s since 1976 (Bureau of Statistics 409). The nine southern states that constitute the so-called death belt, however, have accounted for approximately 80 percent of the legal executions since 1976, with more of these executions occurring in Texas than in any other state. Thus, the argument that capital punishment laws are not efficient economically is highly dependent upon the major jurisdictional level involved in the analysis (Hoffman 535).
Strong arguments also are made both for and against capital punishment on
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