Study: Texas Not Number 1 In Death Penalty DALLAS - Despite its reputation as the nation's death penalty leader, Texas is less likely than some other states to sentence convicted murders to death, according to a new study. It is, however, more likely than other states to carry out a death sentence once it is imposed, according to the study, sponsored by the Cornell Law School Death Penalty Project, which provides legal services to death-row inmates. Texas actually trails the national average when it comes to the percentage of people convicted of murder who are sentenced to death, says the study, published in the new Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. As a percentage of murders, Nevada and Oklahoma impose the most death sentences, at 6 percent and 5.1 percent, respectively. The national average is 2.5 percent. In Texas, the percentage is 2 percent, but that is based on a larger number of murders than other states. "Texas's reputation as a death-prone state should rest on its many murders and on its willingness to execute death-sentenced inmates," wrote the authors of the study. "It should not rest on the false belief that Texas has a high rate of sentencing convicted murderers to death." Texas had about 38,000 murders from 1976-1998 that resulted in the arrest of people older than 16, according to the FBI (news - web sites) records. California was the only state that had more, at 50,000. During that same period, Texas used the death sentence 776 times. As of this past week, Texas had executed 319 people since 1976. By contrast, only 10 people have been executed in California, where 795 people were sentenced to death from 1976 through 2002. "It tells you there are absolutely massive post-sentencing differences," Theodore Eisenberg, a law professor at Cornell and an author of the study, told The New York Times.
I just wanted to make a note in this thread. I have seen for the umpteenth time a political activist on television news make the claim that Bush killed a bunch of people as governor of Texas. These people need to be informed that the Governor of Texas has extremely little power to stop an execution. In fact...the Governor of Texas can NOT stop an execution. His only power is to offer one 30-day stay of execution...and I believe most governors of Texas offer that up on almost every scheduled execution. So Bush, nor any other Governor of Texas could have stopped any execution, they can only postpone them.
I didn't think they let the Governor serve on juries. How is he going to pick up the slack? Just think, if not for the bloodlust of Houstonians, Texas would be even lower (Harris County sends more people to death row than any other county). It's not your elected officials that send people to their death. It's your neighbors who serve on the juries.
Lots of white people on death row, too. Only 31.5% of the total death row population in Texas, though, which would be well below the population you'd expect if death penalty eligible crimes are committed in direct proportion to the overall population of the state (I don't know what the percentage breakdown is regarding who commits the crimes, though. I'm fairly certain it doesn't break down exactly like the population breakdown, though. If it does, that would tend to negate the "poverty is a root cause of crime" theory since minorities make up a larger-than-their-share percentage of those living in poverty).
By the way, here's some of the statistics on county of conviction for death row inmates: Harris County: 158 Dallas County: 51 Tarrant County: 24 Bexar County: 37 Travis County: 6 Collin County: 7 Denton County: 4 El Paso County: 10 Hidalgo County: 8 Bowie County: 11 Jefferson County: 7 Potter County: 7 Randall County: 6 Cameron County: 5 Lubbock County: 5 Nueces County: 7 Smith County: 7 No one else had more than 3. So Harris County has sent more people to death row than Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, Denton (the Metroplex), Travis (Austin) and Bexar (San Antonio) Counties combined.
According to the FBI, in 2002 the Dallas MSA (which includes Collin County, Denton and Dallas Counties, among others) had a crime rate of 5,879.3 per 100,000 people. Fort Worth/Arlington had a crime rate of 5,763.6 per 100,000 people. The Houston MSA had a crime rate of 5,505.4 per 100,000 people. Looks to me like the crime rate is higher in D/FW than in Houston.
Dallas MSA: 7.8 per 100,000 Fort Worth/Arlington: 5.0 per 100,000 Houston MSA: 8.4 per 100,000 Doesn't look like a large enough difference to cause the huge difference in the number of people sent to death row, especially when you consider that in sheer numbers, D/FW as more murders. Dallas MSA: 285 Fort Worth/Arlington: 89 D/FW total: 374 Houston MSA: 365 I'd like to see the original article broken down by county.
another nugget from the same study, via the NYTimes: "blacks are actually underrepresented on the nation's death row. Blacks commit 51.5 percent of all murders nationally but constitute about 42 percent of death row inmates . . ."
