Explain why Texas currently has the highest execution rate in the United States and why the number of executions has been projected to decline in the future
What will be an ideal response?
Answer:
A. Texas has highest execution rate in U.S.
1. increasingly difficult for Texas death row inmates to be granted clemency or stays of execution, even when evidence exists that may suggest their innocence
2. individualistic and traditionalistic political culture
a. makes prosecutors more likely to seek death penalty
b. makes juries more likely to give the death penalty
B. Execution rate is projected to decline
1. U.S. Supreme Court decisions
a. no one who was under 18 when the crime was committed can be executed.
b. cannot execute persons found to be mentally retarded, on the basis that it violates the Eighth Amendment's protection against cruel and unusual punishment
2. legislatively mandated sentencing options
a. empowered juries to sentence defendants to life without the possibility of parole
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Ideological labels may be indispensable to politicians and pundits, but most citizens get by without them and feel no obligation to be consistently liberal or consistently conservative.
Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)