...explanations for why Texas executes far more people than any other state and is doing so at a pace that has no parallel in the modern era of the death penalty in the U.S. What follows is a summary of the analyses. Texas has become ground zero for capital punishment. Between 1976 (when the Supreme Court lifted its prohibition on the death penalty) and 1998 Texas executed 167 people. Next in rank was Virginia which executed 60 during the same period. (**my note** as of today, Texas has executed 237 individuals, and Virginia has executed 80) Why do capital murder cases proceed through the Texas state court system with a speed unimaginable in other parts of the country? Brent Newton, in an article entitled "Capital Punishment: Texas Could Learn a Lot from Florida,"1argues that there are three procedures unique to the state's judicial system that enable it to execute convicted murderers with astonishing frequency: 1. Texas' appellate judges are elected to office and hence serve according to the pleasure of the public. Not surprisingly, they require a record of toughness on criminals in order to win re-election. Also, there are many indications that elected appellate judges generally are of a lesser quality than their appointed counterparts in other states. Newton even claims that these elected judges do not carefully consider the complexities of each specific death penalty case. As evidence, Newton argues that "[e]specially during the past few years...the Texas Court of Criminal...
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...ARGUMENTAL—Death penalty in Texas The state of Texas executes more people than any other jurisdiction in the Western world. For this cause, there are many people in society against the death penalty in Texas. However, if the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) disregards the decision making of death penalty in Texas more crimes are committed in Texas. The death penalty is used against any person in society who fails to obey the law. There is couple of ways to execute a murderer either by lethal injection, electrocution, gas chamber, firing squad or hanging. These are ways to execute a prisoner who is sentenced with execution, but does this really help our society in general to prevent future crimes? When someone takes a life, the balance of justice is disturbed. Unless that balance is restored, society succumbs to a rule of violence. Only the taking of the murderer's life restores the balance and allows society to show convincingly that murder is an intolerable crime which will be punished in kind. So in essence, “eye for an eye” is the way to simply describe the equality of justice in our government that is supported by at least 48% of all Americans rather than 46% who don’t support. Having to execute prisoners who are sentenced by death penalty is more in favor by Americans. Retribution has its basis in religious values, which have historically maintained that it is proper to take an "eye for an eye" and a life for a life. Although the victim and the victim's family...
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...Death Penalty. Death penalty, capital punishment, or execution is the legal process of putting a person to death as a punishment for a crime. It is an issue that has the United States quite divided, while there are many supporters of it, there is also a large amount of opposition. But like in the United States, death penalty has been traditionally used in almost every country. One of the most common method of execution has been lethal injection. Europe is one of the countries that is opposed to the death penalty yet they manufacture many of the drugs used in lethal injections. Yet they prohibit exporting said drugs for executions. Although the United States is not opposed to the death penalty, it is not legal in all States. Current inclinations suggest that the number of States that execute prisoners is decreasing, in 2013 the executions dropped by 10%. Executions were carried out in 9 states, with 59% occurring in Texas and Florida. One of the reasons for fewer executions in 2013 was the continuous problem that States have had in finding an unfailing method of carrying out executions. The eight amendment to the United States Constitution prevents cruel and unusual punishment but it is likely these trends will continue as more States will likely reconsider the decision of keeping this expensive and useless practice. I believe the death penalty should be legal throughout the nation. I’m a strong believer that the death penalty saves lives and give closure to the victim’s...
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...Texas Death Penalty – Deterrent or Not Extra Credit Essay GOVT 2306-21402 Autherene E. Webster November 26, 2013 Throughout the history of time the death penalty has always been a hotly debated topic. At one point every state in the nation banned it through a federal mandate but later dismantled the ban and state by state began bringing it back. The state of Texas is well known for being the state which has executed more people than anyone in the history of the nation. Texas, known for its penchant for enforcing laws and carrying out sentences has long since had the reputation for executions that are done more swiftly and more often than anywhere else in the nation. When the nation reinstated the death penalty in 1976 each state determined whether or not they wanted to reinstate it. Since its reinstatement there have been 1335 executions. The state of Texas was responsible for 507 of those executions. Prior to 1976 the death penalty had been made illegal in every state. The 1972 United States Supreme Court banned death penalty executions because it felt there had been many years of racial bias and other procedural faults within the capital punishment system (Nolen 2000). Interestingly enough, that is still the feeling surrounding death penalty executions today. The punishment was banned until 1976, when the court ruled that applying capital punishment to first degree murder was not a violation of...
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...The rights of death penalty is a major problem in the world. Many people have very different views on death penalty. This even includes Judicial, Executive and Legislative branch. Death penalty still appears to be a common punishment for years to come, but will it last? This here are opinions and certain rules that have been established on thoughts of death penalty by the three branches. The U.S Supreme court has issued many changes of rulings when related to the death penalty. One rule that has been established by Supreme Court in Texas was stopping the act of evaluating intellectual disability in death penalty cases. In Texas, Supreme Court in the Miller-EL v. Dretke case has also shown the Supreme Court to be racially fair when it comes to death penalty cases. They have redone trials before based off their thoughts of racial bias being used in trial. This is one reason why Judicial Branch gets a lot of respect among people. President Obama is a man of the executive branch. His opinion on death penalty by his own words, is a “very difficult and troublesome” matter. Barack Obama does not see death penalty being...
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...jail time, but life sentences are the right thing. The 8th amendment does not support the death penalty. There is also the problem of innocent inmates that die, and then there is the money issue. There are a lot more reasons to keep the people off of death row and end the death penalty. One reason we should quit the death penalty is that 1 out of 25 inmates put to death are innocent and have been put up for the death penalty because of the lack of effort from their legal team. Either that or the state will deny their motion. They go to the death penalty to quick and do not even give it thought. In the case of a Death Row inmate Willie Poindexter...
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...of the death penalty is an issue that is passionately debated in the United States. Opponents of capital punishment often view the sentence to be cruel because it is ethically unjust. For example, ethical problems involve the moral issues in addition to whether it is ever right to execute another human. On the other hand, pro death penalty supporters regularly claim that the punishment is just because it may provide closure to the victims loved ones and it is the direct answer to a murder. Additionally, it is argued that as a result of the injection the supposed criminal may never commit further crimes. Both sides of the issue have strong claims to support...
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...executed in Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608 for being a Spanish spy. 4. Once the moratorium was lifted, when and where was the first execution in the US? Once the moratorium was lifted, Utah would be the first to execute Gary Gilmore in 1977. 5. How many states currently have the death penalty? 31 states currently have the death penalty. 6. What was decided regarding capital punishment in Atkins v. Virginia? Atkins v. Virginia is a case in which the Supreme Court ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities violated the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishments. However, intellectual disability was left to...
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...1. Philadelphia County ranks third among counties in the country in terms of the number of people on death row. However, capital convictions there are frequently reversed on appeal and later reduced to life sentences because the county did not provide adequate representation to many defendants. According to a 2011 study by the Philadelphia Inquirer, 69 Philadelphia death penalty cases have been reversed or sent back by state or federal courts after findings that the defense attorney’s inadequate performance deprived the defendant of a fair trial. When these cases were retried, almost all of the defendants received a sentence less than death, and some were acquitted altogether. Maricopa County in Arizona ranks fourth among counties in the country...
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...Of the Death penalty 2/6/2016 On the issue of death penalty the suggestions and thinking of justice Marshall and Brennan, that the death penalty is unconstitutional. After this decision the court has decide to leave the decision on the states to make their laws on the issue of capital punishment. Now advocates are trying to make new laws to end the autocracy and 35 states including Florida they enact the new laws of death penalty. Death penalty was imposed by Supreme Court in 1976 with some reforms which were come from all the states. They provide some guidelines for judge & jury on which behalf death penalty should impose. The guidelines were accepted in 1976 by supreme court in in Gregg v. Georgia (428 U.S. 153), Jurek v. Texas (428 U.S. 262), and Proffitt v. Florida (428 U.S. 242) and commonly this decision is known as Gregg decision. This death penalty decision is imposed or we can say reinstated first on Florida, Georgia & Texas. It came under the 8th amendments of the constitution. Under these reforms there were three procedures which is going to follow every time when someone came under death penalty. First bifurcated trials happened in which there is separate comment for the guilt and number of phases of the trial. Then after it second one is to see whether the crime require death penalty or lesser punishment. Last reform is to review convictions and punishment made. These procedural reforms will helps to states to eliminate the death penalty cases. Due...
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...The Saga of the Richard Glossip Case: Movement For Greater Transparency Or Abolition of the Death Penalty? Death row inmate Richard Glossip was lucky in that the State of Oklahoma wanted to hang him and they forgot to bring a rope to the hanging. This tragedy of errors raises the real problem isn’t the drugs used - it is the people administering them. “I still don’t know why we had potassium acetate,” according to Alex Gerszewski, an Oklahoma Department of Corrections (“D.O.C.”). We can’t discuss how we obtain the drugs.” http://time.com/4057922/oklahoma-lethal-injection-richard-glossip/ “It is mind-boggling that a state could get something this basic wrong in a high-profile execution following a Supreme Court challenge to a state’s execution protocol,” said Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, which advocates for more transparency in the execution process. “There is no excuse for a state to be so unprepared to carry out an execution.”...
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...Death Penalty in US Jean-Jacques Rousseau, a Genevan philosopher, once stated, “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” The quote establishes that as a human, one is free however no one is completely free. Laws are established to set boundaries on freedom. A lethal injection however goes beyond setting limits. Jon Sorenson and Rocky LeAnn Pilgrim define Lethal Injection in “Lethal Injection: Capital Punishment in Texas During the Modern Era” as a “injection of a lethal dose of prussic acid [cyanide]” (Sorenson & Pilgrim 2). Lethal Injection precludes the possibility of freedom for a prisoner who is later acquitted for murder as said in the Fifth Amendment, “No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in...
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...After reading about the Andre Thomas case, I was first horrified by how critical Thomas' mental illness had become. The Texas tribune has listed a timeline of Thomas' life. It is clear that he had severe mental health issues and for whatever reason was allowed to be without care. The Pros and the Cons of the Death Penalty Morality is often at the center of the debate of the Death Penalty. Many believe that the death penalty is morally wrong due to the government's decision to take another life (Top). But, it's also morally wrong to commit the crimes that those on death row have committed. For example, Andre Thomas, although mentally ill, murdered his wife and family. It's also morally wrong to take innocent lives. The costs could also be a factor. While keeping a person in prison for life can be costly, the death penalty will keep control of the costs of tax payers (Top). Tax payers have to pay for the cost of living for the incarcerated, and with rising numbers, their are rising costs. The death penalty allows for...
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...(ProQuest Staff) The Death Penalty, “is the process by which convicted criminals are executed by a governing authority” (Issist and Newton). And “It violated the eighth amendment’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment” (ProQuest Staff). The death penalty should be abolished because it is a violation of the Eighth Amendment and often results in the deaths of innocent citizens. The death penalty should be abolished because it violates the 8th amendment. To begin, the death penalty is cruel and unusual and should not be allowed, but only “Eighteen states have abolished the death penalty” (Issitt and Newton). Warner, committed a murder and was given a botched execution. He was, “In a renovated death chamber, the lethal cocktail began flowing into the veins of...
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...–year- old Texas mom of five children received 99 years for gluing her two –year- old hands to the wall and beating her. The child suffered bleeding in her brain, which put her in a coma for a couple of days; a broken rib, multiple bruises, and bite marks, and skin torn from her hands on the wall. * Elizabeth Escalona savagely beat her two- year- old child to the edge of death because of potty training issues. * For this monstrous crime Elizabeth received 99 years in prison with eligibility of parole in 30 years. * Lawyer asked for probation or a prison sentence of fewer than 10 years. My argument is the crime Elizabeth Escalona committed was so heinous she should be punished by death. Remember, this happen in the Texas judicial system that is known to have the highest number of executions per year in the United States. Because Texas is the capital of capital punishment Elizabeth Escalona should receive the death penalty. Her lawyer asked the judge for probation or a prison sentence of less than 10 years stating that she came from a broken home, abuse and childhood of drug use and gangs. This is no excuse for the crime committed. The state of Texas has established government assistance programs for single mothers educating single mothers on drug abuse. Elizabeth did not pursue these avenues of assistances. In conclusion people who oppose the death penalty argue that it...
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