The state of Texas carries out more executions than any other state in the USA, accounting, by the end of 1997, for 144 of the 432 executions since the resumption in 1977. The document details how procedures in Texas fail to meet minimum international standards for the protection of human rights. AI is concerned at the low standard of legal representation afforded to many of those facing the death penalty, the appeals courts unwillingness to examine the fairness and constitutionality of convictions and sentences and at the racial manner in which the death penalty is applied. The situation with regard to appeals has deteriorated with the implementation of the new federal statute, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.
