The Rope, the Chair, and the Needle: Capital Punishment in Texas, 1923–1990 is a 1993 book by James W. Marquart, Sheldon Ekland-Olson, and Jonathan R. Sorensen that examines capital punishment in Texas

Capital punishment in Texas

Capital punishment has been used in the U.S. state of Texas and its predecessor entities since 1819.As of 16 November 2011, 1,228 individuals have been executed. Only Virginia has executed more individuals overall; however, since the death penalty was re-instituted in the United States in the...

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The authors argue that the execution rate in Texas is a symptom of the "cultural tradition of exclusion" in the Southern United States

Southern United States

The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...

. They found there was an inverse relationship between the number of executions and lynching

Lynching

Lynching is an extrajudicial execution carried out by a mob, often by hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise manipulate a population of people. It is related to other means of social control that...

s. When the number of lynchings declined, the execution rate went up. Executions, they argue, are a way to continue to "dehumanize" and "exclude" certain groups from normal society.

The book was published by the University of Texas Press

University of Texas Press

The University of Texas Press is a university press that is part of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly books in several areas, including Latin American studies, Texana, anthropology, U.S...

in 1993 (ISBN 978-0-292-75213-9).