Arrived on death row: July 6, Arrived on death row: July 25, If Harris County were its own state, it would have a more active death chamber than the entire rest of the country - except for the rest of Texas. Of the 1, U. The next-closest executioner is Dallas County, with 55 death sentences carried out since the Supreme Court reinstated the ultimate punishment in Houston's reputation as ground zero for the death penalty, it seems, is well-earned - even though prosecutors here have been less apt to dole out capital sentences in recent years.
But while the numbers are stark, the reasons behind the Bayou City's apparent zeal for capital punishment are less apparent. It's not driven by public support for the practice.
It's not driven by an unusually high crime rate or by especially heinous murders. So what is it? What sets apart jurisdictions that frequently turn to capital punishment from those that don't? That is one of the questions Frank Baumgartner and his co-authors explore in Deadly Justice , a numbers-heavy study of capital punishment released this month.
The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill political science professor took some time this week to field questions from the Chronicle about his new book and its implications in the Houston area. Houston Chronicle: So, Harris County is known as the capital of capital punishm ent - why is that?
Are Houstonians just more supportive of it? Frank Baumgartner: Well, actually I would say two things. We got data from a Rice University Houston-area poll and it turns out the public opinion in Houston is less supportive for the death penalty than in the rest of Texas.
In general across the country we don't find any correlation between public opinion and executions, and the reason for that is that if you don't support capital punishment you're not allowed to sit on a jury. The key driver in the system is the choices that district attorneys make, because they start the process and they get to pick and choose whether to seek death. Looking at all 3, counties in the U. There's really no rhyme or reason to it.
I think it's something about a local culture that develops around the courthouse. Most counties never go there, but a few counties happen to scucessfully carry through to the end a death sentence - and then when the next really bad murder happens the prosecutors say, "Well this is just as bad as that one where we sought death so we kind of have to do it again this time.
HC: We hear a lot about botched executions - is this happening more than it used to - and why we aren't seeing these botched executions in Texas? Or is it just a matter of time? FB: Lethal injection is a medicalized procedure but in most states no doctors are allowed to participate so I think it does lend itself to botches in a way that other methods like firing squad or hangings did not.
But Texas has a lot more practice. Prior to , Texas counties were responsible for their own executions. The State of Texas executed the first inmate by electrocution on February 8, Charles Reynolds Red River County was executed. One of the most notorious inmates to be executed was Raymond Hamilton, a member of the "Bonnie and Clyde" gang. He was sentenced by Walker County and executed on May 10, , for murder.
Hamilton and another man had escaped from death row, only to be captured and returned to death row. When capital punishment was declared "cruel and unusual punishment" by the U. Supreme Court on June 29, , there were 45 men on death row in Texas and seven in county jails with a death sentence. All these sentences were commuted to life sentences by the governor of Texas, and death row was clear by March In , revision to the Texas Penal Code once again allowed assessment of the death penalty and allowed for executions to resume effective January 1, Dallas County accounts for 62 executions and Bexar County accounts for Death Sentences.
In , Texas juries imposed four new death sentences. Four other cases in which prosecutors sought the death penalty in resulted in sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole after jury deliberations. Before public health emergency declarations were instituted in March , juries in Texas sentenced two men to death. Other capital jury trials in Texas were suspended last year. It was the fewest death sentences recorded in Texas since the s.
Capital trials resumed in the second half of and have resulted in two new death sentences in Texas:. Death Sentences by Race and Gender. The death penalty continues to be imposed disproportionately on people of color. This is the smallest Texas death row population since , when people awaited execution, according to research by TCADP. Death Sentences by County. As displayed in the interactive map, just three counties Harris, Smith, and Walker have imposed more than one death sentence in the last five years Three counties account for more than half of the current death row population: Harris 73 ; Dallas 18 ; and Tarrant No other county has more than eight individuals on death row at this time.
Learn more about the death penalty at the county level here. Wrongful Convictions and Executions. Since , individuals who spent time on death row have been exonerated.
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