Please do not write on the articles
Background and context
Capital punishment is the execution of a person by the state as
punishment for a crime. The word "capital" comes from the Latin word
"capitalis", which means "regarding the head". At one point and time capital
crimes where punished by severing the head. Crimes that can result in the
death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offenses. Capital
punishment has been used in societies throughout history as a way to punish
crime and suppress political dissent. In most places that practice capital
punishment today, the death penalty is reserved as punishment for
premeditated murder, espionage, treason, or as part of military justice. In
some countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery and sodomy, carry the
death penalty, as do religious crimes such as apostasy (the formal
renunciation of the State religion). In many retentionist countries (countries
that use the death penalty), drug trafficking is also a capital offense. In
China human trafficking and serious cases of corruption are also punished by
the death penalty.
In the past, capital punishment has been practiced in almost every society.
Currently, only 58 nations actively practice it, with 95 countries abolishing it.
Many countries have abandoned capital punishment, including almost all
European and many Pacific Area states (including Australia, New Zealand
and Timor Leste), and Canada. In Latin America, most states have
completely abolished the use of capital punishment, while some countries,
such as Brazil, allow for capital punishment only in exceptional situations,
such as treason committed during wartime. The United States (the federal
government and 36 of its states), Guatemala, most of the Caribbean and the
majority of democracies in Asia (e.g. Japan and India) and Africa (e.g.
Botswana and Zambia) retain it. South Africa, which is probably the most
developed African nation, and which has been a democracy since 1994, does
not have the death penalty. This fact is currently quite controversial in that
country, due to the high levels of violent crime, including murder and rape.
The latest countries to abolish the death penalty de facto for all crimes were
Gabon, which announced on September 14, 2007 that they would no longer
apply capital punishment and South Korea in practice on December 31, 2007
after ten years of disuse. The latest to abolish executions de jure was
Please do not write on the articles
Uzbekistan on January 1, 2008.
Around the world, the capital punishment debate revolves around a number
of questions, which are important to layout as a way of summarizing the
moral trade-offs of the debate. They include, is capital punishment intended
primarily as a punishment? Is it a just and proportional punishment for
certain crimes, like murder? Do murderers and some other criminals commit
crimes so horrific that they forfeit the right to life? Should innocent life be
valued over a murderers life, and does capital punishment demonstrate this?
Is life imprisonment without parole a sufficient punishment? Is the idea of
proportional justice a slippery slope to abusive forms of punishment? Does
capital punishment jeopardize our sense of the "dignity of life"? Or, is it
important to demonstrate compassion even to murderers by sparing them
their lives? Is the purpose of our prison system retribution or rehabilitation?
Is the execution of innocent convicts a serious problem. Is it OK that
wrongful executions can't be corrected? Does this deprive due process, by
foreclosing the option of appeal to those that have been executed? Does it
generally contravene a right to due process, even for those that are guilty?
Is the death penalty a necessary means of demonstrating the horror felt by
a family and a society at a crime? Or, should we draw a line before capital
punishment? If a family or a public desires capital punishment to see "justice
done", is it important for the law to grant these wishes? Does capital
punishment give solace, closure, and comfort to families and society
generally?
Is the death penalty a legitimate means of protecting society? Is it important
to kill a murderer so that they have a 0% chance of killing again? Or, can we
trust that prisons should be able to hold these prisoners with 100%
effectiveness so as to prevent further murders? Does capital punishment
have a deterrent effect, dissuading criminals from committing future crimes?
How disputed is this notion? If it remains highly disputed, can policy be
based on it? Even if there is a deterrent effect, should this be considered?
Or, would this be an instance of the ends (deterrence) justifying the means
(capital punishment)?
Is it a major concern that innocent people may be wrongly convicted of a
crime and sentenced to death? Does this happen infrequently? Is it
Please do not write on the articles
statistically insignificant, or does it only have to happen once for it to put the
whole idea of capital punishment on hold? Does capital punishment violate
the notion of due process by killing those that might make future appeals?
Are capital punishment convictions given in a discriminatory manner? If so,
is this a problem with capital punishment or the judicial system? Is it
possible to apply capital punishment consistently, or is it susceptible to
arbitrary application?
What are the economics of capital punishment? Is capital punishment more
expensive than life imprisonment? Should the economics be considered?
These are the moral questions that must be asked by an individual
considering this debate, and attempting to fully weigh its pro and con
arguments.
The death penalty prevents future murders.
Society has always used punishment to discourage would-be criminals from unlawful action. Since
society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to
deter murder, and that is the death penalty. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential
murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life.
For years, criminologists analyzed murder rates to see if they fluctuated with the likelihood of convicted
murderers being executed, but the results were inconclusive. Then in 1973 Isaac Ehrlich employed a new
kind of analysis which produced results showing that for every inmate who was executed, 7 lives were
spared because others were deterred from committing murder. Similar results have been produced by
disciples of Ehrlich in follow-up studies.
Moreover, even if some studies regarding deterrence are inconclusive, that is only because the death
penalty is rarely used and takes years before an execution is actually carried out. Punishments which are
swift and sure are the best deterrent. The fact that some states or countries which do not use the death
penalty have lower murder rates than jurisdictions which do is not evidence of the failure of deterrence.
States with high murder rates would have even higher rates if they did not use the death penalty.
Ernest van den Haag, a Professor of Jurisprudence at Fordham University who has studied the question
of deterrence closely, wrote: "Even though statistical demonstrations are not conclusive, and perhaps
cannot be, capital punishment is likely to deter more than other punishments because people fear death
more than anything else. They fear most death deliberately inflicted by law and scheduled by the courts.
Whatever people fear most is likely to deter most. Hence, the threat of the death penalty may deter some
murderers who otherwise might not have been deterred. And surely the death penalty is the only penalty
that could deter prisoners already serving a life sentence and tempted to kill a guard, or offenders about
to be arrested and facing a life sentence. Perhaps they will not be deterred. But they would certainly not
be deterred by anything else. We owe all the protection we can give to law enforcers exposed to special
risks."
Finally, the death penalty certainly "deters" the murderer who is executed. Strictly speaking, this is a form
of incapacitation, similar to the way a robber put in prison is prevented from robbing on the streets.
Please do not write on the articles
Vicious murderers must be killed to prevent them from murdering again, either in prison, or in society if
they should get out. Both as a deterrent and as a form of permanent incapacitation, the death penalty
helps to prevent future crime.
The death penalty is not a proven deterrent to future murders.
Those who believe that deterrence justifies the execution of certain offenders bear the burden of proving
that the death penalty is a deterrent. The overwhelming conclusion from years of deterrence studies is
that the death penalty is, at best, no more of a deterrent than a sentence of life in prison. The Ehrlich
studies have been widely discredited. In fact, some criminologists, such as William Bowers of
Northeastern University, maintain that the death penalty has the opposite effect: that is, society is
brutalized by the use of the death penalty, and this increases the likelihood of more murder. Even most
supporters of the death penalty now place little or no weight on deterrence as a serious justification for its
continued use.
States in the United States that do not employ the death penalty generally have lower murder rates than
states that do. The same is true when the U.S. is compared to countries similar to it. The U.S., with the
death penalty, has a higher murder rate than the countries of Europe or Canada, which do not use the
death penalty.
The death penalty is not a deterrent because most people who commit murders either do not expect to be
caught or do not carefully weigh the differences between a possible execution and life in prison before
they act. Frequently, murders are committed in moments of passion or anger, or by criminals who are
substance abusers and acted impulsively. As someone who presided over many of Texas's executions,
former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox has remarked, "It is my own experience that those executed in
Texas were not deterred by the existence of the death penalty law. I think in most cases you'll find that
the murder was committed under severe drug and alcohol abuse."
There is no conclusive proof that the death penalty acts as a better deterrent than the threat of life
imprisonment. A survey of the former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological
societies found that 84% of these experts rejected the notion that research had demonstrated any
deterrent effect from the death penalty .
Once in prison, those serving life sentences often settle into a routine and are less of a threat to commit
violence than other prisoners. Moreover, most states now have a sentence of life without parole.
Prisoners who are given this sentence will never be released. Thus, the safety of society can be assured
without using the death penalty.
Just society requires the death penalty for the taking of a life.
When someone takes a life, the balance of justice is disturbed. Unless that balance is restored, society succumbs to a
rule of violence. Only the taking of the murderer's life restores the balance and allows society to show convincingly
that murder is an intolerable crime which will be punished in kind.
Retribution has its basis in religious values, which have historically maintained that it is proper to take an "eye for
an eye" and a life for a life.
Although the victim and the victim's family cannot be restored to the status which preceded the murder, at least an
execution brings closure to the murderer's crime (and closure to the ordeal for the victim's family) and ensures that
the murderer will create no more victims.
Please do not write on the articles
For the most cruel and heinous crimes, the ones for which the death penalty is applied, offenders deserve the worst
punishment under our system of law, and that is the death penalty. Any lesser punishment would undermine the
value society places on protecting lives.
Robert Macy, District Attorney of Oklahoma City, described his concept of the need for retribution in one case: "In
1991, a young mother was rendered helpless and made to watch as her baby was executed. The mother was then
mutilated and killed. The killer should not lie in some prison with three meals a day, clean sheets, cable TV, family
visits and endless appeals. For justice to prevail, some killers just need to die."
Testimony in Opposition to the Death Penalty
National Council of Synagogues and the Bishops' Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious
Affairs of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops
Excerpts from “To End the Death Penalty: A Report of the National Jewish/Catholic Consultation”
(December, 1999)
“Some would argue that the death penalty is needed as a means of retributive justice, to balance out
the crime with the punishment. This reflects a natural concern of society, and especially of victims and
their families. Yet we believe that we are called to seek a higher road even while punishing the guilty,
for example through long and in some cases life-long incarceration, so that the healing of all can
ultimately take place.
Some would argue that the death penalty will teach society at large the seriousness of crime. Yet we
say that teaching people to respond to violence with violence will, again, only breed more violence.
The strongest argument of all [in favor of the death penalty] is the deep pain and grief of the families of
victims, and their quite natural desire to see punishment meted out to those who have plunged them
into such agony. Yet it is the clear teaching of our traditions that this pain and suffering cannot be
healed simply through the retribution of capital punishment or by vengeance. It is a difficult and long
process of healing which comes about through personal growth and God's grace. We agree that much
more must be done by the religious community and by society at large to solace and care for the
grieving families of the victims of violent crime.
Recent statements of the Reform and Conservative movements in Judaism, and of the U.S. Catholic
Conference sum up well the increasingly strong convictions shared by Jews and Catholics...:
'Respect for all human life and opposition to the violence in our society are at the root of our longstanding opposition (as bishops) to the death penalty. We see the death penalty as perpetuating a
cycle of violence and promoting a sense of vengeance in our culture. As we said in Confronting the
Culture of Violence: 'We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing.' We oppose capital punishment
not just for what it does to those guilty of horrible crimes, but for what it does to all of us as a society.
Increasing reliance on the death penalty diminishes all of us and is a sign of growing disrespect for
human life. We cannot overcome crime by simply executing criminals, nor can we restore the lives of
the innocent by ending the lives of those convicted of their murders. The death penalty offers the tragic
illusion that we can defend life by taking life.'1
We affirm that we came to these conclusions because of our shared understanding of the sanctity of
human life. We have committed ourselves to work together, and each within our own communities,
toward ending the death penalty.”
Endnote
1. Statement of the Administrative Committee of the United States Catholic Conference, March 24,
1999.
Please do not write on the articles
Historical Timeline
History of the Death Penalty
1700 BC - 1799
1800-1945
1980-1999
2000-Present
1946-1979
1770 BC - 1799
Date/Event/Sport
1700s BC
Code of
Hammurabi
Codifies the
Death Penalty
for the First
Time
Description
"The Code of Hammurabi (39 KB) , a legal
document from ancient Babylonia (in modern-day
Iraq), contained the first known death penalty laws.
Under the code, written in the 1700s B.C., twentyfive crimes were punishable by death. These
crimes included adultery (cheating on a wife or
husband) and helping slaves escape. Murder was
not one of the twenty-five crimes."
JoAnn Bren Guernsey
Death Penalty: Fair Solution or Moral
Failure?, 2009
Code of Hammurabi (c.
1760 BC).
Source: www.louvre.fr
(accessed Apr. 15,
2010)
1608
"In fourteenth-century England, one could be executed for a crime as
minor as disturbing the peace. And three centuries later, when the first
First Recorded colonists came to the land now known as the United States, they brought
Execution in the the British penal system across the ocean with them. A colonist in Virginia
British American could be executed for crimes as trivial as stealing grapes, killing chickens,
or trading with the Indians.
Colonies Was for
Treason
But the first documented execution in the new colonies was for a far more
serious offense. In the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608, Captain
George Kendall was hanged for the capital offense of treason. Among
other serious capital crimes in colonial times were murder, rape, heresy and witchcraft."
Ron Fridell, MA
Capital Punishment, 2003
Please do not write on the articles
1682
Pennsylvania
Limits Crimes
Punishable by
Death to Treason
and Murder
Frame of the Government of
Pennsylvania, 1682. Source:
www.loc.gov (accessed Jan. 6,
2010)
Pennsylvania founder William Penn convened
his first General Assembly at Chester, PA, on
Dec. 4, 1682. Following a debate on
Pennsylvania's Frame of Government, the
conference produced The Great Law or Body
of Laws, which consisted of 61 chapters
dictating the governance of Pennsylvania. It
included the original Quaker criminal code
which limited crimes punishable by death to
premeditated murder and treason. Penn
replaced the death penalty and bodily
punishments with imprisonment in a House of
Correction. This Quaker code was a radical
departure from the practices of other societies
around the world.
Negley King Teeters, PhD
The Cradle of the
Penitentiary: The Walnut Jail at Philadelphia, 1773-1885,
1955
1764
"The first prominent European to call for an end
to the death penalty, Beccaria is considered the
founder of the modern abolition movement... In
Italian Jurist
1764, Beccaria published his famous Essays
Presents a
on Crimes and Punishments. It was the first
Critique of the
major
study of the criminal justice system as it
Death Penalty
operated
in eighteenth-century Europe, as well
That Influences
as the first call for the abolition of capital
Abolitionists
punishment. It remains the most influential
attack on the death penalty ever published...
Portrait of Cesare Beccaria.
It was Beccaria, though, who focused the
Source:
www.giovannidallorto.com
attention of philosophers and political leaders
(accessed Jan. 9, 2010)
on the issue. In addition to its effects in Europe,
the Essay also had a significant effect on the thinking of abolitionists in
America, including Dr. Benjamin Rush."
Michael John Kronenwetter
Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook, 2001
1775
By the start of the American Revolution, the death penalty was used in all
13 colonies. Rhode Island was the only colony that did not have at least
Death Penalty
10 crimes punishable by death. The colonies had "roughly comparable
Used in All 13 US death statutes which covered arson, piracy, treason, murder, sodomy,
Colonies at
burglary, robbery, rape, horse-stealing, slave rebellion, and often
Outbreak of
counterfeiting. Hanging was the usual sentence. Rhode Island was
American
probably the only colony which decreased the number of capital crimes in
Revolution
the late 1700's."
Michael H. Reggio
1787
"History of the Death Penalty," Pbs.org (accessed Dec. 16, 2009)
"To most constitutional lawyers there seems little doubt that the Founding
Fathers intended to allow for the death penalty in drawing up the US
Founding Fathers Constitution of 1787. Not only did certain provisions of the Constitution Allow for Death
such as the Fifth Amendment - expressly allow for the taking of life, but
Penalty When
others - such as the Eighth Amendment - were deliberately phrased in
Writing
ambigious ways that suggested even if certain forms of punishment could
Constitution
be banned (such as crucifixions or beheadings) the basic principle of
government executions remained permissible if individual states and the
Please do not write on the articles
federal government wished to legislate for these."
Governing America: The Politics of a Divided Democracy, 2003
Robert Singh, PhD
At least one signer of the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Rush,
opposed the death penalty. He is often cited as the political forebearer of
the abolitionist movement.
Joshua Marquis, JD
Apr. 30, 1790
First US
Congress
Establishes
Federal Death
Penalty
"Truth and Consequences: The Penalty of Death," Debating the
Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment?, 2004
"The First Congress adopted several other bills relating to the federal
judiciary or its functions. Except for the bill providing salaries, these bills
originated in the Senate. Most important was the Punishment of Crimes
Act, the first listing of federal crimes and their punishment. In addition to
treason and counterfeiting of federal records, the crimes included murder,
disfigurement, and robbery committed in federal jurisdictions or on the
high seas. The fourth paragraph of the act authorized judges to sentence
convicted murderers to surgical dissection after execution. The fifth
paragraph provided fines and imprisonment for anyone attempting to
rescue a body of an individual sentenced to dissection."
First Federal Congress Project
June 25, 1790
First Person
Executed Under
US Federal Death
Penalty
"First Federal Congress: Creation of the Judiciary," Gwu.edu
(accessed Jan. 27, 2010)
"The first federal execution was on June 25, 1790, when U.S. Marshall
Henry Dearborn coordinated the hanging of Thomas Bird in
Massachusetts. Dearborn spent five dollars and fifty cents for the
construction of a gallows and a coffin."
Turner Publishing Company
Retired U.S. Marshalls Association, Nov. 9, 2001
1793
"One of the first American documents in the
discussion of the death penalty was An
Inquiry How Far the Punishment of Death is
PA Attorney
Necessary in Pennsylvania, published in
General's
1793 by William Bradford, Pennsylvania's
Writings
attorney-general. Although Bradford favored
Introduce
capital punishment, he concluded that the
Concept of
death
penalty made it harder for the state to
Varying Degrees
convict
the guilty in some cases because
of Murder and
juries
did
not want to sentence people to
Contributes to
death.
This
feeling
was reflected in a wave of
Softening of
new laws throughout the 1790s that curbed
Death Penalty
Laws in PA and Portrait of William Bradford, 1872. capital punishment, abolishing it for certain
Source: www.justice.gov
classes of crime. Five states, for example,
Other States
(accessed Jan. 7, 2010)
limited capital punishment to cases of
murder."
Rebecca Stefoff, MA
Furman v. Georgia: Debating the Death Penalty, 2007
1800-1945
Date/Event/Sport
Description
Please do not write on the articles
1833-1835
Public Executions
Are Attacked as
Cruel and States
Switch to Private
Hangings
Starting around 1833, "public
executions were attacked as cruel.
Sometimes tens of thousands of eager
viewers would show up to view
hangings; local merchants would sell
souvenirs and alcohol. Fighting and
pushing would often break out as
people jockeyed for the best view of
the hanging or the corpse! Onlookers
often cursed the widow or the victim
and would try to tear down the scaffold Illustration of a public execution. Source:
www.gettyimages.com (accessed Apr.
or the rope for keepsakes. Violence
23, 2010)
and drunkenness often ruled towns far
into the night after 'justice had been served.'
Many states enacted laws providing private hangings. Rhode Island
(1833), Pennsylvania (1834), New York (1835), Massachusetts (1835),
and New Jersey (1835) all abolished public hangings. By 1849, fifteen
states were holding private hangings. This move was opposed by many
death penalty abolitionists who thought public executions would
eventually cause people to cry out against execution itself. For example,
in 1835, Maine enacted what was in effect a moratorium on capital
punishment after over ten thousand people who watched a hanging had
to be restrained by police after they became unruly and began fighting. All
felons sentenced to death would have to remain in prison at hard labor
and could not be executed until one year had elapsed and then only on
the governor's order. No governor ordered an execution under the 'Maine
Law' for twenty-seven years."
Michael H. Reggio
"History of the Death Penalty," Pbs.org (accessed Dec. 16, 2009)
Jan.-Feb. 1843
"Scores of legislative reports, newspaper articles, and essay on capital
punishment flooded the reading public in the 1840s, but few of those
Rev. George
works differed substantially from O'Sullivan's report and Cheever's book.
Barrel Cheever When the Broadway Tabernacle in New York decided to sponsor a series
and Abolitionist of public debates, no question was as controversial as capital punishment
John O'Sullivan
and no two opponents as well known as O'Sullivan and Cheever...
Hold Debates on
Capital
For three evenings, January 27, February 3, and February 17, 1843,
Punishment in O'Sullivan and Cheever debated the question 'Ought Capital Punishment
New York
to Be Abolished?'...
The debate between O'Sullivan and Cheever also demonstrated the shift
from an emphasis on reforming criminals to a preoccupation with the
deterrent effect of punishment. Opponents of capital punishment argued
that life in prison served as a powerful enough deterrent; defenders of the
death penalty insisted that imprisonment could never deter as effectively
as the threat of death."
Louis P. Masur, PhD
Rites of Execution: Capital Punishment and the
Transformation of American Culture, 1776-1865, 1991
1845
The first national death penalty abolition society, the American Society for
First National
the Abolition of Capital Punishment, is founded.
Death Penalty
Abolition Society
Is Formed
US Department of State
"The Evolution of the Death Penalty in the United States,"
Please do not write on the articles
Infousa.state.gov (accessed Dec. 15, 2009)
1846
"In 1846, the state of Michigan abolished the death penalty for all crimes,
Michigan
except treason, and replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment.
Becomes the
The law took effect the next year, making Michigan, for all intents and
First US State to
purposes, the first English-speaking jurisdiction in the world to abolish
Abolish Capital
capital punishment."
Punishment
(Except for
Robert Bohm, PhD
"The Death Penalty in the United States,” Battleground Criminal
Treason)
Justice Vol. 1, Ed. Gregg Barak, PhD, 2007
1852
"The first state to outlaw the death penalty for all crimes, including
treason, was Rhode Island, in 1852; Wisconsin was the second state to
do so a year later."
Rhode Island
Becomes the
First State to
Robert Bohm, PhD
Outlaw the Death
Penalty for All
Crimes (Including
Treason)
"The Death Penalty in the United States,” Battleground Criminal
Justice Vol. 1, Ed. Gregg Barak, PhD, 2007
July 9, 1868
The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution is passed after the
Civil War. The amendment extends the Fifth Amendment's protections to
14th Amendment
the states. The Fourteenth Amendment states: "nor shall any state
Passes and Is deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law;
Later Used to
nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the
Challenge the
laws." The Fourteenth Amendment was cited in the June 29, 1972
Death Penalty
Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia which ruled the death penalty
unconstitutional as administered. The Fourteenth Amendment was also
cited in the Mar. 1, 2005 Supreme Court case Roper v. Simmons which
ruled the death penalty unconstitutional for offenders under the age of 18.
William W. Van Alstyne, JD
"The Fourteenth Amendment, the 'Right' to Vote, and
the Understanding of the Thirty-Ninth Congress," The Supreme Court Review, 1965
[Editor's Note: See our question "Does the death penalty violate the 14th
Amendment?"]
1887-1903
"In the 1880s, inventor Thomas Edison
started building electrical lighting
Thomas Edison systems in U.S. cities. Edison's company
Demonstrates demonstrated the power of electricity by
Power of
electrocuting animals (killing them with
Electricity by
electricity). These demonstrations led
Electrocuting some people to reason that electrocution
Animals
was a quick and painless form of
execution." In 1887, Edison conducted
many of these demonstrations in West
Topsy the Elephant being electrocuted
Orange, NJ where he electrocuted
by Thomas Edison, 1903. Source:
numerous dogs and cats.
www.wired.com (accessed Apr. 23,
2010)
[Warning: graphic and potentially
emotionally jarring material follows]. A Jan. 4, 1903 video of Thomas
Edison electrocuting Topsy the Elephant can be seen here.
JoAnn Bren Guernsey
Death Penalty: Fair Solution or Moral Failure?, 2009
Please do not write on the articles
Aug. 6, 1890
"On August 6, 1890, New York State
used an 'electric chair' to carry out the
first execution by electrocution. The
New York State
condemned was murderer William
Performs the First
Kemmler. As it turned out, the process
Execution by
was hardly quick or painless. It took two
Electrocution
surges of electricity, one of them lasting
with the
more than one minute, to kill Kemmler.
Assistance of
The
electricity burned Kemmler to death.
Thomas Edison's Artist's rendering of William Kemmler's
execution.
Source:
www.ccadp.org
Despite
the gruesome procedure, people
Engineers
(accessed Jan. 7, 2010)
still thought electrocution was more
humane and efficient than previous methods. With some refinements, it
soon became the preferred method of execution in the United States."
JoAnn Bren Guernsey
1895-1917
Nine States
Abolish Capital
Punishment
during Second
Great Reform Era
Death Penalty: Fair Solution or Moral Failure?, 2009
"In 1897, U.S. Congress passed a bill reducing the number of federal
death crimes. In 1907, Kansas took the 'Maine Law' a step further and
abolished all death penalties. Between 1911 and 1917, eight more states
abolished capital punishment (Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota,
Oregon, Arizona, Missouri and Tennessee - the latter in all cases but
rape). Votes in other states came close to ending the death penalty."
Michael H. Reggio
"History of the Death Penalty," Society's Final Solution: A History and
Discussion of the Death Penalty, Ed. Laura Randa, MBA, 1997
"In Weems v. United States, however,
the Court did make a ruling that would
Weems v. United
significantly affect the debate on the
States Establish
death penalty. Weems concerned a
Precedents on
defendant who had been sentenced to
"Cruel and
fifteen years of hard labor, a heavy fine,
Unusual
and a number of other penalties for the
Punishment"
relatively minor crime of falsifying official
records. The Court overturned the
US Supreme Court Room where the sentence, ruling that the penalty was too
harsh considering the nature of the
Court sat from 1860-1935. Source:
www.supremecourt.gov, c. 1900
offense. Ultimately, in the Weems
decision, the Court set three important precedents concerning sentencing:
May 2, 1910
1. Cruel and unusual punishment is defined by the changing norms and
standards of society and therefore is not based on historical
interpretations.
2. Courts may decide whether a punishment is unnecessarily cruel with
regard to physical pain.
3. Courts may decide whether a punishment is unnecessarily cruel with
regard to psychological pain."
Larry K. Gaines, PhD
Roger LeRoy Miller, PhD
Criminal Justice in Action,
2008
Please do not write on the articles
Feb. 8, 1924
"The first execution by lethal gas in
American history [was] carried out in Carson
City, Nevada on Feb. 8, 1924. The executed
First US
Execution by Gas man was Tong Lee, a member of a Chinese
Chamber Carried gang who was convicted of murdering a rival
gang member. Lethal gas was adopted by
Out in Nevada
Nevada in 1921 as a more humane method
of carrying out its death sentences, as
opposed to the traditional techniques of
execution by hanging, firing squad, or
electrocution."
The History Channel
Mar. 1, 1932
Lindbergh Act
Makes
Kidnapping a
Federal Capital
Offense
Interior of a gas death house in
Nevada in 1926. Source:
Bettman/CORBIS
"First Execution by Lethal Gas,"
History.com (accessed Dec. 16, 2009)
"The baby son of Charles A. Lindbergh is kidnapped from his home in
Hopewell, New Jersey. The body of the infant is found in the nearby
woods two months later. The incident leads Congress to pass a federal
kidnapping statute, popularly known as the Lindbergh Act, that makes the
crime a capital offense. Similar 'Lindbergh laws' are enacted in more than
20 states by the end of the decade."
Harry Henderson
Aug. 14, 1936
Last Public
Execution
Capital Punishment, Revised Edition, 2000
At 5:45 a.m. on Aug. 14, 1936, Rainey
Bethea became the last person to be
publicly executed in the US. Bethea was
hanged for raping and murdering a 70-yearold woman in Owensboro, Kentucky. The
execution garnered significant media and
public attention because it was the first
hanging in the US to be conducted by a
woman. At least 20,000 people witnessed
Bethea's hanging, which reporters called the
"carnival in Owensboro." Several scholars
believe Bethea's execution was an
important contributor to the eventual ban on Rainey Bethea in 1936, the last
prisoner to be publicly executed.
public executions in America.
Source: Associated Press
NPR
"The Last Public Execution in America,"
Npr.org, May 1, 2001
Jan. 31, 1945
Private Eddie
Slovik Becomes
First American
Executed for
Desertion Since
the Civil War
Private Eddie Slovik. Source:
www.nndb.com (accessed Jan.
9, 2010)
"It was for the execution of a deserter, Private
Eddie Slovik, he thereby achieving the unique
distinction of being the only American soldier
to be executed in that manner since 1864.
During the Second World War 2,648 soldiers
were tried by General Courts Martial, 49 being
sentenced to death. They were all reprieved,
their sentences being commuted to varying
terms of imprisonment, but it was obviously felt
that an example had to be made in Slovik's
case, and all appeals for clemency were
denied."
Geoffrey Abbott
Execution: The Guillotine, the
Pendulum, the Thousand Cuts, the Spanish Donkey, and 66 Other Ways of Putting
Someone to Death, 2006
Please do not write on the articles
1946 - 1979
Date/Event/Sport
Jan. 13, 1947
Description
"In one case (Louisiana ex rel Francis v.
Resweber, 329 U.S. 459 (1947) the Court
US Supreme
confronted the situation of a young man who
Court Finds That
was condemned to die in the electric chair.
a Second
For some reason, the chair was faulty, and
Execution
although electric current apparently shot
Attempt after
through the man, he survived. The issue was
Technical
whether a second electrocution could proceed
Malfunction Does
or whether it was barred by the constitutional
Not Constitute
proscription of cruel and unusual punishment,
Willie Francis photographed in
Cruel and
double jeopardy and other violations of due
his cell the evening of the first
Unusual
process. [US Supreme Court Justice]
attempt to execute him. Source:
Punishment
Frankfurter,
finding that the chair's deficiency
www.executedtoday.com
was entirely accidental, concurred in the
(accessed Jan. 8, 2010)
decision of the [5-4] majority of the Supreme
Court that nothing in the Constitution prevented the state from proceeding
with a second execution, but he also implied that the situation was one in
which a governor might be expected to intercede with executive
clemency.
Not content with this, Frankfurter, after the opinion was filed, wrote a
personal letter to the governor urging the extension of mercy... The
governor allowed the execution."
Richard Lempert, JD, PhD
Joseph Sanders, JD, PhD
An Invitation to Law and
Social Science: Desert, Disputes, and Distribution, 1989
June 19, 1953
"Julius Rosenberg, 33, and his 35-year-old
wife, Ethel, were accused of stealing technical
information from the atom research centre in
Rosenberg's
Become the First Los Alamos and turning it over to the KGB...
US Civilians
The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death on
Executed for
5 April 1951 and despite numerous appeals
Espionage
for clemency were executed by the electric
chair at Sing-Sing Prison on 19 June 1953.
They were the only people in the United
States ever executed for Cold War espionage, The Rosenbergs on their way
and their conviction fuelled US Senator
from jail to court, 1951. Source:
Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade
www.rosenbergtrial.org
(accessed Jan. 8, 2010)
against 'anti-American activities" by US
citizens."
BBC
1957-1972
"1951: Rosenbergs Guilty of Espionage," Bbc.co.uk, (accessed Dec. 16, 2009)
"The movement against capital punishment revived again between 1955
and 1972. England and Canada completed exhaustive studies which
were
largely critical of the death penalty and these were widely circulated
Several States
in
the
U.S. Death row criminals gave their own moving accounts of capital
Abolish Capital
punishment in books and film. Convicted kidnapper Caryl Chessman
Punishment
published Cell 2455 Death Row and Trial by Ordeal. Barbara Graham's
story was utilized in book and film with I Want to Live! after her execution.
Television shows were broadcast on the death penalty. Hawaii and
Please do not write on the articles
Alaska ended capital punishment in 1957, and Delaware did so the next
year. Controversy over the death penalty gripped the nation forcing
politicians to take sides. Delaware restored the death penalty in 1961.
Michigan abolished capital punishment for treason in 1963. Voters in
1964 abolished the death penalty in Oregon. In 1965 Iowa, New York,
West Virginia, and Vermont ended the death penalty. New Mexico
abolished the death penalty in 1969.
Trying to end capital punishment state-by-state was difficult at best, so
death penalty abolitionists turned much of their efforts to the courts."
Michael H. Reggio
June 3, 1968
US Supreme
Court Forbids the
Dismissal of
Jurors Based on
Personal
Opposition to
Capital
Punishment
"History of the Death Penalty," Society's Final Solution: A History and
Discussion of the Death Penalty, Ed. Laura Randa, MBA, 1997
"Witherspoon v. Illinois: The Supreme Court rules that the practice of
excluding prospective jurors who have reservations about the death
penalty from capital trials results in juries whose sentencing decisions
could be considered biased and therefore unconstitutional."
Bryan Vila, PhD
Cynthia Morris
Capital Punishment in the United States: A
Documentary History, 1997
"In Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court
ruled 5-4 on June 29, 1972 that in all cases
before the court, the death penalty as
US Supreme
administered violated the Eight and
Court Rules
Fourteenth Amendments. Of the five Supreme
Death Penalty
Court Justices, William Brennan and
Unconstitutional
Thurgood
Marshall were alone in declaring
as Administered
the
death
penalty
unconstitutional as a form of
and Overturns
William Furman at the time of his
punishment
entirely.
Justice Brennan was
over 600 Death arrest on Aug. 11, 1967. Source:
sweeping
in
his
indictment,
claiming the death
Sentences
Rebecca Stetoff, Furman V.
penalty was unconstitutional for any crime,
Georgia: Debating the Death
Penalty, 2007.
any person, using any method. All five
justices concurred on the grounds of
arbitrariness. Specifically, Justice Stewart proclaimed that the decisions
were randomly made as if 'being struck by lightening.' At the same time
the death penalty was declared random, it was also declared
discriminatory in its application...
June 29, 1972
The Furman decision invalidated the death penalty statutes in several
states. Thirty-five states responded to this ruling, not by abolishing capital
punishment, but by using Furman as a guideline for developing a
constitutionally acceptable statute. During this moratorium, hundreds of
sentences were commuted to life imprisonment."
Thomas Blomberg, PhD
Nov. 21, 1974
National
Conference of
Catholic Bishops
Karol Lucken, PhD
American Penology: A History
of Control, 2000
"The National Conference of Catholic Bishops speaks out against capital
punishment in a reversal of the traditional Roman Catholic Church
position supporting the death penalty as a legitimate means of selfprotection for the state."
Please do not write on the articles
Publicly Opposes
Death Penalty
Harry Henderson
Capital Punishment, Revised Edition, 2000
July 2,1976
"The Supreme Court reaffirmed the
constitutionality of capital punishment for
aggravated murder in [the July 2, 1976,
US Supreme
7-2 decision] Gregg v. Georgia. The
Court Reaffirms
Constitutionality question presented to the Court in this
case was whether the imposition of
of Death Penalty
capital punishment under Georgia's
revised death penalty statute was
prohibited under the Eighth and
Fourteenth Amendment to the federal
US Supreme Court. Source:
Constitution...
www.supremecourt.gov (accessed Apr.
21, 2010)
On appeal, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed Gregg's conviction and
death sentence because Georgia's revised death penalty statute provided
for bifurcated trials, consideration of mitigating circumstances of the
defendant and the crime, and appellate review of capital sentences. The
Court affirmed these guidelines because Georgia intended them to
prevent arbitrary and discriminatory imposition of the death penatly."
Marvin D. Free Jr., PhD
Racial Issues in Criminal Justice: The Case of African
Americans, 2003
"Gregg gave states the green light to
implement the death penalty, as long as juries
received adequate guidance. Half a year later,
on January 17, 1977, the first execution in the
United States since June 1967 took place.
The condemned man was Gary Gilmore,
convicted in Utah of murder. Like Wallace
Wilkerson in the Utah Territory a century
earlier, Gilmore was executed by firing squad
- at his request."
Jan. 17, 1977
Gary Gilmore
Becomes the
First Person to be
Executed in the
US in 10 Years
Rebecca Stefoff, MA
Furnam v. Georgia: Debating the
Death Penalty, 2007
Gary Gilmore in court, 1976.
Source: www.apsu.edu
(accessed Jan. 8, 2010)
June 29, 1977
"Shortly after it revived state death penalty schemes in Gregg v. Georgia
(1976), the U.S. Supreme Court was asked [in Coker v. Georgia] to
determine whether the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual
punishments prohibited the death penalty for rape...
US Supreme
Court Finds
Death Penalty to
Justice Bryon White's plurality opinion for the Supreme Court [in a 7-2
be an Excessive
Punishment for vote on June 29, 1977,] reversed the sentence, finding the death penalty
disproportionate to the crime of raping an adult woman."
Rape Crimes
Paul Finkelman, PhD
The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, 2006
1980 - 1999
Date/Event/Sport
Description
June 1980
"The debate about the role of doctors in executions was never addressed
Please do not write on the articles
seriously until legislation in 1977 in the states of Oklahoma and Texas
American Medical introduced execution by lethal injection onto their statutes. This started a
Association
vigorous discussion with the weight of argument being against
Passes
participation. In 1980, the Judicial Affairs Committee on the American
Resolution
Medical Association approved a statement recalling that the doctor's role
Saying
was to preserve life where there was a possibility of doing so and that the
Physicians
only possible role for a doctor at an execution was to certify the death of
Should Not
the prisoner." In June 1980, the House of Delegates of the AMA approved
Participate in
the resolution.
Executions
British Medical Association
Medicine Betrayed: The Participation of Doctors in Human
Rights Abuses, 1992
"The United States Supreme Court (Endmund v. Florida) overturns [in a
5-4 vote on July 2, 1982] the death sentence of a man who was convicted
US Supreme
of the robbery and murder of an elderly couple in Florida. Endmund had
Court Rules That
not directly participated in the murders himself, but had only drive the
Capital
getaway car. This was enough, under Florida law, to make him a
Punishment Is
'constructive aider and abettor' in the killings, and so liable to the death
Excessive for a
penalty. However, a majority of five of the Supreme Court justices rules
Defendant Who that this is not enough to subject him to the death penalty, since they find
Played a Minor
Endmund had no intent to kill."
Role in a Felony
Murder
Michael Kronenwetter
Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook, 2001
July 2, 1982
Dec. 2, 1982
"In 1977, an Oklahoma medical examiner
named Jay Chapman proposed that
Texas Performs
death-row inmates be executed using
First Lethal
three drugs administered in a specific
Injection
sequence: a barbiturate (to anesthetize
inmates), pancuronium bromide (to
paralyze inmates and stop their breathing)
and lastly potassium chloride (which stops
Illustration of Charles Brooks
the heart)... Chapman's proposal was
execution, Dec. 7, 1982. Source:
"Charlie Brooks, Jr.,"
approved by the Oklahoma state
www.clarkprosecutor.org
legislature the same year and quickly
adopted by other states...
[On Dec. 2, 1982,] Texas became the first to use the procedure,
executing 40-year-old Charles Brooks for murdering Fort Worth mechanic
David Gregory."
TIME
July 26, 1983
US Supreme
Court Approves
Streamlined
Federal Appeals
Procedures for
Capital Crimes
"A Brief History of Lethal Injection," Time website, Nov. 10, 2009
Please do not write on the articles
"Barefoot v. Estelle: The Supreme Court
upholds expedited federal review procedures
in death penalty appeals [in a 6-3 vote on July
26, 1983] and also upholds the prosecution's
right to present psychiatric evidence regarding
a defendant's future dangerousness during the penalty phase of a capital
trial."
Convicted cop-killer Thomas
Barefoot, 1983. Source:
"Justices Give Killer a
Reprieve," Gainseville Sun, Jan.
25, 1983
Bryan Vila, PhD
June 26, 1986
US Supreme
Court Rules
Execution of
Insane Persons
Unconstitutional
Cynthia Morris
Capital Punishment in the United States: A
Documentary History, 1997
"[In] Ford v. Wainwright, 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court held [in a 5-4 vote
on June 26, 1986] that the execution of an insane prisoner was an
unconstitutional violation of the Eighth Amendment prohibition of cruel
and unsual punishment."
Stuart Kirk, DSW
Mental Disorders in the Social Environment: Critical
Perspectives, 2004
Nov. 4, 1986
"In 1986, California Chief Justice Rose Bird
and two other 'liberal' members of the state
supreme court were ousted in a retention
California Chief
election. The election followed a bitter
Justice Rose Bird
campaign
that centered on the three justices'
Is Voted Out of
records in death penalty cases."
Office for Voting
Record in Death
Penalty Cases
Gordon Morris Bakken, JD, PhD
Law in the
Western United States, 2000
[Editor's Note: Read more about the Rose
Bird election at Rose Bird ProCon.org]
Nov. 1987
A Study Finds
350 Cases of
Defendents
Wrongfully
Convicted for
Capital Crimes
Chief Justice Rose Bird. Source:
www.latimes.com (accessed
Jan. 8, 2010)
"In 1987, Hugo Bedau and Michael Radelet published a landmark study [in
the Stanford Law Review] (5 MB) documenting 350 cases involving
defendants convicted of capital crimes in the United States between 1900
and 1985 and who were later found to be innocent. In the decade
following the publication of that study, scores of additional death row
inmates were discovered to have been falsely convicted, largely through
the emergence of DNA evidence."
Brian Forst, PhD, MBA
Errors of Justice: Nature, Sources, and Remedies, 2003
"The main issue the Supreme Court considered in Thompson v.
Oklahoma was whether it is constitutional to execute a person who was a
US Supreme
'child' at the time he committed the offense. Thompson's attorneys argued
Court Rules
that he should not be executed because this would violate Thompson's
Executions of
rights, as a 'child,' under the Eighth Amendment, which forbids 'cruel and
Individuals Under
unusual punishment.'
Age of 16
Unconstitutional In June 1988 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in a [5-3] majority decision,
to vacate the order to excute Thompson. The majority opinion by Justice
John Paul Stevens noted that 'evolving standards of decency that mark
the progress of a maturing society' compelled the conclusion that it would
be unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution to
execute a person for a crime committed as a fifteen-year-old."
June 29, 1988
Please do not write on the articles
Raymond Gibbs, PhD
Apr. 21, 1992
Intentions in the Experience of Meaning, 1999
"After an extraordinary bicoastal judicial duel
kept his fate in doubt throughout the night,
Robert Alton Harris died in San Quentin's gas
chamber at sunrise Tuesday, becoming the
first person executed in California in 25 years.
Harris, 39, was pronounced dead at 6:21
a.m., just 36 minutes after the U.S. Supreme
Court overturned the last of four overnight
reprieves that delayed his execution by more
than six hours.
First CA
Execution in 25
Years Proceeds
after US Supreme
Court Prevents
Lower Courts
from Granting
Further Stays
Earlier Tuesday, a seemingly jaunty Harris
came within seconds of death but was
rescued
by a federal judge, who halted the
Robert Alton Harris. Source:
execution
even as the acid used to form the
www.cdcr.ca.gov (accessed Jan.
9, 2010)
lethal gas flowed into a vat beneath the
prisoner's seat. That final stay was quickly tossed out by the U.S.
Supreme Court, which clearly had had its fill of the Harris case. In an
unprecedented ruling that capped a night of coast-to-coast faxes and
deliberations the justices voted 7 to 2 to forbid any federal court from
meddling further in the execution."
Los Angeles Times
"Harris Dies After Judicial Duel 4 Stays Quashed," Los Angeles
Times, Apr. 22, 1992
"The Supreme Court in Herrera v. Collins held [in a 6-3 vote on Jan. 25,
1993] that a death-row inmate is not ordinarily entitled to relief where a
US Supreme
claim of innonence is based on newly discovered evidence, unless the
Court Rules That claim also includes an independent constitutional violation. The Supreme
New Evidence of
Court found that there is no due process violation in the execution of
Innocence Does
someone who was arguably innocent."
Not Entitle
Prisoners to Be
Alan Clarke, JD, LLM
Laurelyn Whitt, PhD
The Bitter Fruit of American
Freed Unless It
Justice: International and Domestic Resistance to the Death Penalty, 2007
Also Shows a
Constitutional
Violation
June 28, 1993 Kirk Bloodsworth was released from prison on June 28, 1993 after a DNA
test showed that a semen stain on the underwear of the 9-year-old girl he
Kirk Bloodsworth was twice convicted of raping and killing was not his. Bloodsworth spent
Becomes First
one year awaiting trial, two years on death row, and then six years in
American
prison after his death sentence was commuted to a life sentence before
Sentenced to being exonerated. Bloodsworth is the first prisoner to have served time on
Death Row to Be death row to be exonerated with DNA testing. He received $300,000 in
Exonerated with compensation for wrongful imprisonment and was granted a full pardon in
DNA Testing
Dec. 1994 by Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer.
Jan. 25, 1993
CNN
"Kirk Bloodsworth, Twice Convicted of Rape and Murder, Exonerated by DNA
Evidence," CNN.com, June 20 2000
Please do not write on the articles
1994
"The 1994 crime bill (1.4 MB) - passed by the
Democratic 103rd Congress (1993-4) and
signed
by President Clinton - created sixty
Federal Death
new federal crimes for which the death
Penalty Is
Expanded When penalty could be imposed and extended it to
include certain drug offences." Offenses
President Clinton
Signs 1994 Crime eligible for the federal death penalty include
large-scale drug trafficking, terorrist
Bill
President Clinton signs the 1994
homicides, murder of a Federal law
crime bill, 1994. Source:
enforcement officer, and drive-by-shootings www.gpo.gov (accessed Jan. 9,
and carjackings that result in a death.
2010)
Governing America: The
Politics of a Divided Democracy, 2003
Robert Singh, PhD
Jan. 12, 1996
In 1994, Sister Helen Prejean released a book
[titled Dead Man Walking] about her role as
spiritual advisor for two death row inmates. The
book was adapted into an Academy-Awardwinning film starring Susan Sarandon and Sean
Penn. The popularity of the film [Dead Man
Walking] led to increased levels of public
discourse on the morality of the death penalty.
Release of the
Film Dead Man
Walking
Invigorates
Debate on Death
Penalty
Poster for the film Dead Man
Walking, 1996. Source:
www.cuadp.org (accessed
Jan. 9, 2010)
James J. Megivern, ThD
The Death Penalty: An
Historical and Theological Survey, 1997
Jan. 25, 1996
Convicted double-murder Bill Bailey was
executed by hanging on Jan. 25, 1996 in
Last Execution by Delaware. Bailey was the third person
Hanging
executed by hanging since the death
penalty was reinstated in 1976 and the first
hanging in Delaware since 1946. As of
Apr. 21, 2010, Bailey was the last person
executed by hanging in the US.
CNN
"Delaware Holds First Hanging Since
1946," CNN.com, Jan. 25, 1996
James T. Vaughn Correctional
Center where Delaware's only
gallows stood between 1986 and
2003. www.dpc.delaware.gov
(accessed Apr. 26, 2010)
Apr. 24, 1996
"Over the past decade, death penalty proponents have made successful
efforts at both the state and federal level to streamline the capital appeals
Ability of Judges process and expedite executions. The most significant of these efforts is
to Reverse
the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA).
Sentences of
Capital punishment proponents argued that death row inmates abused
Death Row
the writ of habeas corpus by filing multiple, repetitive petitions. Congress
Inmates Is
passed AEDPA to restrict the availability of federal habeas relief in
Restricted
several significant manners." The bill passed 293-133-7 in the House of
Representatives and 91-8-1 in the Senate. It was signed into law on Apr.
24, 1996.
Evan Mandery, JD
Feb. 3, 1997
Capital Punishment in America: A Balanced Examination, 2004
"On February 3, 1997, the ABA therefore took action that it hoped would
Please do not write on the articles
focus more attention on systemic problems and lack of fairness in the
application of the death penalty in the United States. While taking no
American Bar
position on the death penalty per se, the ABA adopted a resolution
Association
Urges a Halt to initiated by the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities that urges
a halt to executions until concerns about capital punishment in the U.S.
Executions
are addressed. Specifically, the resolution calls for capital jurisdictions to
impose a moratorium on all executions until they can (1) ensure that
death penalty cases are administered fairly and impartially, in accordance
with due process, and (2) minimize the risk that innocent persons may be
executed."
American Bar Association
"Policy History: Death Penalty Moratorium Implementation
Project," American Bar Association website (accessed Dec. 21, 2009)
Mar. 3, 1999
German national Walter LaGrand was executed in an Arizona gas
chamber on Mar. 3, 1999. In addition to US courts, his case was also
Last Execution by heard by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, where "Judge
Gas Chamber
Christopher Weeramantry of Sri Lanka urged the US Government to use
'all the measures at its disposal' to prevent the execution. Germany asked
the world court to intervene after Arizona Governor Jane Hull rejected
appeals from German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer to stop the execution. Germany does not have
the death penalty and contends Arizona failed to advise the LaGrand
brothers of their right to consular assistance at their trials. The LaGrands
were born in Germany but came to the United States when they were
children."
LaGrand twice refused offers of lethal injeciton and reportedly chose the
gas chamber to protest the death penalty. As of Apr. 21, 2010, LaGrand is
the last prisoner to be executed by the gas chamber.
BBC
"World: Americas Countdown to US execution," BBC.co.uk, Mar. 4, 1999
2000 - Present
Date/Event/Sport
Jan. 31, 2000
Illinois Governor
George Ryan
Declares a
Moratorium on
Executions
Description
"In 2000, Illinois Governor George Ryan
declared a moratorium on the death penalty in
response to the exonerations that were
revealing persistent errors in the administration
of capital punishment. Since the death penalty
was reinstated in that state in 1977, 12 death
row inmates had been executed and 13 were
exonerated. In 2003, he granted clemency to
all 167 persons on the state's death row. His
actions were fiercely attacked by capitalpunishment advocates who accused him of
Governor George Ryan.
Source: www.life.com
abusing his power but were applauded both by
(accessed Jan. 9, 2010)
legal scholars across country and by the
growing movement to abolish the death penalty."
Robert Bohm, PhD
Dec. 21, 2000
Texas and
"The Death Penalty in the United States,” Battleground Criminal
Justice Vol. 1, Ed. Gregg Barak, PhD, 2007
In 2000, Texas led the US in executions with 40 inmates being put to
death. Oklahoma followed with 11, Virginia with 8, and Florida with 6
executions. Between 1976 and Mar. 30, 2010, Texas executed 452
Please do not write on the articles
Governor George
inmates. Virginia came in second most with 106 executions and
W. Bush Lead US
Oklahoma in third with 92 executions.
with Most
Executions
Between Jan. 17, 1995 and Dec. 21, 2000, Texas Governor George W.
Bush presided over the execution of 150 men and two women, more than
any other governor since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
Governor Bush received a summary from his legal counsel before each
execution to determine whether or not to allow the execution to proceed.
The first fifty-seven summaries were prepared by Alberto R. Gonzales,
who served as US Attorney General under President Bush between Feb.
3, 2005 and Sep. 17, 2007. Governor Bush granted one clemency during
his term in office.
"Number of Executions by State and Region Since 1976,"
Death Penalty Information Center website, Mar. 30, 2010
Death Penalty Information Center
Alan Berlow
"The Texas Clemency Memos," Atlantic, July/Aug. 2003
June 11, 2001
Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh
becomes the first federal prisoner to be
Oklahoma City
executed in 38 years. McVeigh was
Bomber Timothy responsible for the death of 168 people in the
McVeigh
bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in
Becomes the
Oklahoma City on Apr. 19, 1995.
First Federal
Prisoner to Be
BBC
"Defiant McVeigh Dies in Silence,"
Executed in 38
BBC.co.uk, June 11, 2001
Years
Timothy McVeigh on the cover of
Time magazine, 1997. Source:
www.time.com (accessed Jan. 9,
2010)
June 20, 2002
"The Constitution bars the execution of mentally retarded offenders, the
Supreme Court declared today in a landmark death penalty ruling based
on the majority's view that a 'national consensus' now rejected such
executions as excessive and inappropriate.
US Supreme
Court Rules the
Execution of
Mentally Retarded Of the 38 states that have a death penalty, 18 now prohibit executing the
Offenders
retarded, up from 2 when the court last considered the question in 1989.
Unconstitutional
This 'dramatic shift in the state legislative landscape,' especially when
anticrime legislation is extremely popular, 'provides powerful evidence
that today our society views mentally retarded offenders as categorically
less culpable than the average criminal,' Justice John Paul Stevens wrote
for the 6-to-3 majority" on June 20,2002.
New York Times
"Citing 'National Consensus,' Justices Bar Death Penalty for
Retarded Defendants," New York Times, June, 21, 2002
"In Ring v. Arizona (2002), the Supreme Court ruled [7-2 on June 24,
2002] that juries, rather than judges, must make the crucial factual
US Supreme
decisions as to whether a convicted murderer should receive the death
Court Rules That
penalty. Ring v. Arizona overturned the law of that and four others Juries, Not
Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Nebraska - where judges alone decided
Judges, Must
whether there were aggravating factors that warrant capital punishment.
June 24, 2002
Please do not write on the articles
Determine
The decision also raised questions about the procedure in four other
Presence of
states - Alabama, Delaware, Florida, and Indiana - where the judge
Aggravating
decided life imprisonment or death after hearing a jury's recommendation.
Factors
The Ring opinion also says that any aggravating factors must be stated in
Necessary for a
the indictment, thus also requiring a change in federal death penalty
Death Sentence
laws."
Todd Clear, PhD
American Corrections, 2008
Mar. 1, 2005
"Perhaps the most controversial death penalty
decision by the Supreme Court in recent
Death Sentences
years was that handed down in 2005 in Roper
for Offenders
v. Simmons. This ruling overturned a 1989
Under the Age of
Supreme Court decision in Stanford v.
18 Is Ruled
Kentucky, which allowed the execution of
Unconstitutional
persons who were age 16 or 17 at the time
they committed their crimes. In Roper, the
Court held that the execution of a person
under the age of 18 is disproportionate
punishment under the Eighth Amendment
and, therefore, is cruel and unusual
Christopher Simmons was 17
punishment."
when he kidnapped and killed a
woman. Source:
www.washingtonpost.com
(accessed Jan. 9, 2010)
Jan. 17, 2006
California
Executes a 76year-old Inmate
Robert Regoli, PhD
John D. Hewitt, PhD
Exploring Criminal Justice, 2007
"California executes Clarence Ray Allen, its oldest death row inmate,
minutes after his 76th birthday. The execution took place despite
arguments that putting to death an elderly, blind and wheelchair-bound
man was cruel and unusual punishment. Allen arranged a triple murder
25 years ago."
CBS News
"Capital Punishment Timeline," CBSnews.com, Oct. 16, 2007
Dec. 30, 2006
"The US joined its arch-foe Iran today in
hailing the justice of Saddam Hussein's
Execution of
execution, but European powers opposed the
Saddam Hussein use of capital punishment even though they
condemned the former dictator's crimes in
Iraq.
US president George Bush said Saddam had
received the kind of justice he denied his
victims.
Saddam Hussein at his trial,
2005. Source:
Some key US allies expressed discomfort at
www.nytimes.com (accessed
the execution. And Russia, which opposed the
Jan. 9, 2010)
March 20, 2003 invasion to oust the dictator,
and the Vatican expressed regret at the hanging which some Muslim
leaders said would exacerbate the violence in Iraq."
Forbes.com
"US Welcomes Saddam Hanging, Europe Opposes Execution,"
Forbes.com, Dec. 30, 2006
Please do not write on the articles
Dec. 18, 2007
"The U.N. General Assembly passed a
nonbinding resolution on Tuesday calling for
United Nations
a moratorium on the death penalty,
General
overcoming protests from a bloc of states that
Assembly Passes
said it undermined their sovereignty. The
a Resolution
resolution (30 KB) , which calls for 'a
Calling for a
moratorium on executions with a view to
United Nations General
Moratorium on
abolishing the death penalty,' was passed by
Assembly. Source:
the Death Penalty www.unmultimedia.org (accessed
a 104 to 54 vote, with 29 abstentions...
Apr. 21, 2010)
Two similar moves in the 1990s failed in the
assembly. The resolution's text stops short of an outright demand for
immediate abolition; it carries no legal force but backers say it has
powerful moral authority.
Among nations who voted against were Egypt, Iran, Singapore, the
United States and a bloc of Caribbean states. Eighty-seven countries -including the 27 European Union states, more than a dozen Latin
American countries and eight African states -- jointly introduced the
resolution, though opponents singled out the EU as the driving force."
Reuters
"UN Assembly Calls for Moratorium on Death Penalty," Reuters.com, Dec. 18,
2007
June 25, 2008
"A divided U.S. Supreme Court barred the
death penalty for the crime of child rape,
US Supreme
saying a Louisiana man's execution would
Court Finds
violate the constitutional ban on cruel and
Death Penalty
unusual punishment. The justices, voting 5-4
Excessive for the
[in Kennedy v. Louisiana on June 25, 2008],
Crime of Child
spared Patrick Kennedy from becoming the
Rape
first
person since 1964 to be executed in the
Patrick O. Kennedy was spared
execution in a 5-4 Supreme Court U.S. for a crime other than murder. Kennedy
decision. Source: www.cnn.com
was convicted of raping his 8-year-old
(accessed Jan. 9, 2010)
stepdaughter.
`The death penalty is not a proportional punishment for the rape of a
child,' Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court. The ruling extends a
line of Supreme Court cases that have restricted the circumstances in
which the death penalty can be applied. It also underscores Kennedy's
significance as the court's deciding vote on many social issues.
The court divided along ideological lines. Justices Stephen Breyer, John
Paul Stevens, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg joined the majority.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and
Clarence Thomas dissented."
Bloomberg
"Death Penalty for Child Rape Barred by Top U.S. Court," Bloomberg.com,
June 25, 2008
Please do not write on the articles
Mar. 18, 2009
New Mexico
Repeals the
Death Penalty
"Gov. Bill Richardson, who has supported
capital punishment, signed legislation to
repeal New Mexico's death penalty, calling it
the 'most difficult decision in my political life.'
The new law replaces lethal injection with a
sentence of life in prison without the
possibility of parole. The repeal takes effect
on July 1, and applies only to crimes
committed after that date.
'Regardless of my personal opinion about the Former New Mexico Governor
Bill Richardson. Source:
death penalty, I do not have confidence in the www.deathpenalty.org (accessed
criminal justice system as it currently operates
Jan. 9, 2010)
to be the final arbiter when it comes to who
lives and who dies for their crime,' Richardson said."
Associated Press
"New Mexico Governor Abolishes Capital Punishment," AP.org, Mar.
19, 2009
Sep. 30, 2009
Texas Governor
Rick Perry
Removes Four
Members of a
Commission
Before They Issue
a Report That
Casts Doubt on
the Guilt of an
Governor Rick Perry. Source:
www.austinchronicle.com
Executed
(accessed Jan. 9, 2010)
Prisoner
"Did Texas execute an innocent man? That
question, and the controversy surrounding it,
continues to dog Gov. Rick Perry. Critics say
the governor has tried to squelch an
investigation into the case. Now the issue has
moved to the forefront of Perry's effort to win
re-election.
At the heart of the controversy is Cameron
Todd Willingham, who was executed by lethal
injection in 2004 after being convicted of
setting a house fire in Corsicana that killed his
three children.
The Texas Forensic Science Commission hired a nationally recognized
arson expert to examine the fire science used to convict Willingham. In a
report made public in August, that expert, Craig Beyler, asserted the initial
arson investigation was deeply flawed, adding his voice to those of other
fire investigators who now doubt whether arson caused the fatal blaze.
Just as the commission was set to hear from Beyler in late September,
Perry abruptly removed three of its members, including the chairman. The
chairman, Sam Bassett, later said he felt pressure from the governor's
office because it was unhappy over how the Willingham probe was
proceeding."
NPR
Dec. 8, 2009
Ohio Performs
the First
Execution with a
One-Drug
Intravenous
Lethal Injection
"2004 Execution Haunts Texas Governor's Race," NPR.org, Dec. 21, 2009
Please do not write on the articles
Execution chamber at Southern
"On Dec. 8, 2009, Ohio prison officials
Ohio Correction Facility in
executed a death row inmate, Kenneth Biros,
Lucasville where Kenneth Biros
with a one-drug intravenous lethal injection, a
was executed. Source:
method never before used on a human. The www.cleveland.com (accessed
Jan. 9, 2010)
new method, which involved a large dose of
anesthetic, akin to how animals are euthanized, has been hailed by most
experts as painless and an improvement over the three-drug cocktail
used in most states, but it is unlikely to settle the debate over the death
penalty.
While praising the shift to a single drug, death penalty opponents argue
that Ohio's new method, and specifically its backup plan of using intramuscular injection, has not been properly vetted by legal and medical
experts and that since it has never been tried out on humans before, it is
the equivalent of human experimentation. But the United States Supreme
Court refused to intervene and the procedure went largely as planned."
New York Times
Dec. 18, 2009
"Capital Punishment," NYTimes.com, Dec. 18, 2009
"Use of capital punishment by states continues its steady decline, with
fewer death sentences handed down in 2009 than any year since the
death penalty was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 1976. Year-end
figures released Friday by the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC)
show 11 states are now considering abolishing executions, with many
legislators citing high costs associated with incarcerating and handling
often decades-long appeals by death row inmates...
Lowest Annual
Number of Death
Sentences
Handed Down in
2009 since Death
Penalty was
Reinstated in
Fifty-two inmates were executed this year in 11 states... As in previous
1976
years, Texas in 2009 led the states in executions, with 24 -- four times as
many as the next-highest, Alabama...
Nine men who had been sentenced to death were exonerated and freed
in 2009, most after new DNA or other forensic testing cleared them, or
raised doubts their culpability. That is the second highest total since the
death penalty was reinstated 33 years ago."
CNN
"Death Penalty Use Declining Nationwide," CNN.com, Dec. 18, 2009
June 18, 2010
"Utah executed convicted killer
Ronnie Lee Gardner after
Last Execution by
midnight this morning by firing
Firing Squad
squad. He becomes just the third
person [all in Utah] in the last 33
years to be executed by being
shot and likely one of the last.
Utah has eliminated the firing
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Announces
on Microblogging site Twitter He Had Given FInal
squad (Gardner, convicted
Approval for Gardner's Execution. Source:
before the legal change, was
www.twitter.com (accessed June 18, 2010)
grandfathered in) and it only
remains legal as a means of execution in Oklahoma - even then, only as
a backup.
Gardner’s attorney said he chose the method of execution because it was
'more humane' than a lethal injection."
"A hood was placed over Gardner's head and a paper target pinned to his
chest. He was heavily restrained as a five-person firing squad took aim at
Please do not write on the articles
the target and shot him, witnesses said... Gardner, 49, was convicted for
the shooting death of attorney Michael Burdell during a botched escape
attempt from custody in 1985 at a Salt Lake City, Utah, courthouse."
As of June 18, 2010, Gardner was the last person executed by firing
squad in the US.
"Ronnie Lee Gardner Executed By Firing Squad," TIME website, June 18, 2010
TIME
CNN
Aug. 2010
Lethal Drug
Shortage Delays
Executions in
Kentucky
"Killer Executed by Utah Firing Squad," CNN.com, June 18, 2010
"Some states are delaying executions because of a shortage of sodium
thiopental, a drug used as an anesthetic and given to prisoners during
lethal injections. It's one of three drugs used for lethal injection in more
than 30 states...
Some states have been trying to get additional supplies of the drug for
months. In August, Gov. Steve Beshear was asked to sign death warrants
for three prisoners in Kentucky but could set only one execution date
because it only had a single dose.
'We've had the drug on back order since March,' says Todd Henson, a
spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Corrections. 'The company
that supplies it to us advised that they were unable to produce it because
they weren't able to get the active ingredient from their supplier.'
Hospira, based in Lake Forest, Ill., is apparently the only manufacturer of
the drug. The company has told Kentucky officials it won't be available
until early next year."
NPR
"States Delay Executions Owing to Drug Shortage," NPR.org, Sep. 16, 2010
Sep. 23, 2010
"Teresa Lewis was put to death in Virginia on Thursday for arranging the
killings of her husband and a stepson over a $250,000 insurance
Woman with 72 IQ
payment. The 41-year-old was the first woman to be executed in the
Executed in
United States in five years...
Virginia
More than 7,300 appeals to stop the execution - the first of a woman in
Virginia since 1912 - had been made to the governor in a state second
only to Texas in the number of people it executes.
Texas held the most recent U.S. execution of a woman in 2005. Out of
more than 1,200 people put to death since the U.S. Supreme Court
reinstated capital punishment in 1976, only 11 have been women.
Lewis, who defense attorneys said was borderline mentally disabled, had
inspired other inmates by singing Christian hymns in prison. Her
execution stirred an unusual amount of attention because of her gender,
claims she lacked the intelligence to mastermind the killings and the postconviction emergence of defense evidence that one of the triggermen
manipulated her." Under US law, anyone with an execution under 70
cannot be excuted. Lewis was judged to have an IQ of 72.
CBS News
"Teresa Lewis Execution: Virginia Executes Woman Amid Outcry,"
CBSnews.com, Sep. 24, 2010
Please do not write on the articles
Jan. 21, 2011
"The sole U.S. maker of the anesthetic
used in executions announced Friday
Sole Firm Stops
[Jan. 21, 2011] it would stop
Making Key Death manufacturing sodium thiopental to
Penalty Drug
prevent its product from being used to
put prisoners to death...
Hospira Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill.,
stopped making its brand of sodium
Pentothal Sodium. Source:
thiopental, Pentothal, at a North
Carolina plant early last year because www.addictionsearch.com (accessed Jan.
21, 2011)
of an unspecified raw material supply
problem. When Hospira attempted to move production to a factory in
Liscate, Italy, near Milan, Italian authorities demanded assurances that
the drug wouldn't end up in the hands of executioners. Hospira
spokesman Dan Rosenberg said company officers couldn't make that
guarantee and decided instead to ‘exit the sodium thiopental market.’
...California corrections officials imported a large quantity of sodium
thiopental - enough for about 90 executions - from a British distributor in
November, before a public outcry in Britain led to a ban on export of the
drug to the United States."
Los Angeles Times
"Maker of Anesthetic Used in Executions Is Discontinuing Drug" Los
Angeles Times, Jan. 22, 2011
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles
Please do not write on the articles