Lone Star Liberal Musings on 'Eye for Eye" and the Death Penalty

Texas is number one. Since 1976, the year in which the United States Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the state's death penalty scheme, Texas has executed 167 persons, as compared to distant secondplace Virginia and third-place Florida, with a mere 61 and 43 persons, respectively, during the same period. Indeed, Texas's enthusiasm for the death penalty was highlighted by the recent case of Karla Faye Tucker, the first woman to be executed in the state since the Civil War-an execution that took place despite pleas of clemency from a wide spectrum of notables, including the Pope, the European Parliament, Bianca Jagger, and the Reverend Pat Robertson. No wonder Texas is acclaimed "the capital of capital punishment.'