Capital Punishment in the State of Texas

Paper Summary:

This paper examines and discusses the application of the death penalty in the state of Texas. The paper explains that Texas executes more people than any other jurisdiction in the Western world and that this practice has given rise to a number of questions and controversies. The paper further explains that Texas's position on the death penalty and the pace at which it executes criminals, puts it in a position between acceleration and moderation and that the state must either find ways to maintain its status quo according to the law or roll back its capital punishment record to acceptable levels.

From the Paper:

"In Western civilization, the death penalty has been utilized for more than two thousand years, but not until the early 1800's did it become commonplace in American society. Since this time, the death penalty has been a topic of much debate, due to several events that placed it on the forefront of discussion, such as the Nuremberg trials in the 1940's and the execution of the Rosenbergs in 1953. Robert Jay Lifton and Greg Mitchell declare that capital punishment in America has "reached a state of profound confusion" for "more inmates were executed in (the U.S.) in 1999 than in any year since 1952," not to mention that the execution rate "has soared 800 percent in the past decade." 2 As a result, Americans "have argued passionately about the purposes, methods and effects of capital punishment," a fact that indicates that "the debate will only grow in volume and intensity of feeling." 3"

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