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Texas

Texas Steps Up Executions to Clear Logjam

State empties death row of 12 inmates over 6 weeks
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Oct 24, 2008 2:25 PM CDT
Texas Steps Up Executions to Clear Logjam
In line with tradition, Texas has led the nation in executions since the Supreme Court lifted a hiatus on lethal injection.   (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

A dozen condemned inmates in Texas's "death watch" cells are being executed at a scheduled rate of two a week through November. The executions relieve a logjam created when the US Supreme Court effectively halted lethal injections while deciding whether the method was unconstitutionally inhumane. It ruled the method constitutional, and executions resumed.

Despite the death chamber's revolving door in October and November, the state will fall below its average of 25 executions a year and its record 40 in 2000, when George W. Bush was governor. "Will crime stop? Will my death stop what's going on in everyday society?" said a convicted killer executed last week. "They're just killing people."
(More Texas stories.)

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