The Rope, The Chair, and the Needle

The Rope, The Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923-1990

The Rope, The Chair, and the Needle was written by James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, and Jonathan R. Sorensen. The 295 page book was published by University of Texas Press in 1998 (originally in 1994) with an ISBN 10 of 029275213x. Most books are now available in ebook, pdf and audible formats. If you need more information about this publication, it can be purchased at Amazon.com or Google Books. If the book is older and/or out of print book try to locate a copy on eBay.com. The Rope, The Chair, and the Needle mentions 1 serial killers including Kenneth McDuff. The author James W. Marquart has 1 book(s) listed on Killer.Cloud used for the purpose of documenting facts about Serial Killers listed in our database.

Book Summary

In late summer 1923, legal hangings in Texas came to an end, and the electric chair replaced the gallows. Of 520 convicted capital offenders sentenced to die between 1923 and 1972, 361 were actually executed, thus maintaining Texas’ traditional reputation as a staunch supporter of capital punishment. This book is the single most comprehensive examination to date of capital punishment in any one state, drawing on data for legal executions from 1819 to 1990. The authors show persuasively how slavery and the racially biased practice of lynching in Texas led to the institutionalization and public approval of executions skewed according to race, class, and gender, and they also track long-term changes in public opinion up to the present. The sto...