Bad Angel

By December 31 of 2001, 3,581 offenders in 38 states resided in so called Death Row cells, awaiting legal execution. By the date of this writing, Texas, alone, has executed 456 prisoners: 447 men and 9 women. From December 7, 1982 through June 30, 2004, Texas executed 164 whites, 111 blacks, 46 Hispanics, and 2 individuals racially classified as other (the total for this time range is 323 executions).

Information regarding these convictions has long been open to the public. Most death penalty trials are popularly publicized. Anyone may review the gruesome, inhuman circumstances that deliver these offenders to their fates. Regardless of emotional opinion or scientific analysis, any human being must admit that the horrific nature of capital crimes is deserving of the harshest sort of punishment.

Detractors of the death penalty argue that cold, cruel statistical law demands a certain amount of error within any complex system. The citizens of Texas believe appellate and clemency processes act to alleviate these errors. In fact, since Texas reinstated the death penalty in 1972, approximately 150 previously condemned prisoners left Death Row by means other than execution. Most of these fortunate few received reduced or dismissed sentences on appeal or retrial. Twenty-five died of natural causes while incarcerated. A half-dozen prisoners committed suicide. Fellow inmates murdered three. However dismayed their detractors may be, most Texans apparently find comfort in the punitive determination of their criminal justice system.

The average condemned prisoner lives on Texas Death Row for 10.34 years at a cost of $61.58 (FY 2002) per day per prisoner. Joe Gonzales of Potter County was executed after only 252 days on the Row, having forfeited his right to multiple appeals. Excell White of Collin County lived there 8,982 days (24 years). Who died happier?