Prior to the nineteenth century, if a criminal was convicted of a crime deemed punishable by death, the execution was carried out publicly in hopes of deterring other citizens from committing crimes. Today, executions are announced to the public but not displayed. The research provided in this paper will show evidence to suggest whether capital punishment is or should be used as a method to prevent or reduce the homicide rate in the United States. Do states with the death penalty have lower murder rates? The state of Texas executed 510 people from 1982 to 2014 out of over 1,300 executions nationwide since 1977. Sixteen executions were carried out in 2013, a slight increase from the fifteen executions that occurred in 2012. Texas recorded forty-two executions. percentage of executions in the United States in 2013 and double that of any other U.S. state. At the end of 2013, there were two hundred and seventy-four people on death row in Texas. Of which nine are women. According to TCAPD research, this is the lowest death row population has been since 1989. Since 1973, twelve people in Texas have been released due to evidence of their wrongful convictions. There have also been at least three investigations into whether Texas had wrongly executed innocent inmates. New death sentences in Texas have declined by more than 75 percent since 2002. In 2010 and 2011, new death sentences reached an all-time low, when eight people were sentenced to death statewide. In 2012 and 2013, nine new death sentences were imposed. According to FBI data, states that retain the death penalty traditionally have higher murder rates than states that do not impose capital punishment. After a statistic... half the paper... children more and there is no length that I would not go there to avenge them. I would die for my children and in the same breath I would also 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 also believe in heaven and hell and I know that I would have to face the Lord and I would have to explain why I took the life of one of his children and I believe that for this they would send me to hell, but my children would be safe from any further evil in the Kingdom of Heaven. There are evil 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 brings and pray that they will make good decisions when interacting with the people who inhabit it..