Team Assignment

Notable events in Texas

Year	Event
1972	In Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that every state death penalty law in the United States was unconstitutional, citing it was being arbitrarily assigned.
1973	Texas passed a statute to standardize the way death penalties were assessed. Juries quickly began imposing death sentences again.
1974	Death row fills up again.
1977	Texas adopts legal injection as means of execution, using a combination of three drugs: Sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride.
1982	Texas gives the first state lethal injection on December 7 to Charlie Brooks of Tarrant County for the kidnap/murder of a Fort Worth auto mechanic.
1983	Texas executes zero of its inmates on death row.
1989	The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Penry v. Lynaugh that juries must hear and consider mitigating evidence, like the defendant's history of mental problems and child abuse. Some prisoner’s death sentences were vacated as a result of the decision.
1992	The rate of executions increases. Over the next four years 62 inmates were executed -- an average of 15 per year.
1995	Texas passes a law requiring certain death row appeals to be filed at the same time in order to reduce the time prisoners spent on death row waiting for a potential appeal.
1996	Because of this, only one execution occurred in the state from March 1996 to January 1997. However, after that, there were 92 executions over the next three years.
2005	Texas restricts the death penalty, ruling that prisoners who committed their capital offenses when they were under 18 could not be executed. 29 prisoners were removed from death row. In the same year, Texas law changed so capital murderers sentenced to life in prison over the death sentence are ineligible for paroled.
2011	Instead of a three-drug cocktail, Texas switches to a single drug, pentobarbital, for lethal injections. In high doses, it causes respiratory arrest.
2017	The Supreme Court tightens its rules on capital punishment, ruling that Texas cannot use decades-old information about intellectual disability to determine if they are eligible for death row

Artist Synthesis

Amanda

For this project, Everett and I teamed up to make a line graph and timeline that showed the number of executed offenders per year and some historical context over time. For example, the Supreme Court has become more strict with their death penalty rulings throughout history. And, as we can see in the line graph, the number of executions in Texas per year has dwindled because of that. Everett worked on the linegraph, and I worked on the timeline. We decided to use the hover tool in Bokeh to show the historical events, which I think is a really cool effect because you see the number of executed offenders compared to what was happening nationally at the time. Everett decided to add hashes on the graph to mimic barbed wire, which I think is a really creative, artistic touch! This graph sort of explains why the executions were high for a particular year. For example, from 1996 to 1999, there were a total of 92 executions because Texas passed a law saying that death row appeals to be filed to reduce the time prisoners spent on death row -- meaning they wait less time before getting executed Why this graph is important This graph is important because it combines a visual representation of the number of executions over the years and a historical record of the death penalty in Texas. It provides a good overview for someone who doesn't want to dig through a CSV or go down the Texas execution rabbit hole. Where I pulled my information I pulled my information from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice website -- they literally have a page called Death Row Facts and from different article from sources like The Guardian, theTexas Execution Information Center and the Texas Tribune. I used most of these sources to find both information about Supreme Court rulings over the years, changes in Texas laws to the death penalty, changes to the drugs used in executions and changes to those who are elegible for execution. I thought the latter was the most interesting thing I learned from gathering my research. It wasn't until 2005 that they said that prisoners who committed capital offenses when they were juveniles couldn't be put on death row. Considering Texas has had the death penalty in place since at least 1923, that means countless people have been executed for crimes they committed as juveniles, which I think is really interesting. What I would change I noticed after making the graph and looking at where the Bokeh hover tool landed on the timeline that there were some gaps in my information. I should have found some more information for the year 2000 because that year was the highest year historically for executions in Texas and there is nothing historically in the interactive that explains why that was so. br/>

Everett

For this project, I graphed the data of executions per year in the state of Texas from 1972 to 2017. Wrangling the data for this project was very easy compared to datasets in the past and that is what I spent a fair amount of time on. I was able to quickly make a line graph but it just seemed, empty. So I changed it to an area graph to create a more visualizing striking appearance. At this moment I felt this representation of the data was passable but I wanted to really create a tie in the graph to the data, so after some experimenting, I found it! I was able to add points to each year and most importantly create an X for each point. This little added visual component I feel makes the line graph look more like barbed wire, thus creating that tie to the data set. I did play around with different thickness of the line and X’s but I find the current form best at creating that barbed wire look.

The next issue I had to resolve was the notable events that Amanda researched, for after implementing with the hover effect there were some years that the information was cut off. So I condensed some of the events and since plotly’s hover effect does not show up on mobile phones I decided to make a table so the notable events were easier to read and could have more substance. This table ensured all users could access the information Amanda researched, and with the addition of a mouse over effect on the table makes it easier to read.

This project was a darker subject than what I am used to, something that I probably would have normally passed up, but I am glad the group decided to go with it. What amazed me was a number of detailed records for each felon. I was surprised with the amount of work that would be involved with creating this kind of data set. I am grateful there are people out there taking the time to build such datasets for I do think these are useful. I do find it somewhat odd that the laws in place in Texas create an environment that is more lenient on execution, because of the laws that were broken, but spends the time to create such a dataset.

I think Amanda’s research was paramount to create a more vibrant graph. Without the notable events, it is hard for an average citizen to understand why there are so many significant extremes in the data. Implementing the events into and below the graph helped me actually understand the graph more. I was intrigued to see how certain laws had impacts on yearly executions. If I had more time (and experience) I think I would really enjoy creating a mouse over event that created a text box below or to the right of the graph. Creating a text box that appeared I think would have really made the graph look more streamlined and give it a more professional feel.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice