He killed his ex-girlfriend and her partner; becomes the first execution in Texas for 2026

Charles Victor Thompson, 55, became the first death row inmate executed in Texas in 2026.

The 55-year-old, who was sentenced to death for the 1998 murder of his ex-girlfriend and her partner, was given a lethal injection at Huntsville Prison.

The crime occurred on May 1, 1998, when Thompson went to the home of 39-year-old Denise Hayslip a day after an argument. There, Thompson first shot 39-year-old Darren Keith Kane multiple times and then turned the gun on Hayslip, shooting her in the mouth.

Thompson was sentenced to death in April 1999, but in 2001, the Court of Appeals overturned the sentence, ruling that the Harris County District Attorney’s office had unconstitutionally used an undercover investigator to gather evidence for the trial. However, a retrial again resulted in Thompson’s death sentence in 2005. A few days later, Thompson escaped from prison using stolen clothes and a fake ID to bypass guards but was ultimately captured outside a liquor store in Louisiana after a three-day chase.

In total, the United States carried out 47 executions in 2025, compared to about 20 per year over roughly a decade. This was the highest number of executions since 52 were recorded in 2009.

Most (39) of the executions in the U.S. last year were carried out by lethal injection. Five others were done by nitrogen hypoxia, a method first used in the world in Alabama (South) in 2024 and described by UN experts as a form of “torture.” Three were carried out by firing squads in South Carolina; prior to this year, the method had been used in the U.S. only since 2010.

As happens almost every year, the use of the death penalty was geographically concentrated last year: only 11 states, mostly in the South, carried out executions in 2025. In eight of these states, new death sentences were imposed.

The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 U.S. states. In three others, California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania a moratorium on its enforcement is in effect based on decisions by their governors.

“KORÇA BOOM”