[NYTr] Texas the Champion in Killing People: Reuters Blames Religion, "Culture"

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Culture seems to mean higher rates of violence generally, more racism,
more crime, more vengeance and more crazy christians, and that's
adjusting for population differences. -NYTr]

sent by tsimonds (activ-l)

Reuters - Aug 13, 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN0730247320070813

Religion and culture behind Texas execution tally

By Ed Stoddard

DALLAS (Reuters) - Texas will almost certainly hit the grim total of
400 executions this month, far ahead of any other state, testament to
the influence of the state's conservative evangelical Christians and
its cultural mix of Old South and Wild West.

"In Texas you have all the elements lined up. Public support, a
governor that supports it and supportive courts," said Richard Dieter,
executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

"If any of those things are hesitant then the process slows down,"
said Dieter. "With all cylinders working as in Texas it produces a lot
of executions."

Texas has executed 398 convicts since it resumed the practice in 1982,
six years after the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a ban on capital
punishment, far exceeding second-place Virginia with 98 executions
since the ban was lifted. It has five executions scheduled for August.

The average time spent on death row before execution is about 10
years, not much less than the national average of closer to 11 years,
according to the Death Penalty Information Center. But the average
would be considerably longer if Texas were excluded.

A Texas governor can commute a death sentence or grant a reprieve
based on a recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Paroles, whose
members are appointed by the governor.

But governors past and present, including President George W. Bush and
the state's current chief executive Rick Perry, have taken a hands-off
approach.

"The courts are not much of a check in Texas and the executive defers
to the courts," said Jordan Steiker, a professor at the University of
Texas at Austin's School of Law and co-director of the school's
Capital Punishment Center.

BIBLE BELT INFLUENCE

Like his predecessor, Governor Perry is a devout Christian,
highlighting one key factor in Texas' enthusiasm for the death penalty
that many outsiders find puzzling -- the support it gets from
conservative evangelical churches.

This is in line with their emphasis on individuals taking
responsibility for their own salvation, and they also find
justification in scripture.

"A lot of evangelical Protestants not only believe that capital
punishment is permissible but that it is demanded by God. And they see
sanction for that in the Old Testament especially," said Matthew
Wilson, a political scientist at Southern Methodist University in
Dallas.

Texas also stands at an unusual geographical and cultural crossroads:
part Old South, with its legacy of racism, and part Old West, with a
cowboy sense of rough justice.

Some critics say the South can be seen in the racial bias of death
sentences with blacks more likely than whites to be condemned --
though Texas is not alone on this score.

Over 41 percent of the inmates currently on death row in Texas are
black, but they account for only about 12 percent of the state's
population.

Meanwhile, for some in Texas the death penalty is about the victim.

"It's the criminal justice system, not the victim justice system. I
need to get justice for my victim. I need to see that justice here on
earth," said Cathy Hill, whose husband Barry was shot dead while
working as a deputy sheriff almost seven years ago. His killer is now
on Texas' death row.

Support for capital punishment in Texas has also been attributed to
the state's high rates of violent crime, though it is not strikingly
above the national average.

According to FBI statistics for 2005, the national rate of violent
crime was 469.2 per 100,000 inhabitants while the same rate for murder
and non-negligent manslaughter was 5.6. For Texas, the same figures
were 529.7 and 6.2.

While the prolific death chamber in the city of Huntsville, where 19
inmates have already been executed by lethal injection in 2007, makes
Texas stand out, the state is also starting to follow national trends
toward fewer death sentences.

Data provided by the state's Office of Court Administration for 1996
to 2006 -- when the number of murders fell somewhat but overall
remained fairly constant -- show a sharp drop in the number of death
sentences being imposed.

The highs over that period were in 1997 and 1999, years in which 37
death sentences were handed down. But in 2005 only 14 convicts were
condemned to die in Texas.

The longer trend is a decline of homicides over the past 30 years with
a peak of 2,652 in 1991 in Texas and 1,407 in 2005. And fewer murders
should translate into fewer death sentences.

Demographics could help tilt the balance a bit further, as the state's
booming economy attracts outsiders -- and potential jury members --
from more liberal regions and as its Latino population grows rapidly.

"Demographics could change things as minority groups like Latinos are
generally less enthusiastic about the death penalty," said Dieter of
the Death Penalty Information Center.

(c) Reuters 2006. All rights reserved.