Naomi Fenwick

This is extremely uncommon.

The current governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has commuted exactly one death sentence since he came into office more than a decade ago.

The second avenue, the U.S.

Supreme Court, is slightly more likely than the governor to stop the execution, but only by a little.

They do stay executions, but it's increasingly rare.

It requires the lawyers thinking up a unique legal claim that'll hook a justice or two.

In some ways, the more technical and incremental stuff usually works better, but the lawyers are also ready with a last-ditch moonshot.

If all else fails, the last of justice is to rule on whether it's kosher, legally speaking, to execute someone who has proven their innocence.

Believe it or not, this is not yet a settled matter of constitutional law.

The Third Avenue is a federal circuit court, specifically the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which deals with all the death penalty appeals in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.

Federal courts are, broadly speaking, more challenging to death row claims than state courts.

And the Fifth Circuit, one of the most conservative in the country, is notoriously unfriendly to death row claims.

Between 2007 and 2020, they granted habeas relief to just one death row prisoner in Texas, one out of 151.

Which brings us to the last avenue, the highest state court for criminal cases in Texas, the CCA, the Court of Criminal Appeals.

If there's any one court the team is pinning their hopes on, it's the CCA.

But to call it the most promising is maybe a reach.

It's mostly by process of elimination.

The CCA has historically stayed very few executions.

But if the defense team squints, they can find a bit of silver lining.

A few months ago, three new judges were elected to the bench.