Yesterday, an article written by our former Charles Koch Communications Fellow, Thomas Johnson, was published in the Texas Tribune. In the piece, he described the Texas death penalty’s steep decline.
Thomas wrote,
2016 marks the second year in a row of Texas juries sentencing the fewest number of people to death since 1976. Death sentences peaked at 48 in 1999, while there has been a total of 3 this year. Executions in Texas have also steadily declined to the lowest number in 20 years; last year, there were seven.
Harris and Dallas counties have traditionally been known for their high number of death sentences. However, prosecutors in these counties have increasingly elected not to pursue that punishment, and jurors have chosen alternative sentences such as life without parole. Consequently, no one has been sentenced to death in either county in two years.
Thomas continued, as he outlined some of the many reasons why Texans are opposing capital punishment:
We have poured millions into the death penalty, but the return on our investment has been minimal at best. Texas has wrongly convicted and sentenced at least 13 people. Others have been executed who might have been innocent. Meanwhile, studies show the death penalty doesn’t protect society, and many murder victims’ families say the complex and lengthy process doesn’t offer them the swift justice or closure that they seek. Some feel the system forces them to constantly relive the murders of their loved ones as they endure ongoing legal wrangling and incessant media attention.