Capital Punishment
What is it about?
Paul L. Christensen
11/30/2011
2
Capital Punishment
In this paper, I will explain what capital punishment is and how it came to be through Cases that
have been filed through the Supreme Court. I will explain how the struggles whether or not the practice
of execution in correlation with the death penalty is morally and socially accepted in society. I will
explain how capital punishment was carried out back in the 1800’s and how we perform our executions
to this day. I will explain the different type of methods that were used such as hanging and
electrocutions. Today we use more humane practices, although we still use the electric chair. Today we
use lethal gas, hanging, firing squad, electrocution. Showed how cases of throughout our days have
been fought against in an attempt to stand up for our rights. How Weems v. United States finally
came to a decision on the death penalty. I will explain on how the case Furman v. Georgia of 1972
ultimately set the standards for how death sentences will be carried to still be in accordance with the
eighth amendment.
3
Capital Punishment
Capital Punishment is another term used for the act of usage of the death penalty to
punish wrongdoers for certain crimes. Abraham Lincoln once said, “You do not know how hard
it is to let a human being die when you feel that a stroke of your pen will save him.” (Criminal
Justice2011, Gaines and Miller pg 407) What Abraham Lincoln was saying, is that signing off
someone to their death is no greater hardship and controversy in play with the morals and
values as a society.
Capital Punishment to this day still plays a role in the struggle if the death penalty is
right with the morals and values of society. Today, we run into the same controversy moral
issues that we did back when Abraham Lincoln was in office in 1865. Is it humane? Is it fair? Is it
causing people to stop performing the crime? In today’s society capital punishment is far more
humane than when capital punishment was first established. Today, thirty-five states out of the
United States still perform Capital Punishment, including multiple forms of execution.
When executions were first being carried out, hanging or “long drop” was the most
common and humane way to carry out the execution. The long drop consisted of subject was
hung from a great height and dropped with rope wrapped around the neck to ensure the neck
breaking rather than being strangled. This was highly more humane to England’s practices of
execution which involved quartering and boiling the subjects alive. However, the 1890’s
performed the use of the electric chair which suggested that electrocution was a less painful
method than being hung. Execution practices that are still in use today include; electrocution,
lethal gas, hanging and the firing squad. However, the most widely known form of execution
4
Capital Punishment
and is still in use by thirty-five states of the United States, is the “chair”. The chair was the
primary form of execution until 1977, when Oklahoma adopted lethal injections.
However, before we get into more detail about how capital punishment is being
conveyed in our society today, let us talk about how capital punishment was used in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The 1600’s capital punishment was used for not only the
crime of murder that the subject committed, but also for witchcraft, blasphemy against the
church, sodomy and adultery. Yet in the 1700’s the reasons behind executions became a little
more practical, which consisted of robbery, forgery, and illegally cutting down trees. Like
previously stated, these crimes would be carried out by execution in the form of hanging,
beheading and firing squads. These executions were performed in the town squares or highly
public areas in order to scare people. These public forms of executions were in an attempt to
deter people from committing these crimes themselves. You may think of it as way of
psychological attempt to keep people in line, which they showed you exactly what would
happen to you if you performed these crimes, as consequences. Basically, this public act of
execution was in an attempt to deter people away from acting upon these crimes.
However, even though studies had proved that the more humane way to execute a
person that was on death row was to be electrocuted instead being hanged, there were people
who still disputed against this notion. One man in particular claimed a dispute against the court
stating that this was against his eight amendments. In 1890, a man named William Kemmler
challenged his death sentence in New York, on the grounds that the execution was in direct
violation of his eight amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment.
5
Capital Punishment
This case against the court involving William Kemmler showed extreme historical
significance because William wasn’t trying to fight that fact that he was being sentenced to
death, rather he was fighting in the manner in which his death was being carried out. (Criminal
Justice2011, Gaines and Miller pg 410) Now William Kemmler has not been the only person to go
against the court in fighting the terms of the subject’s death sentence in regards to whether it is
cruel and unusual punishment.
In the case Weems v. United States 1910, the court had finally made a ruling on the
debates of death sentence being cruel and unusual punishment (Criminal Justice2011, Gaines and
Miller pg 410). Weems had been sentence to fifteen years of hard labor, a hefty fine, and
multiple minor crimes of falsifying records. The court had found that this ruling to be too harsh
for the nature of the crimes he had committed. As a counter offer to his punishment the court
ruled three important precedents concerning sentencing: 1. Cruel and Unusual punishment is
defined by the normative of society which is constantly changing and therefore is not based on
historical interpretations. 2. Courts may decide if the punishment is unnecessarily cruel if it
involves physical pain. 3. Courts may decide if the punishment is unnecessarily cruel if it
involves psychological pain.
As shown in these past cases in the courts these men were not disputing the fact they were
receiving the capital punishment rather the fact of how the execution was being carried how. However,
in 1967 and 1971 with, the court had decided to hear three separate cases that were challenging the
death penalty. Except that these cases were not disputing on how the execution was carried out, rather
these cases were disputing the capital punishment itself. They had argued that the punishment was
imposed with no recognizable standard under which it imposed or could not be imposed.
6
Capital Punishment
One significant case in history that finally put an end to the debate of whether or not that
capital punishment was in violation of the eighth amendments was the Furman v. Georgia of 1972.
(Criminal Justice2011, Gaines and Miller pg 410) By a margin of 5-4, the Court essentially agreed that
the death penalty was in fact a violation of the eighth amendment. However, in its decision the Court
did not rule that the death penalty was inherently violating the eighth amendment protection against
cruel and unusual punishment. This only came to pass because Justice Potter Stewart said, “sentence of
death was so arbitrary as to be comparable to being struck by lightning.
By 1976, the thirty- five states have done just that in order to comply with the Furman v.
Georgia of 1972. Each state was making an attempt to make the death penalty mandatory for certain
offenses or adopting particular procedures to ensure a form of standard of due process during a
sentencing. Like in most cases there were problems with compliance of the Furman v. Georgia of 1972
rulings. The ten states that attempted to be in compliance with the Furman v. Georgia of 1972 were
found that their statues invalidated a second time in 1976. The remaining twenty-five states adopted
another means to satisfy the questions raised in Furman v. Georgia of 1972 by establishing a two stage
procedure for capital punishment cases. First stage, a jury determines the guilt or innocence of the
defendant of the crime. If the defendant is found guilty the jury reconvenes in the second stage and
considers all factors to decide whether the death sentence is justified in the case.
In this paper, I have explained what capital punishment is and how it came to be through Cases
that have been filed through the Supreme Court. Explained how capital punishment was carried out
back in the 1800’s and how we perform our executions to this day. Showed how cases throughout our
days have been fought against in an attempt to stand up for our rights. In conclusion, I argue that all
states should adhere and perform the act of Capital Punishment.
7
Capital Punishment
Cases
Furman v. Georgia of 1972 -Criminal Justice2011, Gaines and Miller pg 410 ............................................. 6
Weems v. United States 1910-Criminal Justice2011, Gaines and Miller pg 410 .......................................... 5
Other Authorities
Abraham Lincoln- Criminal Justice2011, Gaines and Miller pg 407 ............................................................. 3
William Kemmler-Criminal Justice2011, Gaines and Miller pg 410 ......................................................... 4, 5