Tyler+Powers+speech

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice says that the State of Texas authorized the use of the electric chair in 1923, and ordered all executions to be carried out by the State in Huntsville. Prior to 1923, Texas counties were responsible for their own executions. The State of Texas executed the last offender by electrocution on 7/30/1964. Joseph Johnson of Harris County was executed. A total of 361 inmates were electrocuted in the State of Texas. There are five methods of execution in the United States: lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, and firing squad. Effective January 12, 1996, close relatives and friends of the deceased victim were allowed to witness executions. (November 11, 2010) If this is not a great deterrent to crime, then I do not know what is. Capital punishment permanently removes the worst criminals from society and should prove much safer for the rest of us than long term or permanent incarceration. It is self evident that dead criminals cannot commit any further crimes, either within prison or after escaping or after being released from it. Cost. Money is not an inexhaustible commodity and the government may very well better spend our (limited) resources on the old, the young and the sick etc., rather than on the long term imprisonment of murderers, rapists, etc. Anti-capital punishment campaigners in the U.S. cite the higher cost of executing someone over life in prison, but this, whilst true for America, has to do with the endless appeals and delays in carrying out death sentences that are allowed under the U.S. legal system where the average time spent on death row is over 12 years. In Britain in the 20th century, the average time in the condemned cell was from 3 to 8 weeks and only one appeal was permitted. Retribution. Execution is a very real punishment rather than some form of "rehabilitative" treatment, the criminal is made to suffer in proportion to the offense. Retribution is seen by many as an acceptable reason for the death penalty according to survey results. Deterrence. Does the death penalty deter? The death penalty is a deterrent, but only where execution is a virtual certainty. The death penalty is much more likely to be a deterrent where the crime requires planning and the potential criminal has time to think about the possible consequences. Where the crime is committed in the heat of the moment there is no likelihood that any punishment will act as a deterrent. There is a strong argument here for making murder committed in these circumstances not punishable by death or for having degrees of murder as in the USA. As stated above, Texas carries out far more executions than any other American state (between 1982 and 2007 it executed 404 men and 2 women) and there is now clear evidence of a deterrent effect. Between 1980 and 2000, there were 41,783 murders in Texas (November 12, 2010) In 1980 alone, 2,392 people died by homicide. Over the same period, Texas had a population increase of 32%, up 6,681,991 from 14,169,829 to 20,851,820. (November 11, 2010) There were only 1,238 murders in 2000 giving it a rate of 5.94, just slightly higher than the national rate which had dropped to 5.51/100,000. In 1980, there was one murder for every 5,924 Texans. (November 12, 2010) By the year 2000, this had fallen to one murder for every 16,843 people or 35.2% of the 1980 value. (November 13, 2010) If the 1980 murder rate had been allowed to maintain, there would have been a total of 61,751 murders. On this basis, 19,968 people are not dead today who would have potentially been homicide victims, representing 78 lives saved for each one of the 256 executions. The overall U.S. murder rate declined by 54% during the period. (November 12, 2010) One can see a drop in the number of murders in 1983, the year after Charlie Brooks became the first person to be executed by lethal injection in America. In 2000, Texas had 1,238 murders (an average of 23.8 murders per week), but in 2001 only 31 people were given the death sentence and 17 prisoners executed.


 * T, DCJ. (2007, March 6). //Death row facts//. Retrieved from http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/stat/drowfacts.htm ||

Clark, R.L. (1995, May 20). //Arguments for capital punishments//. Retrieved from [|__http://www.capitalpunishmentuk.org/thoughts.html__]

Women and the Noose published by the History Press (2008) Capital Punishment in Britain published by Ian Allen (November 2009) Bibliography. Some of the books used in research for this site are : Hangman by Brian Bailey The Murderers Who's Who by J H Gaute and R. O'Dell Executioner - Albert Pierrepoint’s auto-biography Executioner by Stewart Evans Diary of a Hangman by John Ellis Hanging in the Balance by Harry Potter The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment report 1953 A History of Capital Punishment by John Lawrence (1935) 