Death penalty in Texas: A geographic matter
The death penalty has not given rise to much research in the field of Geography, as it is often seen as being fundamentally an issue of law and ethics. Yet it does have a territorial dimension, especially in the United States of America, where it is still widely practised. However, far from being a politically driven phenomenon, it is characterized by a very clear spatial differentiation, observable even at the county level. This study focuses on the example of Texas, which accounts for almost half of the executions in the United States. Through an analysis of the files of 464 convicted offenders, supplemented by a more qualitative approach, the study aims to show that spatial variations in death penalty enforcement occur within a particular legal and spatial framework.