It costs $62 a day to keep a prisoner on Texas Death Row. It costs $86 to execute him, according to information provided by the Texas Department of Crim­inal Justice.

There are several crimes in Tex­as that carry death as a possible sentence. James Lee Clark Jr.’s was predicated on the crime of murder in the commission of robbery, sexual assault, burglary, kidnapping, arson or retaliation.

The death sentence also is an option for murder for remuneration, murder of a public safety officer or firefighter, murder during a prison escape, murder of a correctional employee, murder by a state prison inmate who is serving a life sentence, multiple murders, and murder of a child younger than 6.

Until 1923, Texas prisoners to be executed were hung by the neck in a public place in the county in which the crime was committed. In 1923, Texas ordered all executions to be carried out by the state in Huntsville, and the electric chair became the method of death. “Old Sparky,” Texas’ electric chair, was made by an inmate whose death sentence had been commuted to life.

On Feb. 8, 1924, the state carried out its first executions by electrocution. In all, five prisoners spent their last moments on earth sitting in Old Sparky that day.

Old Sparky dispatched 361 death-sentence prisoners before being retired to a place of honor in the Texas Prison Museum.

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that execution was cruel and unusual punishment and therefore in violation of the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Texas had 45 men on Death Row at that time, and there were seven more waiting for execution in county jails. The governor of Texas commuted all the death sentences to life in prison, and the cells of Death Row were emptied. Soon, however, prison overcrowding claimed the cells for regular inmates.

In 1973, the Supreme Court reversed itself in another landmark appeals decision. The death penalty did not violate the Eighth Amendment after all, it ruled. The states were leery and began looking for a more humane way to carry out death sentences than the electric chair, the hangman’s noose or the gas chamber. Lethal injection was one of those ways. And in 1977, Texas adopted lethal injection as the method to be used for executions.

Few people know when the exact moment of their death is coming. Those who are executed count down the days, hours and minutes with only the hope of a last-minute call from the governor, which almost never comes, between them and death. Texas used to carry out executions at midnight. Now, the sentence is carried out at 6 p.m. Usually, several anti-death-penalty protesters stand outside with lighted candles.

In the last minutes before execution time, a member of the clergy or spiritual person of the inmate’s choice waits with him in his cell. When the time comes, the inmate makes the final walk to a room where he is restrained on a gurney and intravenous tubes are inserted into each arm. The tubes are threaded through an opening in the wall that leads to another room where prison personnel wait. Saline solution begins flowing through both tubes. Once the tubes are in place, the curtain is drawn back from the viewing window. Witnesses on the other side then can watch the inmate die. Witnesses usually include relatives of the victims, the prison warden, relatives of the person to be executed and the media. The inmate is given a chance to make a statement.

In Texas, two paramedics go through parallel procedures. Each releases three different substances through the tubes. One tube goes to a canister hidden from sight. The other tube leads to the IVs. No one knows which of the two paramedics actually administers the lethal drugs.

First, sodium thiopental flows through the tubes. It is a sedative that some say, in the dosage given, probably is a deadly dose by itself. It puts the inmate into a deep sleep. This drug is a barbiturate that can do its work in the brain within 30 seconds. Most people believe that after this anesthetic is delivered, the inmate doesn’t feel anything.

Next, after more saline solution, pancuronium bromide is administered. It is a muscle relaxant that stops breathing by paralyzing the diaphragm and lungs. Finally, potassium chloride is administered to stop the heartbeat. It causes cardiac arrest. The prisoner usually is pronounced dead about seven minutes after the lethal injection begins.

Opponents of the death penalty say it is inhumane to put people to death this way. Victims’ families have countered that it is far more humane than the way their loved ones died.

DONNA FIELDER can be reached at 940-566-6885. Her e-mail address is dfielder@dentonrc.com .