Hey, I wouldn't say we (the whole US) are a right-wing society! (says the girl from NY)
. Each state, such as TX and NY have their own reputations for being more conservative or not. I am very liberal and have lived in 2 liberal states, CT & NY. Yes, Texas has a bad reputation, or I should say, has a reputation for being very FOR the death penalty. Also Bush was from there which really doesn't help. Not that that matters.
During elections one can see it mapped out that when you look within each state, on the county level, you see that in the more populated places, it generally goes democrat, and in the less populated areas, it goes republican. Population and education seem to be higher in more liberal areas. So you can look at NY and think the whole state went for Obama, but really it was that he got more votes within the state, even if they were all concentrated around the 5 major cities.
I'm pretty sure that the death penalty is technically legal in NY, but we just don't use it/don't execute people.
I think the death penalty is used as revenge, which is wrong. And that life imprisonment is good enough to keep serial killers, etc. separate from the rest of society. It's just not necessary to kill them.