It must have been earlier than 2005. The statute was upheld against a constitutional challenge in 1995:
Take a look at the different language, though. From your first post of the current statute:
From your second post of the older version:
Note how there’s no mention of “without parole” in the older version; you could get life in prison, but you were still parole eligible after 30 years. At any rate, that’s a procedural point in cases in which no DP is sought. The range of punishment statute is in Texas Penal Code - Section 12.31. Capital Felony:
The effective date at the end is the date of the most recent revision in 2005, when the LWOP language was added.
I apologize if I haven’t kept current on Texas’ penal code (I hadn’t planned to kill anyone, so I never gave the matter much study).
For a worst state, I think a list of executions per capitais a good place to start. Based on that, Oklahoma seems to have a pretty substantial lead over second place Texas, Delaware not far behind, and Virginia in fourth. Another interesting statistic would be how many people are sentenced to death, which doesn’t directly correlate with the above data. If we compare this data, we’ll see that Oklahoma has the highest execution rate, but only actually executes about a third of the people it sentences to death; Delaware is at about a third as well. Texas, however, kills about half. Virginia kills over 70% of people given the death penalty.
So, going off the OP where he confesses to premeditated murder, I think it would be fair to say that he would be almost certainly convicted and sentenced, so we really need to look at that rate of those executed relative to those sentenced, and it looks like Virginia may be one of the best candidates for that, but I’m unwilling to go through and calculate it for every state right now.
Also, for other reasons to consider Virginia. I remember when we had the beltway sniper case. As I understand, one of the compelling reasons why he was tried in Virginia first was precisely because, at least compared to Maryland and DC, it was believed he would get convicted, sentenced to death, and it would be carried out. I also remember the Percy Levar Walton case, along with former Governor Kaine’s religious views against the death penalty and the controversy surrounding it.
So, in short, I would nominate Virginia as probably the worst place to commit a murder. We may not carry out as many executions per capita as other states, when we’re sure you deserve it, as the OP’s hypothetical case most certainly would, I think you’re more likely to get executed here than anywhere else.
As for best, I’d start with states without a death penalty, or that only does so in the most heinous of cases that the OP may not qualify for, and perhaps has the highest budget per inmate. Here’s a PDF that has a cost per inmate. Looking at that, Maine has the highest expenditure per inmate at $44k with the next closest being Massachusetts at $37k. Maine also has no death penalty. So, maybe Maine is a good candidate for best place.
So, TLDR, I’d guess Virginia is the worst and Maine is the best.
And if you ever get tired of prison, there’s always that river of shit that flows to a tropical beach.
Blaster Master! That was a fantastic post. I really enjoy your research and criteria for considering best or worst. I hadn’t thought of amount of $ spent per prisoner but that seems reasonable.
The death penalty is against the Puerto Rican constitution, but this may only apply to offenses under territorial law, so if you get busted for capping an FBI agent or something you might still be executable.
I know Texas and California are generally considered harsh death-penalty states, but I’m thinking you could do the murder just a block from the border and then walk into Mexico. Is it true that Mexico won’t extradite you if you’re in danger of receiving the death penalty? and that’s if they bother to catch you to begin with. So any state along the border?
Oops. Totally missed that. Mea culpa.
Minnesota has mandatory LWOP for Murder 1, but from a point of actually doing time it’s probably as good as any, murderers would get sent to either Stillwater or Oak Park Heights, depending on their age and whether they’re high profile or not. OPH is a Supermax but inmates get their own cell with a real window and yard time in a real yard, Stillwater is a traditional cellblock without air conditioning and some double bunking, but has more freedom and more jobs. Both are safe as far as prisons go because they keep on top of things at OPH and Stillwater is more older prisoners that tend to be well behaved.
Oklahoma would be one of the worst, H-unit has been called inhumane by Amnesty International, inmates always share a tiny, underground cell that has no natural light even in the day, rec time is another concrete cell that has a little open skylight on top.
If you limit it to death row, some obvious choice would be:
Kansas and New Hampshire, which haven’t executed anyone in modern times, or several other states that have only executed volunteers.
California, where well behaved inmates can live in North Block, the original death row that is now an honor dorm where they get yard time and live away from chaos of the of general death row on East Block, a decaying, noisy hellhole, or locked away in admin segregation. And the likelyhood of being executed is almost nil.
Missouri, where “death row” has been integrated into general population and inmates get the same privilages other inmates do, such as working in a job.
Undesireable: I mentioned Oklahoma; Texas is another state with a high execution rate and tightly controlled living conditions for inmates. But it it is your time, you get a 45 minute ride through the free world, a nice soft pillow on the gurney, and walls painted a calming blue.
Make that “execrable.” 
AFAIK, the federal constitution prevails over the territorial/commonwealth/state constitution in regards to federal offenses.
I’m not sure how common this is, but here in Montana we don’t have any of that 1st, 2nd, etc business with our homicide statute. There’s only “deliberate homicide” and then various flavors of manslaughter. That may be relevant to the OP because in the case of this clearly premeditated murder, in most states you’d be definitely looking at murder 1 with probably hefty minimum sentancing, wheras in Montana or anywhere else that doesn’t do degrees you’d be in with the various crimes of passion.
Another intangible to consider: I don’t know the AC situation in other states, but in Texas only 21 of 111 prisons have any air conditioning, mostly the medical and psych units, and even among those that do I don’t think any offender housing has any AC. A lawsuit filed in 2008 alleged that in one unit the temperature was 127 degrees for a 10 day period. So, gets pretty hot here.
do it at 4 points.
E
This doesn’t match the Death Row that I saw when I toured the prison at McAlester in the mid-90s.
I think Amnesty likes to paint things as being more medieval/bananarepublicdeathsquadish that they really are.
ETA: Except for the sunlight thing. Meh. I think the sunlight thing is a bit more poetic Utopian than humanitarian.
In his non-fiction The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (2006), John Grisham paints a horrific picture of Oklahoma’s Death Row.