Many bungled executions were reported and hanging became associated with illegal lynching.
In 1923, the state of Texas got rid of hanging as a form of capital punishment and instituted the electric chair as a new form of capital punishment. The infamous Texas electric chair otherwise known affectionately as "Old Sparky", has executed many people during its 40- year reign of terror. According to www.mysa.com "Between February 1924, and July 1964, a total of 506 men and women were placed on death row in Texas; of those, 361 men died in the electric chair. Of those 361 people, 229 were black, 108 were white, 23 Mexican American. Texas executed its last inmate by electrocution on July 30, 1964".
On June 29,1972, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that capital punishment was "cruel and unusual punishment". There were 52 men in Texas with death sentences at that time. The Governor of Texas commuted all of their sentences to life, and death row was cleared by March 1973. Revisions to the Texas Penal Code in 1973 began assessing the death penalty and allowed for executions to resume again on January 1, 1974. In 1964, the Supreme Court declared that the electric chair was a cruel and unusual punishment and prohibited by the Eight Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
As a result of this Texas had to try and find another more "humane" way to execute criminals. Texas did not want to do away with its capital punishment policy; therefore on August 29, 1977 Texas adopted the new method of lethal injection as its means of execution. In doing so Texas policymakers hoped to get some public pressure of its back about its death penalty policy. That did not happen because many opponents of the death penalty feel that criminal justice policymakers, judges, and prosecutors do not have the right to decide the fate of another person's life regardless of the seriousness of the crime.
Texas in particular has been under intense scrutiny for its death penalty policy.