From Execution Leader to Trend Follower: Texas’ Changing Stance on Capital Punishment
It’s no secret that Texas has long been a leader in capital punishment. For years, the state has held the title of the “busiest execution chamber in the Free World.” But lately, it seems that Texas is losing its enthusiasm for the death penalty. According to a year-end report by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the pace of executions in Texas has slowed significantly. While Texas remains №1 when it comes to the application of the death penalty, the rate of executions in Huntsville continues its near decade-long lull.
In 2000, Texas executed 40 inmates. This year, the number of executions topped out at eight. That’s up from last year’s five, but it’s still a far cry from the state’s peak a few decades ago. While the report by the Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty illustrates the diminished use of capital punishment, it’s hardly celebratory.
The report highlights that five of the eight inmates put to death in Texas were people of color, and six of them had significant intellectual or mental health impairments, including intellectual disability. These statistics are concerning and show there are still problems with the system.
However, the report also shows that the death penalty is no longer the partisan wedge issue it once was in Texas. The Texas House, which continues to have a comfortable Republican majority, passed nearly a dozen bills adding new guardrails with bipartisan support to ensure due process in capital cases. None of them cleared the Senate, however.
Moreover, a new organization called Texas Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty launched in September. This group argues that executions do not deter future criminal violence and that the cost to the state of litigating death sentence appeals is a burden on local taxpayers. Finally, the organization uses the same “sanctity of life” argument that often appears in conjunction with opposing abortion.
It’s surprising to see Texas, a state known for its tough-on-crime policies, reconsidering its stance on capital punishment. The pace of executions in Texas began tumbling around 2005 from the dozens a year starting in the mid-1990s. By 2009, the rate flatlined in single digits. In between, lawmakers enacted a statute that allowed juries to consider life without the possibility of parole.
Before that, prosecutors would often argue that a “life” sentence in Texas was often a 40-year sentence because a convict would be eligible for parole after four decades of confinement. When the push for life without parole started gaining traction, hardline district attorneys warned that murderers otherwise bound for the lethal injection gurney would be spared, presumably by soft-hearted jurors.
Those prosecutors were proven correct about the “spared” part. The “soft-hearted” part is likely more nuanced. By the mid-2000s, groups like the Innocence Project were uncovering evidence that some executed inmates were likely not guilty of the offense that sealed their fate. Evidence also surfaced that inmates awaiting their death date were not guilty and then freed from death row.
In Texas, 31 condemned inmates were taken off death row because of sentence reductions or overturned convictions. That’s higher than the number of inmates executed since that time, 28.
Texas’ drop-off in executions mirrors the national trend. In 2000, when Texas hit its high-water mark, 85 inmates were executed nationwide. Last year, the national total was 18. And because Texas is very much part of that nationwide trend, its status as the far-and-away execution leader in the United States remains unchallenged.
Since 1982, when Texas resumed the application of the death penalty, 586 inmates have been executed by lethal injection. In second place is Oklahoma with 123. In 2002, Texas had 450 inmates on death row. Now the number is 180.
That’s still a high number, but not enough to keep the state’s execution chamber as busy as it once was. As Texas continues evolving its stance on capital punishment, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for its justice system.
Source:
