Crossword Genius

Prison in Texas first to execute crook? (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

cane

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'crook?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'prison in texas first to execute' is the wordplay.
'prison in texas' becomes 'can' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'first to' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'execute' is 'e'.
'can'+'e'='CANE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for cane that I've seen before include "Eg, bamboo; punish" , "Hollow jointed stem of, say, bamboo (4)" , "Walking stick; punish" , "e.g. Bamboo stem" , "Birch" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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