Huntsville is a city in and the county seat of Walker County, Texas, United States. The population was 45,941 as of the 2020 census. It is the center of the Huntsville micropolitan area. Huntsville is in the East Texas Piney Woods on Interstate 45 and home to Texas State Prison, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Huntsville State Park, and HEARTS Veterans Museum of Texas.
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty throughout the country at the federal level, in 27 states, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 states have the ability to execute death sentences, with the other seven, as well as the federal government, being subject to different types of moratoriums.
Old Sparky is the nickname of the electric chairs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Old Smokey was the nickname of the electric chairs used in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. "Old Sparky" is sometimes used to refer to electric chairs in general, and not one of a specific state.
Sam Houston State University is a public research university in Huntsville, Texas. Founded in 1879, it is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and the first in Texas. The school is named for Sam Houston, who made his home in the city and is buried there.
The Louisiana State Penitentiary is a maximum-security prison farm in Louisiana operated by the Louisiana Department of Public Safety & Corrections. It is named "Angola" after the former slave plantation that occupied this territory. The plantation was named after the country of Angola from which many slaves originated before arriving in Louisiana.
An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which capital punishment is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death row population is housed. Inside the chamber is the device used to carry out the death sentence.
Charles Brooks Jr., also known as Shareef Ahmad Abdul-Rahim, was a convicted murderer who was the first person to be executed using lethal injection. He was the first prisoner executed in Texas since 1964, and the first African-American to be executed anywhere in the United States in the post-Gregg era.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18.
Texas State Penitentiary at Huntsville or Huntsville Unit (HV), nicknamed "Walls Unit", is a Texas state prison located in Huntsville, Texas, United States. The approximately 54.36-acre (22.00 ha) facility, near downtown Huntsville, is operated by the Correctional Institutions Division of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. The facility, the oldest Texas state prison, opened in 1849.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is a department of the government of the U.S. state of Texas. The TDCJ is responsible for statewide criminal justice for adult offenders, including managing offenders in state prisons, state jails, and private correctional facilities, funding and certain oversight of community supervision, and supervision of offenders released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision. The TDCJ operates the largest prison system in the United States.
Reverend Carroll L. "Bud" Pickett was a Presbyterian minister in Huntsville, Texas. In the 1960s and 1970s, Pickett served as pastor for three churches in Texas. In 1980 he began serving as a chaplain in the Huntsville, Texas, prison, where he spent most of the next 15 years working with prisoners facing imminent execution. After retiring from the Texas Department of Corrections, Pickett wrote and spoke against the death penalty. His 2002 book, Within These Walls: Memoirs of a Death House Chaplain, won several awards. The 2008 documentary At the Death House Door: No Man Should Die Alone chronicles his prison ministry.
Sammy Bearkat is the mascot of Sam Houston State University (SHSU), located in Huntsville, Texas. He is a popular attraction at many athletic events such as football, basketball, and volleyball. He also appears for various campus and community functions. Sammy's two-minute routine earned him a national championship of the mascots division at the 2005 United Spirit Association Collegiate National Championship. Sammy was also named the 2010 and 2011 National Cheerleading Association (NCA) Mascot National Champion. In the 2012 nationals season, Sammy competed with the SHSU Co-Ed Cheer Team at the National Cheerleading Association (NCA) collegiate cheer competition. Together they won first place and earned the title of NCA Division I Cheer National Collegiate Champions. In 2013 Sammy also competed with the SHSU Co-Ed Cheer Team who won their second straight national championship title for NCA. Sammy returned to the Band Shell in Daytona Beach to compete alongside the SHSU All-Girl cheer team who won the NCA All-Girl Division I National Championship Title in 2014. In 2015 Sammy was able to wrap his paws around another NCA Division I title as he competed alongside the Co-Ed Cheer Team. In 2016, Sammy competed alongside the SHSU Division I Co-Ed Cheer Team to win another 1st place NCA National Championship. Sammy was also chosen as the 2016 NCA Mascot National Champion after showcasing a great routine in Daytona Beach, Florida. Sammy has now brought home 1st place in various different flavors in 2005, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 & 2016, 2017, 2018.
The John M. Wynne Unit (WY) is a men's prison of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, located in northern Huntsville, Texas, at the intersection of Farm to Market Road 2821 West and Texas State Highway 75 North. The Windham School District has its headquarters in the unit. Wynne, the second oldest prison in Texas, was named after John Magruder Wynne, who served as a prison employee and later as a board member of the prison system from 1878 to 1881. The unit, on a 1,412 acres (571 ha) plot of land, is co-located with the Holliday Unit.
The Thomas Goree Unit (GR) is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice men's prison, located in Huntsville, Texas, 4 miles (6.4 km) south of downtown Huntsville on Texas State Highway 75 South. The Goree Unit is located within Region I. First opened in 1911, it served as the only women's correctional facility in Texas until 1982, after the women were moved to state prisons in Gatesville. For a period Goree held the state's sole female death row inmate, until her conviction was changed to a non-capital offense. There was more than one death row female at Goree in 1979.
The J. Dale Wainwright Unit is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prison for men, located in unincorporated Houston County, Texas. Formerly called the Eastham Unit or "The Ham," the prison was renamed the J. Dale Wainwright Unit after a former chairman of the Texas Board of Criminal Justice. The 12,789 acres (5,176 ha) prison is located on Farm to Market Road 230, near Lovelady and 13 miles (21 km) west of Trinity.
The Texas Prison Rodeo was a rodeo and an annual celebration event for inmates in the Texas Prison System, held in a stadium in Huntsville, Texas. The stadium was located at the Huntsville Unit. The events included bareback basketball, bronco riding, bull riding, calf roping, and wild cow milking.
The Goree All Girl String Band, popularly known as The Goree Girls, was a band of eight female prisoners of the Goree Unit which performed in the 1940s. It was one of the first all female country and western bands in the United States.
The Houstonian is a campus newspaper at Sam Houston State University (SHSU). The paper was founded in 1913. CBS News journalist Dan Rather served as editor of the newspaper before his graduation from SHSU in 1953. In 1994, the university named the headquarters of the paper the Dan Rather Communications Building. Before his 2005 retirement, CBS created the Dan Rather Scholarship Fund in honor of the journalist, with preference towards those working at The Houstonian.
The Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery is the main prison cemetery in Texas, located in Huntsville and operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). The colloquial name for the cemetery is Peckerwood Hill. The name originates from "Peckerwood", an insult towards poor white people, because many of those buried at the cemetery were poor.
Alcatraz East is a privately owned for-profit crime museum in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Opened in 2016, it was formerly operated as the National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C. The museum gives a behind-the-scenes look at crime history in America. It was created and built by attorney John Morgan and chief operating officer Janine Vaccarello.
