According to an anti-capital punishment group, death sentences issued in Texas were at historically low levels last year, part of a nationwide trend. In a recent report, the Death Penalty Information Center indicated that Texas juries issued nine death sentences in 2009, the same as in 2008, maintaining a decline seen over several years. The report cited one of the chief reasons as being the 2005 state law that created a sentence of life without parole. During the 1990s, Texas averaged 34 death sentences a year, but, according to the report, concerns about flaws in the death penalty, as well as its cost, are contributing to the decline in sentences nationwide. The Texas Defender Service and the Texas District and County Attorneys Association said there is anecdotal evidence that some prosecutors are seeking the death penalty less frequently, particularly because of the high cost of pursuing a death sentence. Defense attorneys and prosecutors agree that the life without parole option has drastically altered Texas' capital punishment system.

     Of course, what is never mentioned in these studies is that the real flaw in the death penalty is the never-ending system of appeals that convicted murderers can avail themselves of. Those appeals cost taxpayers millions of dollars annually and most often result in merely delaying the executions. As long as murderers can select from a menu of appeals attorneys and have us pay the bill for them, this outrage will continue, and opponents of the death penalty will continue to claim that it costs too much. If however, death sentences were carried out soon after the judge or jury made them, the cost would be minuscule compared to the cost of life sentences. As for innocent people being executed, there has not been a single case in which it was proven that a non-guilty person had their life taken by the state. What’s baffling is that the same people, who think the death penalty for a murderer is barbaric, think it’s perfectly acceptable to kill an innocent fetus in the womb. Anyone think we need a spiritual renaissance?