New Additions to Texas Death Row in 2025: A Look at the Men Sentenced This Year

Texas may be famous, or infamous, for having an active Death Row, but the numbers tell a different story.

New Texas Death Row Inmates Are Infrequent Additions

2025 is proving to be a light year for new Texas Death Row inmates... so far. There are only two new men in the row.

2024 saw six new men enter death row; however, in the previous few years, there were only a couple or a few people added each year (possibly due to the COVID-19 pandemic slowing down courts).

Perhaps interestingly, 2022 only had two people enter death row, but one was an even rarer type- Taylor Renee Parker is one of only seven women on death row, compared to 163 men. She is also the youngest woman on death row, and the crime she was convicted of is shocking and despicable.

Read More: Unspeakable: A Look At The Youngest Woman on Texas Death Row

What Types of  Crimes Land People On Texas's Death Row?

Texas has set criteria for death penalty-eligible cases. They must be both a capital crime, and the prosecution must demonstrate the future dangerousness of the accused.

Capital crimes are murders that are seen as particularly heinous or dangerous to society, for example, the murder of children under 15 years old, murder while committing another violent felony (like kidnapping, burglary, sexual assault), or the murder of a police officer, corrections officer, judge, etc.

Read More: The Young Ones: Every Person 35 Or Under On Texas Death Row

Future dangerousness is more subjective; the prosecution will generally point to prior violent convictions of the accused, bad behavior while in jail awaiting trial, or will find witnesses who attest to the violent nature of the person. Sometimes the crime itself is so shocking that it proves a deep, violent psychopathy of the accused (see: Taylor Renee Parker above).

Texas Death Row's Latest Additions

Oscar Rosales is a 55-year-old man originally from El Salvador. He entered Texas Death Row on July 9th of this year.

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, "During the course of a traffic stop, the subject exited his vehicle and discharged multiple rounds at the officer’s patrol unit, resulting in the officer’s death."

According to Houston Public Media, Rosales was pulled over in January of 2022 and fled to Mexico after murdering the police officer. His defense was that he thought the cop was a security officer who had kicked him out of a strip club.

Xavier Davis is a 32-year-old man originally from Houston, Texas. He entered Texas Death Row on May 15th.

According to the TDJC, "on June 30, 2021, subject murdered three victims, adult female, adult male, and  6-year-old female in Harris County."

According to ABC13 News, the motivation was simply cash. Donyavia Lagway had told Xavier that the family kept money in the apartment. She apparently wanted revenge against the mother, with whom she had a previous relationship.

The average time spent on Texas's Death Row is 11 years. Perhaps these men will use that time to consider the impact of the crimes they committed.