Texas and the death penalty...

Sometimes you have to ignore the main point of an article to see the whole story. Today's New York Times had a piece about how more than 60% of all death penalty executions took place in Texas. On the surface that is highly disturbing. Texas has averaged 37% of the total number of executions over the last 30 years. To go from that to more than 60% is not good. But ignored in the article is the drop in the number of executions across the country. I used to be a firm believer in the death penalty. I still think that some crimes deserve the death penalty. But I realize that in our justice system not everyone is treated the same. And that it is possible and highly likely that innocent people have and will be put to death for crimes they did not commit. That is unacceptable. Add that to the fact that minorities and the poor are given the death sentence in more instances than other defendants has caused me to rethink my opinions. So I applaud the decline in the number of executions this past year and also the number of defendants given the death penalty. The one thing this article may do is highlight the discrepancies of how the death penalty is handed out. At least I hope that is what will happen...