Texas Death Penalty Amped Up

The recession has forced states to reconsider the death penalty. Essentially it is too expensive in a time of shrinking budgets and deficits.

Texas on the other hand, will execute twice as many in 2009 as it executed in 2008.

Obama is allegedly opposed to the death penalty except in the most extreme cases. I don't understand what that means exactly since death is as extreme as it gets.

We might suspect that it allows Obama some political coverage and "wiggle room." Yet in the upcoming years, Obama will be appointing judges who will handle such cases and in this way his choices will have a fundamental impact on the death penalty.

Star Telegram: Texas picks up the pace on executions

Since 1976, 432 executions have taken place in Texas, far more than in Virginia, which had the second-highest number of executions with 103...

States such as New Mexico are looking at whether to let the costly death-penalty system die. Some officials complain that costs are skyrocketing, making the procedure nearly out of reach. In Kansas, a lawmaker even proposed using funds set aside for executions to instead help close a budget shortfall.