Texas Death Penalty Research Paper

Emmaleigh Elizabeth Barringer was a 10-month-old infant who was nearly dismantled and pronounced brain dead from a 32-year-old Benjamin Taylor in West Virginia who had viciously raped the infant. The 10 month old infant later died from her injuries. Which means that he must have assaulted the infant not only vaginally but anally causing the child’s organs to shut down and causing massive blood loss and trauma to the brain stem, she was pronounced brain dead after the crime, and later pronounced dead. West Virginia is one of 18 states in the union which do not have capital punishment. The Mountain State abolished the death penalty in 1965. That must be nice for the malicious infant rapist and murderer. Pleading temporary insanity nor life in

Although the Texas Criminal Justice System gives punishments that are deemed fit to the gravity of the crime, the death penalty is still too harsh of a crime. Prisoners are stripped off their Eighth Amendment rights when they go through the execution, which is an inhumane, cruel and unusual punishment. This can be examined through the methods that the criminal and justice systems and the method of execution.

Putting people to death for breaking the law is a punishment that has been in existence for thousands of years of human history and has been enforced in all corners of the

The death penalty has existed for several decades in the United States executing over 1,431 people since 1976, when the death penalty no longer violated the eighth amendment. Charles Brooks, a black male, aged 40, was executed in Texas in 1982, for the Murder of white male, David Gregory. Brooks was the first person to be executed by the use of lethal injection, since it had been reinstated in the United States. Since this first execution occurred, Americans have been debating on whether or not race plays a role in who lives, and who dies on death row. Despite all the anti-discrimination laws, the United States is faced with the challenge of racial tension and discrimination, which has a direct effect

This chart shows how many executions there has been since the year 1976 to how many there are in 2015 and 2016. In the state of Texas, it has the highest death penalty with Oklahoma coming in second. The state of Texas has executed 538 people since 1976 to which 279 occurred when Rick Perry was governor of Texas which is more than any other governor had in their term. The executions had risen up in 2000 in the state of Texas where 40 people were put down. According to the chart from where it is at this year compared to the year 1976, the death penalty has declined to very few numbers to where some states abolished it because it violated the state’s

June 20th, 2001, Andrea Yates, one by one, drowned her five children and laid their lifeless corpses side by side on her bed. She then called her emergency services, as well as her husband, telling them that they needed to come to her home. As she walked out of her home, still dripping wet with the bathwater, she was arrested. By killing her children, she believed that she was ‘saving them’. Her reasoning behind this was that the devil was after

Mrs. Andrea Yates murdered her five young children, aged 6 months to 7 years old. Since the birth of her fourth child she had had serious bouts with depression. She had suicidal tendencies that had earned her multiple stay at a hospital and was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis. She was on and off different anti-depressants and anti-psychotics, mutilated herself, stopped feeding her youngest child and was seeing a couple of psychiatrists. These therapists warned of Mrs. Yates not taking her prescriptions and being left alone with the children. One of her therapist recommended her needing constant supervision alone and definitely with her children. Her mother-in-law had been coming over after Mr. Yates left for work each morning. Her husband said that he was not aware of this and in the weeks leading up to the murders had insisted that the only way to cure his wife of this depression was to give her increasing responsibility for her children. He decided that his mother would come over in the mornings after giving Mrs. Yates an hour to be alone with them. On the morning of June 20, 2001during one of these hours, Mrs. Yates committed her crime.

While the coroner negligently examined the evidence, he overlooked a small amount of blood found at the crime scene. When the bodies of the boys were erected, a parole officer, Jerry Driver, was convinced that one of his juveniles, Damien Echols, was involved in the felony as a part of a cult. He immediately became the main focus of the investigation and was questioned two days after the homicide. Because of the lack of evidence, the crime became very popular and Vicki Hutchenson, an arbitrary individual who had no involvement with the investigation, chose to engage herself by getting Misskelley to introduce herself to Echols. Damien invited both to a Wiccan meeting which is a witches’ gathering where she claimed that Echols supposedly admitted to the crime in a drunken state. Hutchenson’s lack of knowledge involving the whereabouts and other information about the meeting should have prevented her from a legitimate witness. Years later, Vicki recanted and stated that she was forced by the police to fabricate her experience with Echols and Misskelley. However, the police interrogated Misskelley a day later without reason for 12 hours, and only taped 46 minutes of it. Although Misskelley was a minor, he was

Sabrina Butler was an eighteen year old mother who tried to save her child but, “her attempts at CPR were interpreted as fatal abuse” and she spent time on death row before being exonerated and found completely innocent of the murder charges ( ). Nicole Harris falsely confessed to punching her infant “because he would not stop crying” ( ). This confession came after detectives questioned her, without Mirandizing her, and immediately after the death of her child and having her other child taken away from her. The detective clearly manipulated her and used her child as “a tactic to secure a confession.” Luckily for her, her conviction eventually got overturned after receiving assistance by post-conviction attorneys, or she would still be in prison today (

Upon arrival, I made contact with Ms. Maryann Wise who stated that her son(later identified as Mr. Britton Wise) was making suicidal thoughts(10-13). Ms. Maryann stated that this all stemmed from an incident that happened at their home in Rincon(See Rincon police report). Ms. Maryann stated that Mr. Britton demanded her to go get fast food and she told him to go fix something in the kitchen. Ms. Maryann stated that when she received a text from Mr. Britton stating ”Mom if you don’t get me dinner I’ll fucking kill myself”. Ms. Maryann stated that when she left the house and got into her vehicle. Ms. Maryann stated that as she was about to pull away when Mr. Britton jumped in the backseat of the vehicle. Ms. Maryann stated while driving on Abercorn ST towards the Savannah Mall, Mr. Britton got angry and threw his phones from the back seat to the front window. Ms. Maryann stated that’s when Mr. Britton grabbed her right shoulder and yanked it towards the backseat. Ms. Maryann stated that she also had a scratch on her right wrist. Ms. Maryann stated that when she pulled over and the gas

In 2005 Noura was charged with premeditated first and second degree murder of her mother. The prosecution called forty-five witnesses, and three hundred and seventy-six exhibits were introduced. Noura’s reasoning for committing the crime was so that she could take possession for her recently deceased father’s belongings, including the money that was left behind in order to support her partying, drug and alcohol addiction. “Noura Jackson (“Defendant”) did not confess to the crime, and no forensic proof implicated her.”

In the year 2006, still having a criminal record and long after getting out of jail, Sherry heard about an investigation that was happening about Smith’s case, stated on the second sentence of paragraph 11. He was being inquired for Joshua’s death. As stated earlier Dr. Charles Smith was accusing Sherry for her son’s murder and he had certain proofs to plead Sherry guilty. After reading an article she contacted the AIDWYC who later told her to talk to the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner (OCC) and ask them to include her son’s murder into Smith’s case. After looking furthermore into his case the OCC found out that Smith has done a wrong investigation and that Sherry was not the one who has killed her son. Smith’s opinion in Sherry’s son’s

The purpose of thise paper is to write about the death penalty and how it relates to the American government. I will talk about the three branch of the government which include the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches. I will include research on how these three divisions of the government have an impact on the decisions about death penalty. I will include evidence on how their actions effect the American people. Some of the facts I will cover include the laws from state to state, what President Obama and the Vice President have to say about it and lastly, what cases have been heard in the Supreme court. As far back as ancient laws the death penalty was established because multiple of crimes committed. Information I got from www.deathpenaltyinfo.org states that Death penalties are predicted by the poor quality of

“An eye for an eye would make the whole world blind”, (Mahatma Gandhi). This famous quote by Mahatma Gandhi summarizes what is death penalty all about that we commit violence toward the ones who did violence, and we're still unsure if it's right or not. Personally, the death penalty should not be legalized and must be stopped because it just shows violence instead of peace in our world. Because of pain from losing someone we love, we feel so much hatred that we are blinded to forgive. However, people who supported death penalty have argued that it is a form of justice towards the victim and to the family by seeking revenge. Revenge is sweet, but committing violence will not really be a good solution it will just cause more troubles. Texas was the very first state to legalized lethal injection as a form of death penalty in 1982. The state officials distinguish capital punishment as a form of murder that includes if the victim was younger than ten years old, suspect hiring someone to commit a murder, and if the murder of police officers happens during the duty. There have been many issues that people who was put into death sentence, were actually innocent and not guilty.

In 1996, 17 year old Kelly Anne Bates was murdered by her 49 year old boyfriend, James Smith, but it wasn’t just any murder. She had over a hundred injuries found on her body, with stab wounds by knives, forks and scissors equally including her mouth. Smith burned and scalded her legs, and mutilated her ears, nose, eyebrows, mouth, lips and genitalia. Moreover, stab wounds were also found in Kelly’s empty eye sockets. Smith even gouged at her eyes while she lived. Kelly lost over 40 pounds through starvation, and had not received any water for several days leading up to her death. Smith confessed the police that she drowned on her own, but police found blood in nearly every room. She did actually by drown, although reports show she was beaten around the head with a shower head immediately beforehand. Smith was soon after sentenced to life in prison ( Criminology in Oz “Anne Bates”).