Executions, Death Sentences Drop in Texas, Nation
Texas executed just 13 prisoners in 2011 (as of mid-December), the lowest number in more than a decade. And juries doled out only eight new death sentences this year, the same low figure as in 2010 – down from a high of 48 in 1999, according to information released Thursday by the Texas Defender Service.
“These numbers show that Texans have a growing discomfort with the chronic problems that infect the death penalty system, including the risk of convicting an innocent person, the costs, and its disproportionate use against people of color,” said Kathryn Kase, interim executive director of the Texas ...
Comments (1)
Dudley Sharp
3 reviews
1) Nationally
Murders are at a 43 year low.
Murder rates are at a 48 year low.
It's not surprising that death sentences are at a 35 year low.
looking at 1991 & 2010, nationally, we also find the huge drops in murders, rapes and robberies, as with the Texas reviews, below.
source http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/uscrime.htm
NOTE: The Disaster Center has, always, been an accurate and convenient source for crime references. Their data comes directly from the FBI, Uniform Crime Reports
Murders in Texas
by year by number by rate
1991 2652 15.3
2010 1249 5
53% drop in murders 67% drop in rate
When you combine the tremendous murder drop, with the huge drop in rapes and robberies, we find there would be an even larger reduction, in both rate and numbers, of capital murders in the state, as the combinations of rape/murders and robbery/murders, makes up, by far, the largest percentage of death penalty eligible murders.
A huge drop in death sentences reflects a huge drop in capital murders.
source http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/txcrime.htm
3. An always reliable source sent this to me. I haven't fact checked it, but it seems consistent with the FBI reviews.
Check the BJS stats
From 2000-2009 there were 26% MORE executions nationwide than in the corresponding decade 1990-99
In the same period there were 22% FEWER "willful homicides" in the US