... , and Fourteenth Amendment, which ensures equality of citizenship and due process of law. The Court then asserted that the death penalty statute needed more restrictive guidelines, and Texas quickly responded. It proposed legislation instituting the use of lethal injection, but more importantly passed House Bill 200, which clearly defined the six homicides eligible for capital punishment ... results speak for themselves. Death penalty statutes are currently established in 38 states throughout the nation (Foster 18a), but nowhere are they more widely utilized than in Texas. The reasons fo...

• Word Count: 4933
• Approx Pages: 20
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... maximize public safety through a form of incapacitation and deterrence. Incapacitating a person is depriving s/he of the physical or intellectual power of natural of il/legal qualifications (Webster, 574). Executing a person takes away the capacity of and forcibly prevents recurrence of violence. Deterrence is the act or process of discouraging and preventing an action from occurring ... , Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Sou...

• Word Count: 4694
• Approx Pages: 19
• Grade Level: High School

... the murders committed. One of the greatest indicators that the death penalty is a deterrent can be seen in Houston Texas (Harris County, with the highest murder rate in Houston) in 1996. In 1981, 701 murders were committed in Texas. In 1982, when Texas reinstated the death penalty, Harris County executed more murderers than any other city or state in the union and saw ... that the government would be breaking the commandments given by Moses. However, the Hebrew word is ratsach, and it is translated to mean murder instead of kill. The New Lexicon Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary of the ...

• Word Count: 3361
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... 1, 1973, THROUGH SEPTEMBER 30, 2002 Charles Rumbaugh 9-11-1985 Texas 17 J. Terry Roach 1-10-1986 So. Car. 17 Jay Pinkerton 5-15-1986 Texas 17 Dalton Prejean 5-18-1990 Louisiana 17 Johnny Garrett 2-11-1992 Texas 17 Curtis Harris 7-1-1993 Texas 17 Frederick Lashley 7-28-1993 Missouri 17 Ruben Cantu 8-24-1993 Texas 17 Chris Burger 12-7-1993 Georgia 17 Joseph John Cannon 4-22 ... 17 Steve E. Roach 1-19-2000 Virginia 17 Glen C. McGinnis 1-25-2000 Texas 17 Gary L. Graham 6-22-2000 Texas 17 Gerald L. Mitchell 10-22-2001 Texas 17 Napoleon Beazley 5-28-2002 Texas 17 T.J. Jones 8-8-2002 Texas 17 ...

• Word Count: 2534
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... Streib 2000), not kids their own age. As of June 2000, there were seventy-four juveniles under death sentence, the majority of which are in Texas. Texas houses 26 of these young felons, one third of the national total (Whitman, 2000), and has executed nine of the seventeen that have been ... seem to be somewhat spread out among the states the truth is that the majority of the sentences are handed out by judges in three states; Texas, who has already been mentioned as the leader in the juvenile execution topic, Florida, and Alabama (Streib, 2000). And the numbers will more ... look close...

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... discusses the concerns with the system after the recent discovery that thirteen innocent citizens were killed. Scrutiny continues as strict regulations are being mandated and DNA test results have set a Texas prisoner of twelve years free. C. The Glasser article identifies the conservative perception for the death penalty and its recent faults. Glasser exhibits George Ryan a previous pro-death penalty ... the fact that they have made a humane decision for the public. 7. Hitchens, C. (1999). Bush's Death Watch. Nation, 269 (6), 1-3. B. Hitchen's article examines George W. Bush's policy o...

• Word Count: 4558
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... vote was 5 to 4, and the justices offered no majority opinion."(Ivers434) "The justices issued a short per curiam order declaring the Georgia and Texas laws unconstitutional, each justice wrote a separate opinion explaining his vote."(Ivers434) This case temporarily suspended the death penalty, showing that the laws that were ... been given the opportunity to prove that his death sentence was the result of discriminatory jury practices. Such practices included the so called "Texas shuffle" to limit or eliminate African American jurors. Other practices included disparate questioning of pot...

• Word Count: 2831
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... testimony, suppression of mitigating evidence and misinterpretation of evidence, and community pressure (www.amnestyusa.org/abolish). Recently The Supreme Court sided with a black Texas death row inmate who claimed prosecutors stacked the jury with whites and said he was not allowed to present evidence of the alleged bias. The high ... Resolution of May 25, 1984). Yet as recently as January 21, 2000, Larry Keith Robison, diagnosed with schizophrenia, was executed by the state of Texas. On June 22, 2000, Thomas Provenzano, who suffered from severe delusional episodes and believed he was J...

• Word Count: 2714
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... that the state also did not accept responsibility for Goldstein's behaviors. It is interesting as to what might have occurred had this incident taken place in a different state, such as Texas. Texas has a notoriously high percentage of death rates for capital punishment. (Amnesty International: 2000) Had this incident - or one similar in nature - occurred in ... Texas, it is arguable that the state might have found Goldstein guilty of intentional homicide and sought to press the death penalty upon him. This would then indicate that the state ... ...

• Word Count: 5114
• Approx Pages: 20
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... to the inconsistency of the court system. In the state of Maryland, very few people are actually given a death sentence, opposed to Texas, which is well known for sentencing people who commit first-degree murder. As a result, a crime committed in Texas for a capital sentence may not receive that same sentence in Maryland. This makes it unjust, in that people who commit a crime ... in Texas will be executed, yet that same crime will only serve a prison sentence in Maryland. The inequality from state to state is obvious and until all states enforce laws consistently, opponents ... ...

• Word Count: 2965
• Approx Pages: 12
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... murder rate increased by seven percent from the five-year pre-abolition period to the five-year post-abolition period ("Justice For All" 5). Since 1990, Harris County, a single county in Texas has had more executions than any other state in the United States. During the period between 1990 and 1995, Harris County has had a forty-eight percent drop in crime, the ... greatest decrease in the United States. In Harris County, the highest homicide rate was in 1981, one year before the death penalty was reinstated in Texas ("Justice For All" 6). All of these studies indicate that implementati...

• Word Count: 4548
• Approx Pages: 18
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... about using the death penalty. In 2002 seventy-one inmates were executed, five more than the year before. Of last years executions thirty-three were done in the state of Texas, by far more than any other state. Fifty-three were white and eighteen were black. Sixty-nine were men and two were women. All executions except one were carried out ... require the most amounts of resources for both the prosecution and defenses. One thing is true for our judicial system; Time is money. Cost figures for Texas provided by Dan Cutrer are estimates made by two Texas counties. These counties estimated...

• Word Count: 2619
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... murder rate increased by seven percent from the five-year pre-abolition period to the five-year post-abolition period ("Justice For All" 5). Since 1990, Harris County, a single county in Texas has had more executions than any other state in the United States. During the period between 1990 and 1995, Harris County has had a forty-eight percent drop in crime, the ... greatest decrease in the United States. In Harris County, the highest homicide rate was in 1981, one year before the death penalty was reinstated in Texas ("Justice For All" 6). All of these studies indicate that implementati...

• Word Count: 3831
• Approx Pages: 15

... that the death penalty was excessive and cruel to those who were only an accessory to a felony murder. December 2 in the same year, Texas became the first state to adopt and follow what Oklahoma did in prior years. Texas executed Charles Brookes for the crime of murder. In July of 1983, the US Supreme Court ruled that every person on death row ... ...

• Word Count: 3139
• Approx Pages: 13
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... the New York Times also discovered that homicide rates have been increasing and decreasing along roughly symmetrical paths in the states with and without the death penalty. A study done in Texas from 1984 through 1997 is consistent with the New York Times survey. "This study found that recent evidence from the most active execution state in the nation lent no support ... deserving of life, and word has it her even asked mercy for a Black Muslim named Shaka Sankofa, once Gary Graham, dead as of June 22, thanks to George W. Bush, in Texas." (Farrel 6) In January of 1999, when the Pope Joh...

• Word Count: 2739
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... their tax dollars are being spent on the death penalty or believe it's right. Mr.C.Hoppe states in his article " Executions Cost Texas Millions ": For the states which employ the death penalty, this luxury comes at a high price. In Texas, a death penalty case costs an average of $2.3 million, about three times the cost of imprisoning someone in a single cell at the highest ... ...

• Word Count: 2542
• Approx Pages: 10
• Grade Level: High School

... the New York Times also discovered that homicide rates have been increasing and decreasing along roughly symmetrical paths in the states with and without the death penalty. A study done in Texas from 1984 through 1997 is consistent with the New York Times survey. "This study found that recent evidence from the most active execution state in the nation lent no support ... deserving of life, and word has it her even asked mercy for a Black Muslim named Shaka Sankofa, once Gary Graham, dead as of June 22, thanks to George W. Bush, in Texas." (Farrel 6) In January of 1999, when the Pope Joh...

• Word Count: 3235
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: High School

... the New York Times also discovered that homicide rates have been increasing and decreasing along roughly symmetrical paths in the states with and without the death penalty. A study done in Texas from 1984 through 1997 is consistent with the New York Times survey. "This study found that recent evidence from the most active execution state in the nation lent no support ... deserving of life, and word has it her even asked mercy for a Black Muslim named Shaka Sankofa, once Gary Graham, dead as of June 22, thanks to George W. Bush, in Texas." (Farrel 6) In January of 1999, when the Pope Joh...

• Word Count: 2861
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... ten days after the turn of the millennium, Douglas Christopher Thomas of Commonwealth, Virgina was sentenced to death , followed by Steven Roach three days later. On January 25th, Texas executed Glenn McGinnis. Texas has executed eight juvenile offenders since 1973, making them the highest in executions of juveniles. In the case of Stanford versus Kentucky, the courts ruled that the execution of ... ...

• Word Count: 3215
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... place over the teetering debate began in 1967 with the Furman decision. Originally three cases had been brought to the United States Supreme Court: Furman v. Georgia, Jackson v. Georgia, and Branch v. Texas. However the decision in the Furman case was the one which caused the Supreme Court to impose a moratorium on the death penalty. The final decision was that the administration of ... being imposed arbitrarily, infrequently, and often constituted "cruel and unusual punishment." The next great decision also came about from the Supreme Courts review of another three cases: Proffitt v. F...

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... Britton to teach the lesson that abortion is wrong. The state of Florida put Hill to death by lethal injection to teach us that killing is wrong. Florida, along with Texas, has made the most liberal use of the death penalty. Both states, not so coincidentally, are two of the most violent states in our country. We, as a nation, have to ... only if, the state can argue that the common good is served by the action. In point of fact, as the eloquent testimony of soaring crime rates in Florida and Texas shows, society does not get better when the state kills killers. We are getting more, not...

• Word Count: 2517
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... is currently the sole method or option in 32 states. However, much like the electric chair and gas chambers, lethal injection has its share of the problem as well. In Texas, 1988, Raymond Landry was supposed to die. The tube carrying the poisons into Landry began to leak and it sprayed witnesses with the deadly chemicals. Landry was half-dead when ... passed similar laws. In Florida, the jury was given guidelines, including aggravating, and mitigating circumstances. The judge had the final say in sentencing and can override the jury's recommendation. In Texas, the jury is to answer thre...

• Word Count: 6785
• Approx Pages: 27
• Grade Level: High School

... , while only two white murderers have been executed for killing a non-white. ( Ross, p.2) A study by William Bowers and Glenn Pierce, conducted in the late 1970's, found that in Florida and Texas, Blacks who killed Whites were five and six times more likely to be sentenced to death than Whites who killed Whites. Among Black offenders in Florida, they found that those ... ...

• Word Count: 3013
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... some cases upon defendants who are actually innocent."(Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr. 1994) Topic Overview Since 1976 there have been 739 executions, 253 of which have been in Texas, more than any other state. As with many topics there are people who support it and those who do not. Capital punishment is no exception. It is evident by show ... ...

• Word Count: 2728
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... murder rate. Although the murder rate is dropping each year, there is no clear evidence that it is a result of use of the death penalty. In fact, Georgia, California, Florida, Texas, and Maryland are just a few states that reported high violent crime rates and they all use capital sentencing. What if one innocent person died as a result of a wrongful conviction? Aren ... ...

• Word Count: 2692
• Approx Pages: 11
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School