Texas carries out 60% of all U.S. executions

[n2doc]

By ADAM LIPTAK
THE NEW YORK TIMES

This year's death penalty bombshells -- a de facto national moratorium, a state abolition and the smallest number of executions in more than a decade -- have masked what may be the most significant and lasting development. For the first time in the modern history of the death penalty, more than 60 percent of all American executions took place in Texas.

Over the past three decades, the proportion of executions nationwide performed in Texas has held relatively steady, averaging 37 percent. Only once before, in 1986, has the state accounted for even a slight majority of the executions, and that was in a year with 18 executions nationwide.

But this year, enthusiasm for executions outside of Texas dropped sharply. Of the 42 executions last year, 26 were in Texas. The remaining 16 were spread across nine other states, none of which executed more than three people.

Charles Rosenthal, the district attorney of Harris County, Texas, which includes Houston and has accounted for 100 executions since 1976, said the Texas capital justice system is working properly. The pace of executions in Texas, he said, "has to do with how many people are in the pipeline when certain rulings come down."

The rate at which Texas sentences people to death is not especially high given its murder rate. But once a death sentence is imposed there, said Richard Dieter, the executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, prosecutors, state and federal courts, the pardon board and the governor are united in moving the process along.

"There's almost an aggressiveness about carrying out executions," said Dieter, whose organization opposes capital punishment.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/344909_texas26.html

[Buzz Clik]

1. People are actually moving to Texas to ensure that their murderers will be executed.

[ColbertWatcher]

2. see pic...

[PresidentObama]

3. Eye for an eye makes the world blind.

[LakeSamish706]

4. George W Bush must have been Governor during 1986 in Texas...

"Only once before, in 1986, has the state accounted for even a slight majority of the executions, and that was in a year with 18 executions nationwide."