The conditions are controlled in part by key decisions:
•What types of victims are deemed so worthy that their slayers shall be executed?
•What types of persons will be deemed appropriate for execution?
•Under what conditions will the executions take place?
 Many variables determine the PACE. At the most basic level are variables that involve the dignity of the execution process. These include family visitation before the execution, the method of execution and other "gallows manners." For example, in some jurisdictions it is politically imperative to execute with the maximum display of anger and revenge i.e., using the electric chair or hanging. In other jurisdictions, the politically mandated facade of humane behavior calls for the use of lethal injection. Some jurisdictions use the most brutal methods of execution as a political palliative for society's desire for many executions. Such jurisdictions may not execute many people, but they do it in spectacular fashion. In other jurisdictions, the condemned are "put to sleep" by lethal injection. This method provides a "humane" facade for executions and may mask an unusually large number of executions.
 The political environment in a particular state is instrumental in determining the total number of executions, the spacing of the executions and their timing. Upcoming elections, the citizens' discontent with the government's efforts to control crime, and a host of other variables unrelated to the functioning of a rational criminal justice system come into play.
 In comprehending the idea, it is important to further understand the universe of applicants eligible for the PACE. The relevant factors include:
•The types of crimes for which persons are sentenced to death and the types of crimes for which persons are executed (two very distinct categories);
•The ratio between the number of people being sentenced to death and the number of people who are actually executed;
•The procedural safeguards provided by the statutes of various jurisdictions;
•The safeguards that are actually. judicially implemented in the various jurisdictions;
•The number of death-eligible persons under the laws of the various jurisdictions;
•The demographic identities of the persons charged in capital cases and those convicted and executed;
•The victim/defendant identities in cases where defendants are capitally charged, convicted and executed;
•The limiting mechanisms in the system which are used to achieve -- without exceeding -- the PACE (such as the requirement of a governor's death warrant or an attorney general's letter before an execution date is set).
 The number of variables goes on, ad infinitum. All are related to political considerations.
 The PACE, which determines more than anything the number of actual executions in a particular state, is not always controlled by statewide factors. A county may use its PACE goals to diminish the number of death eligible persons in the state's universe, however the PACE goals of one particular county cannot change the PACE for the state. In a like manner, the entire country's view of the PACE may have some diminishing impact on the actual number of executions in a particular state, however this national view cannot increase the number of executions in a state. A particular state's PACE is controlled by state political considerations.
    

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