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Texas Death Penalty Pros And Cons Essay

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The Texas death penalty is ranked number one nationally, which should not come as a surprise to any native Texans. (Holle, Fellow) Texas even has a prison museum, complete with a capital punishment exhibit, which spotlights an electric chair used to execute 361 prisoners from 1924-1964. Capital Punishment is still legal in 35 states. Japan is the only other Industrial democracy that still has the death penalty. (CNN)

The PROs and CONs of capital punishment both have some merit, no matter how controversial. CONs of capital punishment: Once someone is convicted of a crime punishable by death, it is close to impossible to be given a chance at a retrial. So on the off chance that a prisoner has been wrongly convicted; he/she will most likely die an innocent person. Another CON for capital punishment has to do with the subject of mental illness. Since 2006, Texas has made an effort to educate people on the subject of executing people with severe and documented mental illnesses. It has been suggested by the American Bar Association as well as Philological associations, to prohibit the death penalty for people with these severe mental illnesses. It is theorized that these people are being sent to death row because there is simply not enough funding to help these people in mental health facilities. Texas is number “47 nationally in terms of per capita spending on mental healthcare.” (Holle, Fellow) Are these …show more content…

Hammurabi’s code and eye for an eye, though seemingly barbaric, has a sense of truth. If given the choice. Another merit for the legality of death row is the idea of deterrence. Statistics show that the death penalty deters murder. (Haag) People are more afraid of being executed for committing a horrendous crime than they are of spending the rest of their life in

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