|
1
|
|
|
2
|
- * 38 states plus U.S. Government and Military have death penalty (7 of
these states have had no executions since 1976).
- * 12 states plus the District of Columbia don’t have the death penalty
- * Capital punishment is only used in felony cases such as murder or a
felony burglary, where there was an unintended murder because of a
robbery.
- * Lethal injection was first used in Oklahoma in 1977.
- * The state of Texas has executed the most people by far, with 321 total
cases.
- * There are over 3,500 people on death row.
|
|
3
|
|
|
4
|
|
|
5
|
|
|
6
|
- Toy imitation chair for thrill only $61.00
- The real thing minus shock equipment $1,000.00
- A trip to death row
- Priceless
|
|
7
|
|
|
8
|
|
|
9
|
- Would you be hungry if this was your fate?
|
|
10
|
|
|
11
|
|
|
12
|
|
|
13
|
|
|
14
|
|
|
15
|
|
|
16
|
|
|
17
|
|
|
18
|
|
|
19
|
|
|
20
|
- Ethnic and cultural diversity leads to violence and capital punishment
- • Texas has conflicting interests
of the South, Mexico, Indian, Black, Native American, and German
populations among many others
- Texas has highest rate of Capital Punishment
|
|
21
|
|
|
22
|
|
|
23
|
|
|
24
|
|
|
25
|
|
|
26
|
|
|
27
|
- Texas has a combination of high ethnic diversity, a high level of hate
crimes, and harsh penalties for those who commit hate crimes
- While this factor is not enough to completely explain the capital
punishment rates in Texas, it is substantial enough to be considered as
an influence.
|
|
28
|
- Hypothesis # 3 - Bree Roy
|
|
29
|
- Texas’ legislative progression has much to do with its history; with
people arriving from all countries, creeds, and walks of life, the
population that formed in Texas’ early years was extremely varied.
- This variation of political, social, and religious backgrounds, combined
with the rough conditions of frontier life and the quintessential Texan
independent attitudes, made for a very elastic law system. In many cases, the law was taken into
the hands of the people.
- Today, though Texas law is definitely more straight forward, the same
elements of independence remain.
Texas law is unique because of both the people who made it and
the people that implement it today.
|
|
30
|
- Why does Texas lead the country in executions?
- “Texas is prepared to execute prisoners without first ensuring that
their conviction and sentence complies with the US Constitution by
completing the appeal process. Of the 144 prisoners executed up to the
end of 1997, 14 had refused to appeal their sentences and had consented
to their execution. Some of these prisoners had requested the death
penalty during their trial, making their execution little more than
state-assisted suicide. Furthermore, the conditions of incarceration of
death row inmates in Texas are so severe that no prisoner should be seen
as freely "consenting" to their execution, but rather as
making a choice not to go on living under such harsh conditions.”
-- Amnesty International
|
|
31
|
- Many lay the blame for Texas’ large number of executions on a corrupt
legal system:
- Texas has public defenders in six metropolitan counties. It has none for
poor defendants in its other 228 counties, even those charged with
murder. They will draw a court-appointed attorney who may have no felony
or murder trial experience and a limited budget.
- A committee of the State Bar of Texas described the state's system of
providing legal representation to the poor as "a national
embarrassment."
- A study of the Texas system by the Chicago Tribune revealed that defense
lawyers in one-third of the most recent 131 death penalty cases were
later disbarred or disciplined. In 40 cases the lawyers presented one or
no defense witnesses on appeal.
|
|
32
|
- Because of Texas’ reputation for shoddy defense and unfair treatment of
death row criminals, as well as the overwhelming amount of executions
that take place, reform of capital punishment in Texas is in the works:
|
|
33
|
|
Notes