Executions Resume Tomorrow in Texas
Even though the country is finding capital punishment more distasteful (PDF), tomorrow Texas will execute the first person in 2009. There are 26 executions scheduled from January through May of this year. Twenty-three executions are set in Southern states, with Ohio being the only Northern state pushing the needle.
Last year 37 men were executed, all but the two in Ohio being lethally injected in the South. While the number of executions may rise this year with no Supreme Court ordered moratorium anticipated, the geographic disparity of who dies being based largely on where the crime was committed will certainly continue.
Tomorrow’s state-killing of Curtis Moore will take place in Huntsville, Texas. Nationally it will be the 1,137th, for the Lone Star State it will be number 424 since 1982. For Gov. Rick Perry, it will be the 185th execution, far exceeding the 152 executions Gov. George Bush approved in his tenure.
Last year, four men were exonerated from death row. Of the 130 death row exonerations, 79 have occurred in the South.
If there really is to be a creation of a new south, we have to stop using the old, failing capital punishment system.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this post stated that Moore's execution was scheduled for Tuesday, January 13. The execution is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14. The post has been amended to reflect this correction.
Jan 14th, 2009 at 12:07am
God bless TEXAS and the whole south. Thank you God, thank you.
Execute the murdering S.O.B's.
Only 26, damn, I wish it were 126.
Jan 14th, 2009 at 12:56am
Yeah for Capital Punishment!
ACLU is nothing but a left wing looney bin...you only represent people who think like you not the majority.
Jan 14th, 2009 at 9:47am
I'd be curious to know the race breakdown of those executed
http://www.ryanhartman.wordpress.com
Jan 14th, 2009 at 1:05pm
In looking at the criminal record for those who are being executed... So you are telling me that it's ok for people to rape and murder other people... for those criminals to take innocent lives away from others... and for punishment we should spend our tax dollars and let them live and sit in "humane" prisons? Screw that! The reason it hasn't been effective is because we don't have public hangings and shootings. Rapists and murderers don't see any consequences for their actions. They just think that if they get caught they'll get to hang out and play basketball and watch tv in prison. Let's see someone rape your daughters and kill your sons and then you come and tell me that you're fine with the one who committed the crime to continue living their life with luxuries.
Jan 14th, 2009 at 10:40pm
The fact that we a replacement selectee for Obama's Senate seat that wrongfully placed a man on death row for eleven years who was proven innocent by DNA testing speaks volumes for the flaws in the American Judicial branch of government!
Jan 14th, 2009 at 11:12pm
so where is the protest and inhumane treatment marches for the victims who have suffered way more cruel and unusual punishment on behalf of the murderering vermin who you want to keep alive at the tax payers expense
Jan 15th, 2009 at 12:16am
There is nothing left or right in capital punishment, it is justice; if someone is sufficiently proven of a heinous act, he should be executed. It is justice, and isn't that what ACLU is about?
Jan 15th, 2009 at 12:54pm
The death penalty makes it 100% certain that a violent killer can never kill again. We must do whatever it takes to make sure innocent people are not put to death, but sometimes the guilty deserve nothing less!
Feb 3rd, 2009 at 2:11pm
What all you pro-death people forget is that the system is flawed. Innocent people are convicted. More than we will ever know. Are you willing to die to allow the state to put others to death?
As for the cost of life sentences...To minimize the chance the state will kill an innocent person, the death penalty process is more expensive then letting them rot in jail for the rest of their lives.
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