History of Death Penalty in Texas
History of the Death Penalty in Texas
During the historical era in the state of Texas, the use of the death penalty was common and frequent; before 1923 districts carried out executions themselves, in the form of hanging. However in 1923 the state of Texas prepared every execution to be carried out by the state in Huntsville using the electric chair as the method of execution. The state of Texas put to death their first prisoner by electrocution on February 8, 1924 and there were four more executions following the very first one on that date. The inmates that were sentenced to death and the areas that the executions were taken place were located in the Huntsville division from 1928 to 1965, and the last electrocution was carried out on July 30, 1964. This state electrocuted a sum of 361 inmates from 1924 to 1964. During the changes and views on capital punishment in the year of 1964, there were legal disputes regarding the death penalty that resulted in the de facto moratorium on executions in the United States. During these challenging times on June 29, 1972 in the case of Furman v. Georgia the United States Supreme Court ruled that each states capital punishment law in the U.S. was illicit since the death penalty was unjustly used and arbitrarily assigned. During that time there were 52 men in Texas awaiting execution, however the governor overturned all their sentences to life in prison and there wasn’t anyone left on death row by March of 1973. Even though death row was cleared and the inmates received life sentences, the state of Texas approved a new statue in1973 to regulate how capital punishment was assessed. In 1974 with the new statue, jurors began enforcing death sentences and the number of death row inmates began to increase once again. In 1977 Texas implemented lethal injection as a form of execution and the first lethal injection was administered on December 7, 1982.
Even though executions were put on hold for awhile they resumed in 1982. The
During the historical era in the state of Texas, the use of the death penalty was common and frequent; before 1923 districts carried out executions themselves, in the form of hanging. However in 1923 the state of Texas prepared every execution to be carried out by the state in Huntsville using the electric chair as the method of execution. The state of Texas put to death their first prisoner by electrocution on February 8, 1924 and there were four more executions following the very first one on that date. The inmates that were sentenced to death and the areas that the executions were taken place were located in the Huntsville division from 1928 to 1965, and the last electrocution was carried out on July 30, 1964. This state electrocuted a sum of 361 inmates from 1924 to 1964. During the changes and views on capital punishment in the year of 1964, there were legal disputes regarding the death penalty that resulted in the de facto moratorium on executions in the United States. During these challenging times on June 29, 1972 in the case of Furman v. Georgia the United States Supreme Court ruled that each states capital punishment law in the U.S. was illicit since the death penalty was unjustly used and arbitrarily assigned. During that time there were 52 men in Texas awaiting execution, however the governor overturned all their sentences to life in prison and there wasn’t anyone left on death row by March of 1973. Even though death row was cleared and the inmates received life sentences, the state of Texas approved a new statue in1973 to regulate how capital punishment was assessed. In 1974 with the new statue, jurors began enforcing death sentences and the number of death row inmates began to increase once again. In 1977 Texas implemented lethal injection as a form of execution and the first lethal injection was administered on December 7, 1982.
Even though executions were put on hold for awhile they resumed in 1982. The