Posted on 08/13/2007 9:37:02 AM PDT by Daffynition
Texas will almost certainly hit the grim total of 400 executions this month, far ahead of any other state, testament to the influence of the state's conservative evangelical Christians and its cultural mix of Old South and Wild West.
"In Texas you have all the elements lined up. Public support, a governor that supports it and supportive courts," said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.
"If any of those things are hesitant then the process slows down," said Dieter. "With all cylinders working as in Texas it produces a lot of executions."
Texas has executed 398 convicts since it resumed the practice in 1982, six years after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a ban on capital punishment, far exceeding second-place Virginia with 98 executions since the ban was lifted. It has five executions scheduled for August.
The average time spent on death row before execution is about 10 years, not much less than the national average of closer to 11 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. But the average would be considerably longer if Texas were excluded.
A Texas governor can commute a death sentence or grant a reprieve based on a recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, whose members are appointed by the governor.
But governors past and present, including President George W. Bush and the state's current chief executive Rick Perry, have taken a hands-off approach.
"The courts are not much of a check in Texas and the executive defers to the courts," said Jordan Steiker, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Law and co-director of the school's Capital Punishment Center.
BIBLE BELT INFLUENCE
Like his predecessor, Governor Perry is a devout Christian, highlighting one key factor in Texas' enthusiasm for the death penalty that many outsiders find puzzling -- the support it gets from conservative evangelical churches.
This is in line with their emphasis on individuals taking responsibility for their own salvation, and they also find justification in scripture.
"A lot of evangelical Protestants not only believe that capital punishment is permissible but that it is demanded by God. And they see sanction for that in the Old Testament especially," said Matthew Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Texas also stands at an unusual geographical and cultural crossroads: part Old South, with its legacy of racism, and part Old West, with a cowboy sense of rough justice.
Some critics say the South can be seen in the racial bias of death sentences with blacks more likely than whites to be condemned -- though Texas is not alone on this score.
Over 41 percent of the inmates currently on death row in Texas are black, but they account for only about 12 percent of the state's population.
Meanwhile, for some in Texas the death penalty is about the victim.
"It's the criminal justice system, not the victim justice system. I need to get justice for my victim. I need to see that justice here on earth," said Cathy Hill, whose husband Barry was shot dead while working as a deputy sheriff almost seven years ago. His killer is now on Texas' death row.
Support for capital punishment in Texas has also been attributed to the state's high rates of violent crime, though it is not strikingly above the national average.
According to FBI statistics for 2005, the national rate of violent crime was 469.2 per 100,000 inhabitants while the same rate for murder and non-negligent manslaughter was 5.6. For Texas, the same figures were 529.7 and 6.2.
While the prolific death chamber in the city of Huntsville, where 19 inmates have already been executed by lethal injection in 2007, makes Texas stand out, the state is also starting to follow national trends toward fewer death sentences.
Data provided by the state's Office of Court Administration for 1996 to 2006 -- when the number of murders fell somewhat but overall remained fairly constant -- show a sharp drop in the number of death sentences being imposed.
The highs over that period were in 1997 and 1999, years in which 37 death sentences were handed down. But in 2005 only 14 convicts were condemned to die in Texas.
The longer trend is a decline of homicides over the past 30 years with a peak of 2,652 in 1991 in Texas and 1,407 in 2005. And fewer murders should translate into fewer death sentences.
Demographics could help tilt the balance a bit further, as the state's booming economy attracts outsiders -- and potential jury members -- from more liberal regions and as its Latino population grows rapidly.
"Demographics could change things as minority groups like Latinos are generally less enthusiastic about the death penalty," said Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
I don't see it as grim! I see it as justice! In Texas we enforce penalties.
That's because Texas learned the hard way when we did away with the death penalty back in the 70's. Amnesty International members would change their tune if their families had been victims of those we had to let out after they'd served "life".
That’s about one year’s worth of work for the thugs in DC who gun people down in the street. Typical miss-placed concern on the part of liberals.
Attacking Christians for Texas' enforcement of the law seems petty. Has this author ever criticized muslim 'honor killings'? I doubt it.
Like Ron White says, "If you kill someone in Texas, We'll kill you back."
Now, let's ask the more pertinent question - what percentage of violent crimes do blacks commit in Texas?
Tip off in the first sentence ...I noted that too. These liberalista reporters make me gag.
Unless you drown your five kids, and then put on a act that you are insane.
Heaven knows insanity was disreputable enough, long ago; but now that the lawyers have got to cutting every gallows rope and picking every prison lock with it, it is become a sneaking villainy that ought to hang and keep on hanging its sudden possessors until evil-doers should conclude that the safest plan was to never claim to have it until they came by it legitimately.
The very calibre of the people the lawyers most frequently try to save by the insanity subterfuge ought to laugh the plea out of the courts, one would think.
- “Unburlesquable Things,” The Galaxy Magazine, July 1870
MARK TWAIN
Tens of million dead from abortion and the media never even blinks. It is like McDonald’s “One Billion Sold” to them.
Gender and Racial Statistics of Death Row Offenders
Gender and Racial Statistics of Death Row Offenders
|
Race |
Female | Male | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | 5 | 108 | 113 | |
| 50.0% | 29.3% | 29.8% | ||
| Black | 5 | 152 | 157 | |
| 50.0% | 41.2% | 41.4% | ||
| Hispanic | 0 | 105 | 105 | |
| 0.0% | 28.5% | 27.7% | ||
| Other | 0 | 4 | 4 | |
| 0.0% | 1.1% | 1.1% | ||
| TOTAL | 10 | 369 | 379 | |
| 100.0% | 100.0% | 100.0% |
What incompetent, biased fools this reporter and editor are. Only several paragraphs later, long after this incendiary sentence, do we learn that the 400 did not occur this month but rather over the past twenty-five years.
Don’t mess with Texas
Truth be told there is probably a nation-wide majority in favor of capital punishment, not just Texas.
Seems like Texas is still way behind in keeping up with the number of murders over the same period.
“It’s the criminal justice system, not the victim justice system...”
It must be “trash Texas” day somewhere. Of course, enlightened Ed is hoping an influx of Liberals will help Texas become a better place. How many lives have been sacrificed to Liberalism Ed?
Four hundred executions in a month! Who knew? A veritable holocaust.
That is too darn long.
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