.
Since 1976 Texas has accounted for 269 of the 778 executions nationwide, and it has over three times as many executions as the nation's second leading state, Virginia, with 85 (Halperin Texas 1). Clearly Texas' sizeable population of nearly 20 million people contributes to its high number of delinquents, but it still has a disproportionate number of executions. For example, between 1924 and 1972 the United States witnessed 455 executions in the United States for rape and 99 occurred in Texas alone (Marquart 39). Texas accounted for 22 percent of rape-related executions in the United States but only consisted of 7.3 percent of the nation's total population (Texas 4). Therefore, Texas executes a proportionately higher percentage of offenders compared to its population.
Because Texas is rooted deep in southern tradition and adheres to a strict crime prevention mentality that originates from its frontier past, its attitude has developed the strong opinions and tough legislation that comprise much of Texas. James Marquart, a leading criminal justice professor at Sam Houston State University and co-author of The Rope, the Chair, and Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990, has done extensive research into the history of capital punishment in Texas and contends that injustice did not stop with the cessation of local executions: "Illegal lynchings gave way to state-sanctioned executions The legacy of an overrepresentation of blacks among the executed population would continue for several decades."" (Marquart 16). In other words, Marquart believes that Texas has a cultural tendency to alienate those who do not adhere to social norms, and capital punishment is the modern method to appease those inclinations. This frontier mentality of the state has thus made the death process as efficient as possible and the results speak for themselves. Death penalty statutes are currently established in 38 states throughout the nation (Foster 18a), but nowhere are they more widely utilized than in Texas.
