October 13 – Texas Journey in 2 days!
On Saturday, October 16, at 2:00 PM, the Journey of Hope will hold an Interfaith Prayer Service at the Walls Unit in Huntsville, where more human beings are legally liquidated than in any other part of the United States.
In November 1819, George Brown, a white man accused of piracy, was the first prisoner to be executed in Texas. Between 1819 and 1923, 390 people were executed by hanging in the county where the trial took place. The law that once ordered death by hanging was changed in 1923 requiring executions to be carried out in the electric chair (“Old Sparky”- which was constructed by inmates!) at the Huntsville Unit.
Between 1924 and 1964, 361 human beings were executed by electrocution.
There were no executions between 1964 and 1982. No executions…
In 1982, executions resumed following new capital punishment laws passed by the State of Texas, among them changing the method of execution to lethal injection. Since 1982, 463 individuals have been executed by lethal injection.
In total since 1819, 1,214 human beings (all but six of whom have been men) have been executed in Texas as of 17 August 2010. This obviously does not include the victims of savage lynchings.
1,214 human beings officially liquidated since 1819. How much more blood and violence until Texas realizes that the death penalty does not solve crime?
Gilles Denizot
Journey of Hope…from Violence to Healing board member & Secretary
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