The reasons for Texas' lead in executions are somewhat complex but can be narrowed to three main reasons: a statewide frontier mentality, pro-death penalty legislation, and poor legal representation.
A strict attitude of discipline resonates throughout Texas and originates from its days of southern confederacy and plantation slavery. Marquart believes the South has a vastly different perspective than its Northern neighbors, "It's a frontier mentality that is at the core of it,"" and adds that there exists a "fundamental line between right and wrong, between good and evil- (Rowen 6). The demographics of Texas largely account for this strong support of the death penalty because Texas is primarily comprised of republicans, Protestants, and Anglos. Republicans support the death penalty over democrats, 85% to 74%, Protestants support it over Catholics, and whites support it over Hispanics and blacks, 87% to 65% and 54% respectively (Fair 1992 A News). This obvious disparity in opinion can be attributed to different cultural backgrounds and the varying experiences most notably of African Americans, but the statistics clearly embody Texas' mainstream demographics and attitude in favor of capital punishment. In addition, Texas is located in the "Southern death belt- which has the nation's highest rate of violence and also 90 percent of all executions since 1976 (Marquart x).
A main reason why Texas executes so many is because it is a statistically violent state that maintains one of the highest crime rates in the United States (Reuters 1). Fifty percent of Texans own a gun and one out of ten incarcerated persons in the United States resides in a Texas jail cell (Shlachter 1). In 1994 "Texas locked up 636 offenders for every 100,000 Texas residents, the highest incarceration rate in the United States and any other Western democracy. The U.S. average that year was 387 per 100,000 population- (Reuters 1).
