Is the death penalty a dying breed?
Executions nationwide and in Texas were down in 2008. So were death sentences.
The numbers don't lie – but not everyone agrees on what they say.
Defense attorneys think the statistics indicate a waning enthusiasm in the Lone Star State, the death penalty capital of the country, for the ultimate sanction.
"It has taken a little longer for the transformation to be felt here," said Rob Owen, co-director of the Capital Punishment Clinic at the University of Texas at Austin. "I think we are seeing the leading edge of that national transformation."
Prosecutors doubt that, saying the numbers simply reflect the cyclical nature of criminal justice.
