Death Penalty in Texas and the USA
The state of Texas uses capital punishment as a legal penalty. The speed at which capital murder cases are heard and decided in the Texas courts is unimaginable and incomparable to other courts in the country. Texas executes a third of all people executed in the United States. The argument behind such executions is in the uniqueness of the Texas judicial system that enables convicts (murderers) to be executed at a high rate. The first argument is that the appellate judges in the state courts are elected and therefore bend to the will and pleasure of the public. They have to be tough on criminals to win re-election in the state. Those that are appointed in other states tend to provide more quality when it comes to court rulings compared to the judges elected in Texas. Another justification is that Texas courts do not have the public defender system that aids the financially disadvantaged defendants (Walpin). The courts rely on appointed lawyers who might not have any idea or experience in capital murder cases or appeals. The incompetent defense could thus be blamed for increased execution cases in the state.
Vengeance is not an adequate reason for the state to kill people, especially when many innocent individuals go through the process. Convicts should only be executed if the government has tried to correct their behavior, and it has failed. It should be the last resort. I feel that the company the US keeps is the reason as to why the death penalty is still in play within the country. Texas and the US should stop carrying out executions as there is no evidence that they deter crime in society more effectively than prison terms. Evidence from other countries shows the opposite. Canada, for instance, abolished its death penalty, and the murder rates in the country as of 2016 were at its lowest since 1966 (Amnesty International). The USA should, therefore, find better ways of preventing capital crimes within its borders-treating the problem and not the outcome.
Works Cited
Amnesty International. “Five Reasons to Abolish the Death Penalty.” Amnesty International Australia, 19 June 2019, www.amnesty.org.au/5-reasons-abolish-death-penalty/.
Walpin, Ned. “Why is Texas #1 Executions?” Death Penalty Information Center, 5 Dec. 2000, deathpenaltyinfo.org/stories/why-is-texas-1-executions. Accessed 27 Aug. 2020.