In 2013, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty and our many allies and supporters in the death penalty abolition movement celebrated triumphs and learned from our setbacks. This list of important stories from 2013 emphasizes the successes but provides critical reminders of the challenges we still need to overcome.

Texas Executes 500th Person - Kimberly McCarthy, a former occupational therapist, was executed in June for the murder of her neighbor, Dorothy Booth, a former professor, and became the 500th person executed in Texas since 1976. Texas leads the nation in executions, but in recent years the number of death sentences issued has fallen. By December, Texas had executed eight additional people bringing its total executions since 1976 to 508.

Virginia Electrocutes Robert Gleason –In January, Robert Gleason was executed by electrocution in Virginia for the murder of Harvey Watson, a 63-year-old fellow prisoner.  Gleason was the first person since 2010 to choose the electric chair over lethal injection.  According to the Daily Mail’saccount of the execution, “a brine-soaked sea sponge - soaked to better conduct electricity throughout the body leading to a faster and less painful death - was strapped to his right calf before a second was to the top of his head. Without the sponge the electricity administered would disperse all over the body, causing the body to cook in a far more agonizing way.” Gleason’s former attorneys said he suffered from mental illness.