How Texas' Harris County went from ‘capital of capital punishment' to zero executions


In 2017, Harris County, TX saw a year where no one was sentenced to death and no one was executed. The county, nicknamed as the capital of capital punishment, is seeing a shift in the support of the death penalty. While studies haven’t shown a definitive answer, it has been linked to new, reform-focused DAs, the introduction of life sentences without parole, and Supreme Court decisions that likely diminished the use of capital punishment.

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