texas Department of Criminal Justice (the agency that held him); his lawyers.