Death penalty in texas a study guide for Texas faith communities Texas Interfaith Center for Public Policy

In 2011, drug manufacturers in Europe began 
placing restrictions on the use of their products 
in executions. The dwindling supply has led to a 
sharp increase in price and states have had to find 
alternative ways to procure the drugs, sometimes 
resorting to less-regulated vendors or using expired 
products. Many states, including Texas, have been 
experimenting with new kinds of lethal injection; 
currently, Texas executes people with an injection 
of pentobarbital, a sedative that causes respiratory 
arrest. Uncertainty and botched executions have 
led people on death row and advocates to challenge 
whether using untested methods is a violation of 
the Eighth Amendment.
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Texas Interfaith Center For Public Policy
 
 
The Death Penalty in Texas
Executions in Texas were performed by hanging 
until 1923, when the state switched to the electric 
chair. In an effort to find a more humane method of 
execution, states began to move from electrocution 
to lethal injection in the 1970s and 1980s. The 
three-drug protocol that became the standard in 
the U.S. consisted of sodium thiopental, a sedative; 
pancuronium bromide, a paralytic; and potassium 
chloride, which stops the heart.
DISCUSSION: Why do you think only some kinds 
of murders are punishable by death? Do you agree 
that the kinds of crime that can result in a death 
sentence on Texas’ list are the worst? Over our 
history we have moved away from such harsh 
punishments as cutting off a thief’s hands and 
executing individuals for blasphemy. Why do you 
think the death penalty remains? What do you 
think about the issue of culpability and trying to 
reduce the sense of ultimate responsibility for the 
executioner(s)?