Revised

Practical Proposal Paper

No one can know for sure how many innocent people have been wrongfully executed by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The death penalty can be evident in Texas all the way back to the year 1819; executions from 1819 to 1923 were basically all done by hanging criminals. All executions were performed by each county individually, until the state announced that all executions take place in Huntsville in 1923; this was the same year that the use of the electric chair began. The United States Supreme court struck down capital punishment as unconstitutional in 1972, but the changes in the Texas penal code allowed for the resumption of executions by 1974. Since the death penalty was brought back, Texas has had the most number of executions and also one of the largest death row populations. A lot of people these days support the death penalty because they are misinformed about the truth. Some think that executing a criminal is more cost effective than imprisoning them; that is not true. Others think that it will make the murder and crime rates go down; this can also be proven wrong. Also, a court case has made it so that a criminal sentenced to death after a certain time is destined to die; so even if evidence found after this certain time proves that person innocent, the person will still be executed. To keep innocent people from execution, to stop unnecessary executions and to save money, Texas should get rid of the death penalty.