Prior to the 19th century, if a criminal was convicted of an offense deemed punishable by death, the execution was carried out publicly in hopes of deterring other citizens to commit crimes. Today, executions are announced to the public but are not seen. The research presented in this paper will provide evidence to suggest whether capital punishment is or should be used as a method of preventing or reducing homicide rates in the United States. Do states with the death penalty have lower homicide rates? The state of Texas executed 510 people between 1982 and 2014, out of more than 1,300 executions nationwide since 1977. In 2013, sixteen executions took place, which is a slight increase from the fifteen executions that took place. took place in 2012. Texas had forty-two. percent of executions in the United States in 2013 and twice as many as in any other state in the United States. At the end of 2013, two hundred and seventy-four people were on death row in Texas. Including nine women. This is the lowest number of people sentenced to death since 1989, according to a TCAPD study. Since 1973, twelve individuals in Texas have been released based on evidence of their wrongful convictions. There have also been at least three investigations into whether Texas wrongly executed innocent inmates. In Texas, new death sentences have decreased by more than 75 percent since 2002. In 2010 and 2011, the number of new death sentences reached a historic low, when eight people were sentenced to death statewide . In 2012 and 2013, nine new death sentences were handed down. According to FBI data, states that retain the death penalty traditionally have higher murder rates than states that do not impose the death penalty. After a statement... in the middle of paper...... there are more children and there is no length that I would not go to avenge them. I would die for my children and, in the same breath, I would take the life of anyone who dared to take it from them. I eat, sleep and breathe my children. There is no other title in my life that I hold higher than that of being their mother. I believe in heaven and hell too and I know that I would have to face the Lord and that I would have to explain why I took the life of one of his children and I believe that I would be sent to hell for that, but my children would be safe from any further harm in the kingdom of heaven. There are bad people in this world and there is nothing I can do to make them good. For now, all I can do is teach my children about the dangers this world holds and pray that they make good decisions when interacting with the people in it...