In 2018 Texas was responsible for more than half of executions nationwide. The state killed 13 people out of 25 total in the U.S.(1). This almost doubles the total of 7 Texas executions in 2017. Tarrant and Dallas County had the highest rates of execution in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

This total has gone down significantly since its peak in the late 1990’s. In 1999 Texas counties sentenced 48 people to die(2), and in 2000 Texas executed 40 people(out of 85 nationwide), which was the peak of the Death Penalty machine in our state(3). However, while the murder rate has been dropping since the early nineties, there were no lack of murders in 1999, and twenty years later Texas experiences 3-4 murders every day despite leading the nation in executions and continuing to sentence people to death. Despite decades of executions, it does not seem that we have killed our way to a safe society. Join us tomorrow for more information and comment below on questions that interest you!

References:

1. “Half Of All American Executions Took Place in Texas”: https://thinkprogress.org/more-than-half-of-all-american-executions-took-place-in-texas-01dcfa3a0d61/
2. “Where is the Texas Death Row Class of 1999 Now?”:  https://www.statesman.com/news/20160904/where-is-the-texas-death-row-class-of-1999-now
3. Texas Executions in 2000 (Database): https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/views-executions?exec_name_1=&exec_year%5B%5D=2000&sex=All&state%5B%5D=TX&sex_1=All&federal=All&foreigner=All&juvenile=All&volunteer=All