Tag: Texas

Lethal Injection Was Once Considered a “Less Barbaric” Form of Execution. Now It’s Clear It’s Inhumane

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Jan, 13, Rick Halperin, director of the SMD Dallas Human Rights Program, for a piece that condemns capital punishment and the practice of lethal injection in Texas and elsewhere. Published in Texas Monthly Magazine under the heading Lethal Injection Was Once Considered a “Less Barbaric” Form of Execution: https://tinyurl.com/hphv5j27

​More than 40 ago, during the first week of December in 1982, the U.S. executed its first prisoner using lethal injection. On December 7 of that year, six years after the death penalty was revalidated by the Supreme Court, Charles Brooks Jr., who had been convicted of murder, was executed in Huntsville, here in Texas. To date, 1,380 others have been executed via lethal injection, comprising nearly 90 percent of all death row executions. In 2023, eight more Texans will be executed by injection.

Just days ago, on January 10, Robert Fratta, who was sentenced for hiring two men to kill his estranged wife, was put to death in Texas’s first execution of 2023. He was part of a lawsuit brought with three other inmates alleging that the execution drugs used in Texas are long past their expiration dates, thus forcing the condemned to suffer inhumane and painful executions. Texas courts have consistently rejected all such inmate claims, despite a history of botched and painful executions in this state, and they let Fratta’s execution proceed.

 

 

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Uzbekistan, like Texas, is kind of a whole other country

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Aug. 5, Anthony Elia, director of Bridwell Library and associate dean for Special Collections and Academic Publishing at SMU Dallas, for a commentary highlighting similarities between Texas and Uzbekistan, where he recently traveled. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Uzbekistan, like Texas, is kind of a whole other county: https://bit.ly/3SsNk4e

The first time I came to Dallas it reminded me of Beijing. It was a skyline brimming with distinct new architecture, a city full of tall buildings brightly lit at night, and a metropolis entangled with twisting overpasses and thoroughfares dense with traffic, very much like the Chinese capital. Now having lived here for several years, I have been struck by the intriguing similarities Dallas shares with another part of the world — Uzbekistan and its capital, Tashkent.

I spent most of May traveling more than 2,000 miles around the Central Asian nation, touring ancient sites, visiting unique museums, and exploring vibrant bazaars. I observed a culture that is both distinct and remarkable, and enjoyed the most delicious and fresh varieties of meats and produce I have ever tasted, everything from Texas-style cuts of beef on skewers to marble-shaped strawberries and fragrant white mulberries.

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Texas must show that the world can count on American energy in a crisis

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Oct. 29, James Coleman, professor at SMU Dallas Dedman School of Law and faculty advisory board member of the Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center along with co-author Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez, for a commentary advocating that Texas and the U.S. be reliable energy providers to customers in Mexico, Asia and Europe. Published in the Houston Chronicle under the heading Texas must show that the world can count on American energy in a crisis: https://bit.ly/2ZrXATf

Texas is at the center of a global energy crisis that is causing leaders around the world to warn of looming energy shortages. Texas relies on renewable energy backed by natural gas to fuel its growing electricity use, and is seeing both the benefits and challenges of being at the forefront of the global transition to cleaner energy sources. Texas is also at the heart of the increasingly global gas market, and countries around the world are counting on the state’s booming gas exports to back their own move to renewable energy.

Consumers in Asia, Europe and particularly Mexico need Texas’ natural gas to get them through the coming winter. Texas must demonstrate that it is a reliable source of gas in this energy crisis. If Texas and the United States hoard energy, they will not just endanger the economic future of its oil and gas industry, but also the rest of the world’s clean energy transition.

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States like Texas that value economic freedom attract a stampede of newcomers

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July 16, Dean Stansel, research associate professor at the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom at SMU Dallas and the primary author of the Fraser Institute’s annual Economic Freedom of North America report, for a column noting the out-migration losses of heavily taxed states and the in-migration gains of states such as Texas and Florida. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading States like Texas that value economic freedom attract a stampede of newcomers: https://bit.ly/36DQbAy

For years now, people and businesses have been pouring over the borders of heavily-taxed California and New York, headed for more freedom-friendly states such as Texas and Florida. The exodus has been so great that when 2020 census numbers were released, both California and New York had lost enough population to cost them a seat in Congress. In contrast, Texas gained two seats, and Florida gained one.

The pandemic slowed the typical summer moving season in 2020, but according to North American Moving Services, California and New York continued to be among the states with the biggest out-migration of residents last year, while Texas and Florida were among those with the biggest in-migration.

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Black lawyers matter: What the Texas legal community can do to eradicate racism

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June 19, Jennifer Collins, Dedman School of Law Dean (and co-author Leonard Baynes, Dean at the Universiy of Houston Law Center), for a piece recognizing that Blacks are under-represented in Texas law schools and law firms while providing solutions to increase those numbers. Published in the Houston Chronicle: https://bit.ly/2YWqvLs

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We all have been rocked by the tragic death of former Houston resident George Floyd while in police custody and witnessed street protests and calls to address persistent anti-Black racism.

As deans of leading law schools in Dallas and Houston, we join together to provide background on these historic events, to condemn all forms of discrimination, and to issue a call to action to work with the legal community to eradicate the continuing scourge of racism and other forms of discrimination.

We note that today is the Juneteenth observance to commemorate emancipation.

Some commentators have described race and racism as America’s original sin. Even though slavery, Jim Crow segregation and many acts of blatant de jure discrimination ended many years ago, we are frequently reminded of this scourge. . .

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The Texas Railroad Commission must tap the brakes on oil and gas production

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Jan. 5, James Coleman, associate professor at SMU Dallas with a specialty in energy law at Dedman School of Law in Dallas, for a piece encouraging The Texas Railroad Commission to tweak regulations to curb wasteful practices – “burning off” an over-abundance of natural gas at an alarming rate. Published in the Dallas Morning News: http://bit.ly/2N1HWov 

By James Coleman

Texas is now the center of history’s biggest oil and gas boom. This boom, like past booms, is cementing the U.S. as the world’s superpower. But as in those earlier booms, our regulators may need to slow production slightly to preserve our natural resources and the health of our oil industry.

Texas producers are now draining so much oil and natural gas that there aren’t enough purchasers to use all of the gas. Oil and gas often come from the same well. The industry sells the oil but cannot build pipelines fast enough to get all the new gas production to distant gas consumers. As a result, producers are burning off, or flaring, more and more gas — wasting this clean burning gas, which is prized by consumers and industry around the world. . .

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Mexico’s tax crackdown could harm Texans

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Oct. 21, Dean Stansel, an economist at the O’Neil Center for Global Markets and Freedom at SMU Dallas, on how Mexico’s anti-grown policies could impact Texans. Published in the Dallas Morning News:  http://bit.ly/35RFTLF

The Texas and Mexico economies are inextricably linked. As my colleagues Michael Cox and Rick Alm found, Texas and Mexico trade more with each other than with any other country or state. So, when Mexico implements anti-growth policies, Texans should be concerned.

Facing a lagging economy, Mexico’s new populist President Andrés Manuel López Obrador unveiled a ten-point plan to reactivate growth and industrial output and “generate a climate friendly to business that inspires certainty.” His administration has also reassured investors that he is committed to “respect rights to property as inherent human rights.”

That all sounds good, but the Mexican people already suffer from one of the worst legal systems and one of the weakest protections of private property rights in the world. According to the 2019 Economic Freedom of the World Report, Mexico ranks 122nd out of 162 countries for its “legal system and property rights”. . .

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