The Death Penalty in Texas
by Natalie Pompilio
JULY 13, 2009 TAGS:
An old adage promises that the only definite things in life are death and taxes. Wrongdoers in the Lone Star state may read that differently: The only thing guaranteed in this life is “death in Texas.”
After all, it certainly seems as if the two go together. A little more than halfway through 2009, Texas has already put 16 people to death and two more executions are slated for this month. About 350 more people currently sit on its Death Row. Although Texas got a late start compared to some other states – it didn’t start executing criminals until 1982, six years after the Supreme Court lifted the ban on capital punishment – it has led the nation with 439 executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That’s more than four times the number of any other state in the country: Virginia, in second place, has executed 109 people.
“You have to have all the elements for the death penalty to work, and in Texas it does,” says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “Tradition, religion … In other states, one element isn’t there, like the Supreme Court might have judges that are skeptical or a governor that is skeptical or a federal court of review that is critical, but in Texas, up and down the line, people support the death penalty, from the prosecutors to the public to the juries.”
But despite these numbers and cultural factors, if you parse statistics from Dieter’s nonprofit organization, Texas looks a little different:
In terms of the number of death sentences handed out per capita, Alabama leads the country, followed by Oklahoma. Texas comes in at 11th. When it comes to executions carried out per capita, Oklahoma is in first place, with Texas its runner-up. Look at it in terms of a state’s efficiency – the total number of executions divided by the death sentences awarded – and Virginia wins the prize.
“If you look at all of these things, Texas is a state that is committed to the death penalty and it’s usually up there, but it’s not the leader,” Dieter said.
And while the use of the death penalty is a common response to murder in the southern part of the country – 95 percent of last year’s executions were in southern states – Texas is following the rest of the country and handing out fewer death sentences in recent years.
Kirsten Houle, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said there are three reasons for that. In 2005, the state introduced the sentence of life without any possibility of parole. Previously, many juries faced the choices of death or life without parole for 40 years, and “it was just enough for jurors to have this fear that this murderer they’d just convicted might be out on the street someday,” she said.
Since 2005, between 11 and 14 convicts per year have been sentenced to death. That’s down from 23 in 2003 and 37 in 1997 and 1999. (It should be noted that the number of murders in the state has also declined in recent years, and fewer murders would mean fewer death penalty sentences.)
Another factor, Houle said, is that jurors are also increasingly aware of the danger of wrongful convictions: Since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide, the convictions of 130 people on Death Row -- 9 of them in Texas – have been overturned for a variety of reasons, including DNA findings and prosecutorial misconduct.
Finally, defendants in death penalty cases have better counsel, she said. That’s a decided improvement: Current Death Row inmate George McFarland tried to appeal his 1991 murder conviction on the grounds that his lawyer slept for much of the trial. (The lawyer’s reasoning was that he was in his 70s and liked a late afternoon nap.) The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals did not grant him a new trial.
“I really don’t think Texans are as bloodthirsty and vengeful as people make them out to be,” Houle said. “I’ve lived all over the state and find compassionate, concerned people, but it’s a matter of education. People don’t know the reality of the death penalty.”
Dieter believes that in tough economic times, taxpayers are reassessing the death penalty’s cost-effectiveness. The average time spend on Death Row in Texas before execution is 10 years, a decade usually filled with legal wrangling paid for by the state.
“After a while, it doesn’t make sense to us,” Dieter said. “In this economic climate, when something is costly and not producing much, it’s going to be examined.”
Still, death in Texas is almost a cottage industry. The state’s Department of Corrections has a comprehensive site where users can look up offenders and read about their crimes. It also provides prisoners’ last words: The prisoner most recently put to death -- Terry Lee Hankins, who was executed on June 2 --- said, “Yes, I am sorry for what I've done and for all of the pain and suffering that my actions have caused. Jesus is Lord. All glory to God,” according to the website. It previously listed inmates’ last meal requests as well.
In Huntsville, the Texas Prison Museum draws about 24,000 visitors per year. One of the museum’s most popular attractions is Old Sparky, the electric chair used to condemn 361 men.
Museum director Jim Willett, a lifelong Texan who went to work for the museum in 2001 after working for the prison system for 30 years, said visitors come from all over the world.
“They’re not so much against the death penalty, although some certainly are, but they’re curious about it all. They just don’t have it where they come from,” he said.
Willett says it’s not wrong to say that Texans like the death penalty, but that’s not a complete picture of his state.
“We do carry out with the threat,” he says, “but we’re probably some of the most friendly people in the world.”
Natalie Pompilio is a freelance writer living in Philadelphia.
After all, it certainly seems as if the two go together. A little more than halfway through 2009, Texas has already put 16 people to death and two more executions are slated for this month. About 350 more people currently sit on its Death Row. Although Texas got a late start compared to some other states – it didn’t start executing criminals until 1982, six years after the Supreme Court lifted the ban on capital punishment – it has led the nation with 439 executions, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. That’s more than four times the number of any other state in the country: Virginia, in second place, has executed 109 people.“You have to have all the elements for the death penalty to work, and in Texas it does,” says Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. “Tradition, religion … In other states, one element isn’t there, like the Supreme Court might have judges that are skeptical or a governor that is skeptical or a federal court of review that is critical, but in Texas, up and down the line, people support the death penalty, from the prosecutors to the public to the juries.”
But despite these numbers and cultural factors, if you parse statistics from Dieter’s nonprofit organization, Texas looks a little different:
In terms of the number of death sentences handed out per capita, Alabama leads the country, followed by Oklahoma. Texas comes in at 11th. When it comes to executions carried out per capita, Oklahoma is in first place, with Texas its runner-up. Look at it in terms of a state’s efficiency – the total number of executions divided by the death sentences awarded – and Virginia wins the prize.
“If you look at all of these things, Texas is a state that is committed to the death penalty and it’s usually up there, but it’s not the leader,” Dieter said.
And while the use of the death penalty is a common response to murder in the southern part of the country – 95 percent of last year’s executions were in southern states – Texas is following the rest of the country and handing out fewer death sentences in recent years.
Kirsten Houle, executive director of the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said there are three reasons for that. In 2005, the state introduced the sentence of life without any possibility of parole. Previously, many juries faced the choices of death or life without parole for 40 years, and “it was just enough for jurors to have this fear that this murderer they’d just convicted might be out on the street someday,” she said.
Since 2005, between 11 and 14 convicts per year have been sentenced to death. That’s down from 23 in 2003 and 37 in 1997 and 1999. (It should be noted that the number of murders in the state has also declined in recent years, and fewer murders would mean fewer death penalty sentences.)
Another factor, Houle said, is that jurors are also increasingly aware of the danger of wrongful convictions: Since the death penalty was reinstated nationwide, the convictions of 130 people on Death Row -- 9 of them in Texas – have been overturned for a variety of reasons, including DNA findings and prosecutorial misconduct.
Finally, defendants in death penalty cases have better counsel, she said. That’s a decided improvement: Current Death Row inmate George McFarland tried to appeal his 1991 murder conviction on the grounds that his lawyer slept for much of the trial. (The lawyer’s reasoning was that he was in his 70s and liked a late afternoon nap.) The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals did not grant him a new trial.“I really don’t think Texans are as bloodthirsty and vengeful as people make them out to be,” Houle said. “I’ve lived all over the state and find compassionate, concerned people, but it’s a matter of education. People don’t know the reality of the death penalty.”
Dieter believes that in tough economic times, taxpayers are reassessing the death penalty’s cost-effectiveness. The average time spend on Death Row in Texas before execution is 10 years, a decade usually filled with legal wrangling paid for by the state.
“After a while, it doesn’t make sense to us,” Dieter said. “In this economic climate, when something is costly and not producing much, it’s going to be examined.”
Still, death in Texas is almost a cottage industry. The state’s Department of Corrections has a comprehensive site where users can look up offenders and read about their crimes. It also provides prisoners’ last words: The prisoner most recently put to death -- Terry Lee Hankins, who was executed on June 2 --- said, “Yes, I am sorry for what I've done and for all of the pain and suffering that my actions have caused. Jesus is Lord. All glory to God,” according to the website. It previously listed inmates’ last meal requests as well.
In Huntsville, the Texas Prison Museum draws about 24,000 visitors per year. One of the museum’s most popular attractions is Old Sparky, the electric chair used to condemn 361 men.
Museum director Jim Willett, a lifelong Texan who went to work for the museum in 2001 after working for the prison system for 30 years, said visitors come from all over the world.
“They’re not so much against the death penalty, although some certainly are, but they’re curious about it all. They just don’t have it where they come from,” he said.
Willett says it’s not wrong to say that Texans like the death penalty, but that’s not a complete picture of his state.
“We do carry out with the threat,” he says, “but we’re probably some of the most friendly people in the world.”
Natalie Pompilio is a freelance writer living in Philadelphia.
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