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In the United States, the people of Texas are famous for being proud of their state. Everything is always bigger and better in Texas. These days Texans have another reason to be proud, or perhaps ashamed. In the last 20 years, the state of Texas has put over 100 murderers to death, more than any other state. And recently the government of Texas (1 altered alternatives access aggression apparatus admiration administer accelerate state laws to make it easier to punish criminals by death. Specifically, the government has shortened the amount of time prisoners have to prove their innocence and reduced their (2 altered alternatives access aggression apparatus admiration administer accelerate to lawyers and legal aid. As a result of these changes, the number of death sentences in Texas is expected to (3 altered alternatives access aggression apparatus admiration administer accelerate . Of the 50 states in the US, 12 states sentence murderers to prison for life rather than kill them. In the 38 other states that (4 altered alternatives access aggression apparatus admiration administer accelerate death sentences, the most common method is the electric chair. Some of these states allow the prisoner to choose one of four (5 altered alternatives access aggression apparatus admiration administer accelerate : the electric chair, hanging, being shot, or breathing poisonous gas. In Texas there is yet another way. There the victim is tied down to a hospital bed and a hollow needle connecting to a tube and a bottle is put into the man's arm. A deadly drug passes from the bottle into the man's body while another (6 altered alternatives access aggression apparatus admiration administer accelerate records the exact moment that breathing and heartbeat stop. Corrections officer Larry Fitzgerald, who has seen more than a dozen men die, reports that the men are quiet and show no (7 altered alternatives access aggression apparatus admiration administer accelerate in their final moments. They know they are guilty and they have been expecting this punishment for a long time, he explains. Most Texans are full of (8 altered alternatives access aggression apparatus admiration administer accelerate for their prison system and feel they are fighting crime effectively. But some Americans worry that the Texans are too eager to kill. They find it strange that Texas has only 8% of the population of the US but over 30% of the punishments by death. And, worse than this, in 1986 one so-called murderer was put to death even though someone else had admitted to the crime!

----from the Globe and Mail, Nov. 18, 1995