Texas Capital Punishment

Texas Capital Punishment Student`s Name Institutional Affiliation Texas Capital Punishment In the United States, capital punishment is still a hot-button subject. Over the years, capital punishment`s viability as the punishment method has been under fire by many groups for diverse reasons. Each state in the U.S. has been given the opportunity of making its laws and regulations concerning sentence and as many such states including, Texas permit capital punishment for the most serious crimes (Streib, Kamin & Marceau, 2017). Texas`s capital punishment laws differ from those of other states in terms of application and provisions enlisted in the laws. In Texas, capital punishment is imposed on the criminal when it is determined that he or she murdered a firefighter or public safety officer who was carrying their duty. This differs slightly from other states like Alabama which imposes capital punishment to a defendant upon determining that he or she killed any police officer, federal law enforcers, state trooper, sheriff, or any other federal or state peace officer such as jail or correctional officers while on duty. Unlike in Alabama and Florida that impose capital punishment on the defendant for killing such individuals irrespective of whether they knew it or not, in Texas, the law does require this. The capital punishment law in Texas stipulates that a death penalty is spelled out to a defendant upon murdering such officers knowingly or intentionally ("Tarlton Law Library: Texas Death Penalty Law: Introduction," 2019). Also in Texas, capital punishment can be pronounced on the criminal if it is found out that the criminal killed a person during specified felonies like burglary, robbery, arson, kidnapping and aggravated rape. In contrast, in other states such as Florida, California, and Pennsylvania, the capital punishment for kidnapping and robbery requires proving of 1st degree or attempt to commit such crimes by a defendant. When it comes to rape killing during rape cases in these states, however, the prosecutor should prove the 1st or 2nd degree or the attempt to kill by a defendant. Also, capital punishment can be enforced to a criminal if he or she kills for remuneration, carries out multiple killings, kills in order to escape from prison, and murders a judge or a correctional officer. Unlike other many states in the United States, Texas imposes capital punishment on criminals who murder other inmates who are serving the life sentence or murdering of a person who is under six years of age (Carter, Kreitzberg & Howe, 2018). In Alabama, for instance, capital punishment will be announced on a criminal if the victim is less than fourteen years of age. Regarding minimum age for imposing a capital punishment to a defendant, in the state of Texas, the defendant must be 17 years and above. This is contrary to some other states that have capital punishment such as Florida which does not have the minimum age. Also, in the state of Pennsylvania, there is no minimum age for imposition of capital punishment on a defendant. In California, for the defendant to be imposed with capital punishment, he or she must be 18 years of age and above. Dissimilar to Texas, in Arkansas State, chronological age necessary does not control the determina...