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AJ Abraham J. Bonowitz On The Prison Show

“There have been over 600 executions in Texas, and the Board of Pardons and Paroles looks at every one of them and they have recommended clemency exactly five times and it's been granted exactly three times.”

The Prison Show · Social Issues · October 2026

“There have been over 600 executions in Texas, and the Board of Pardons and Paroles looks at every one of them and they have recommended clemency exactly five times and it's been granted exactly three times.” — Abraham J. Bonowitz, The Prison Show

Context

Bonowitz of Death Penalty Action is talking about how the next Texas governor could change who sits on the state's clemency board. He argues the board has acted mainly as a gatekeeper that keeps mercy requests off the governor's desk.

Transcript

The Prison Show Around 28:43 into the episode
Speaker 1

I am all right. It is Friday night, and glad to be with you all. Can you hear me okay?

Dani Allen

Absolutely.

Speaker 1

…impacts on the rate of executions in our country and in those states. I'm especially hopeful that if Gina Hinojosa is able to win, and I'm not advocating or telling anybody how to vote, vote your values. But if we change to a Democrat governor, let's hope that she actually appoints a Board of Pardons and Paroles that will give rule and consideration to the people who apply for clemency. There have been over 600 executions in Texas, and the Board of Pardons and Paroles looks at every one of them and they have recommended clemency exactly five times and it's been granted exactly three times. There's more people than that that are worthy of mercy and it needs to be a complete and wholesale change to the makeup of the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole so that there can be fairness and not just a gatekeeping entity to keep these opportunities to show mercy off the governor's desk. So we're watching for that in Ohio. We now anticipate that Amy Atkin will be the new governor and that…

Dani Allen

Thank you, Abe. Have a great weekend.

Speaker 1

You too.

Dani Allen

Bye-bye. This is KPFT Houston. And big thank you to Carrie. Big thank you to Carrie. All right, you know what Linda has? I have a hundred dollar bill, guys, from Danny and I. And we want to find somebody to match it. How about that?

Speaker names come from our own diarization. The position is estimated from where the line sits in the episode.

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