Texas Death Row: These are the convicts set for execution in 2026

HUNTSVILLE, Texas - Four convicted criminals in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice are set for execution in 2026. 

Here's a breakdown of who's on death row and when they're set to be executed. 

Charles Victor Thompson

Charles Victor Thompson, 55, is set for death in Texas on Jan. 28, 2026. 

Thompson has been in the custody of TDCJ since 1999, when he was accused at the age of 28 of killing two people in their Houston apartment. According to TDCJ, the incident happened during a break-in after Thompson had gotten into an argument with the victims. 

Fox News reported extensively on Thompson early this century, largely following his escape from a Houston jail in 2005 and his capture in Louisiana several days later. Thompson was reportedly found 200 miles from the jail where he had been kept — drunk, Fox said, and talking on a payphone outside a Shreveport liquor store. 

The victims in the crime Thompson was sentenced to death for were Dennise Hayslip, 39, and Darren Keith Cain, 30. Hayslip was Thompson's ex-girlfriend, and Cain was her new boyfriend. Cain died at the scene, and Hayslip died at a hospital a week after the shooting.

Cedric Allen Ricks

Cedric Allen Ricks, 51, is set to die in Texas on March 11, 2026. 

Ricks, who was 38 at the time of his crime, was sentenced to death in 2014 for stabbing 30-year-old Roxann Sanchez and her 8-year-old son, Anthony Figueroa. Her 12-year-old son, Marcus Figueroa, was also stabbed that night, 25 times, but survived. He was able to testify at Ricks' murder trial.

During the trial, Marcus testified and told the jury how he came up with a plan for Ricks to stop stabbing him. He said he made the noise Anthony made, a gurgling sound. He said when Anthony made that sound, Ricks stopped stabbing him. After Ricks stopped and left, Marcus then got up and called for help.

An 8-month-old boy was also at the home when the fatal stabbing happened, but Ricks did not harm him. 

James Garfield Broadnax

James Garfield Broadnax, 37, is set for death in Texas on April 30, 2026.

Broadnax, who was 19 at the time of his crime, is accused of killing an aspiring Christian singer and his colleague at a recording studio in Garland in 2008. He told FOX 4 in an interview shortly afterward that he and his cousin, Demarius Dwight Cummings, were planning merely to "rob somebody" the night of the double-murder. 

Broadnax and Cummings took the DART train to Garland to target "rich white folks," they said in the interview, which turned out to be singer Matthew Butler, a father of two, and Stephen Swan, his employee, outside Butler's Christian recording studio, Zion Gate Records.

Broadnax and Cummings reportedly netted only $2 from robbing the dead men.

Cummings, also 19 at the time, said he only intended to rob the men. Broadnax, who did the shooting, expressed no remorse in his interview after the arrests. When asked about what he would say to the victims' families, Broadnax reportedly replied, "f--- 'em."

Edward Lee Busby, Jr.

Edward Lee Busby, Jr., 53, is set to die in Texas on May 14, 2026. 

Busby, who was 31 at the time of his crime, convicted of robbing, kidnapping and suffocating a retired TCU professor by taping her mouth and nose closed. 

Laura Lee Crane, 77, was abducted from a Fort Worth grocery store parking lot in January 2004. Investigators believe she was a random target and that robbery was the motive. In his 2005 trial, Busby was said to have robbed Crane of $775 before driving to Oklahoma in her car with her in the trunk. 

The retired professor was found in the trunk of her car at the bottom of an embankment the month after she went missing. An autopsy found that she died of asphyxiation. 

What's next for Robert Roberson?

Dig deeper:

Robert Roberson, an East Texas man convicted of murdering his 2-year-old daughter by shaking her to death in 2002, has had his execution scheduled twice - and stalled both times. In October 2025, Roberson's execution was stayed for the second time, giving the justice system another chance to review his case. 

Roberson's defense team (and the thousands who advocate for a new trial) claim that the original sentence was based on the "junk science" of shaken baby syndrome. It's also been argued that his daughter, Nikki Curtis, died of pneumonia after being inadequately treated by doctors. Further, Roberson was diagnosed with autism after his conviction, adding more complications to the 2003 trial in which he was lambasted for being "unemotional." 

Roberson's execution was stopped in 2024 by a Texas court. Attorney General Ken Paxton pushed to set a new execution date, which was eventually set for almost exactly a year after the first. On Oct. 9, 2025, the Court of Criminal Appeals issued an emergency stay of execution, sending Roberson's case back to trial court to be reviewed anew.