Law Students

Supreme Court to Executioners: Carry On

So the Supreme Court upheld the lethal injection method of execution, ending a temporary halt in the country's executions.  Don't worry, Virginia's planning to get rid of three dudes by the end of July.  The 7-2 decision wasn't really that surprising, but being from Texas we were a little taken aback by this infographic, which shows the states with the highest levels of death row incarceration as a percentage of population.  Texas isn't even in the Top 5!

You're much more likely to be on death row if you live in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma or Nevada.  Texas is still tops in overall number of executions, however, so maybe it's just that we don't let people wait around as long as some other states.  It reminds of a Ron White joke where he was talking about a new law that sped up your execution if three witnesses saw you do it.  "Other states are trying to abolish the death penalty," he said.  "My state's putting in an Express Lane."

We happen to hail from Harris County, which is the single-most executionest county in the entire country.  We used to have a DA named Chuck Rosenthal and everybody liked Chuck.  He even wore a WWJD bracelet to court.  He had to quit earlier this year, however, after it came out that he was carrying on an affair with a coworker and liked to send out racist e-mails (one featured a black man lying on the ground surrounded by fried chicken and watermelon with the caption "Fatal Overdose") and videos of women being "sharked."  He also presided over one of the biggest crime lab screw-ups ever. 

So onward and upward, death penalty.  The Supreme Court says you're cool. 

Justices Uphold Lethal Injection (Wash. Post)
Population of the Condemned (Wash. Post)
District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal Resigns (Click2Houston)
Ron White (Blue Collar Comedy Tour, at 8:00) 

Full post as published by TJ's Double Play on April 17, 2008 (boomark / email).