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Capital punishment in the United States

Capital punishment has existed in the United States before it became a country. As of 2021, capital punishment is legal in 27 out of 50 states.[1] The federal government and the United States military have capital punishment.

The United States is the only Western country that has capital punishment.[2]

History

Colonial America

Virginia

Before the United States became an independent country, it was a colony of the British Empire. The first known death sentence in colonial America happened in 1608. Captain George Kendall was executed by firing squad at the Jamestown colony after being accused of spying for the Spanish government.[3]

In colonial America, people could be executed for many things. In the Jamestown colony, the first set of rules and punishments the colony's Lieutenant Governor wrote was very strict. There were 48 different capital crimes (crimes that were punishable by death).[4] They included:[4][5]

When some colonists decided they did not like these strict rules, they ran away from the colony to live with nearby Native Americans. They were brought back to the colony, tortured, and executed.[6]

The Thirteen Colonies

 
Mary Dyer being led to her execution in 1660 for being a Quaker

Each of the Thirteen Colonies came up with its own death penalty laws. For example, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which was mostly Puritan, laws were harsh. Under its first capital punishment laws, which were effective from 1636-1647, people were executed for sodomy, adultery, witchcraft, blasphemy, bestiality, assault, rape, statutory rape, perjury in a capital trial, and murder.[3] Later, the colony continued to execute people for witchcraft,[7] including 20 people during the Salem Witch Trials.[8] They also executed people for being Quakers[9] and pirates.[10]

Under the New York colony's Duke's Laws of 1665, a person could be executed for "denial of the one true God" or for hitting their mother or father.[3]

Some colonies were not as strict. For example, the New Jersey colony had no death penalty, and in the Pennsylvania colony only murder and treason were capital crimes.[3]

Revolutionary War era

By 1776, most of the colonies had similar laws about the death penalty. In most colonies, the capital crimes were arson, piracy, treason, murder, sodomy, burglary, robbery, rape, stealing horses, slave rebellion, and counterfeiting (making fake money). Usually, people sentenced to death were hanged.[3]

During the American Revolutionary War, British Major John André was hanged by the Continental Army on October 2, 1780. He was convicted of spying and helping Benedict Arnold.[11]

Slaves

The first slaves were brought to the Jamestown colony in 1619.[12] Slavery was legal in the United States for the next 246 years, until the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution made it illegal in 1865.[13] Until that time, slaves had no rights.

Slaves could be punished or tortured for any reason, or for no reason at all.[14] Slaves who tried to escape or rebel were often tortured and executed where other slaves could see, to warn them not to do the same thing.[15][16]

For example, in 1755, in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, a slave named Mark was accused of poisoning his "master." He was executed, then hung in chains at Boston Harbor so his body would rot.[17] This was supposed to remind other slaves not to rebel every time they passed Mark's body.[a] Twenty years later, when Paul Revere made his "Midnight Ride," Mark's skeleton was still hanging in chains at Boston Harbor.[17]

During the 1700s, in the Southern colonies, an unknown number of slaves were executed, sometimes for things like hitting another slave, "fussing," or "sassing" a white person.[19] Laws in the Southern colonies were passed allowing cruel and unusual punishments as well as capital punishment for slaves.[16]

Reforms

In the late 1700s, activists like Benjamin Rush began to argue that the death penalty should not be used. Between 1794 and 1815, eight states passed laws that made fewer crimes punishable by death. However, many southern states made more crimes punishable by death, especially for slaves.[20]

Major reforms started to happen between 1833 and 1853. At that time, many executions were public events. By 1849, fifteen states had switched to private hangings.[3]

Abolition

In 1846, Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty, just after it entered the United States.[3]

In 1852, Massachusetts's state legislature voted to allow the death penalty only for first-degree murder. The next year, Wisconsin outlawed capital punishment. In 1887, Maine's state legislature banned the death penalty.[21]

The focus on the death penalty slowed while the country was busy with the issue of slavery and the American Civil War.[3] However, in 1897, the United States Congress passed a law that made fewer federal crimes punishable by death. In 1911, Minnesota abolished capital punishment. Several other states also abolished the death penalty, but would start using it again later.[21]

Between 1957 and 1973, six other states permanently abolished the death penalty:[21]

Furman v. Georgia

In 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Furman v. Georgia that the way death penalty laws were written made them unconstitutional.[22] They ruled that sentencing rules were discriminatory, because black people got sentenced to death more often than whites for the same crimes.[22] Because of this, the death penalty was cruel and unusual punishment, which violated the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution.[22] This ruling stopped all executions in the country. Between 1972 and 1976, there were no executions in the United States.[3]

However, by early 1975, thirty states had passed new death penalty laws that they thought would satisfy the Supreme Court.[3] They did. In Gregg v. Georgia (1976), the Supreme Court ruled that Georgia's new death penalty law was constitutional. It ruled that capital punishment was not always cruel and unusual punishment, as long as it was done fairly.[23] This meant that states could start executing people again, as long as they had rewritten their death penalty laws like Georgia did, to say that the death penalty would be applied fairly. In 1977, executions began again in the United States.

 
Minimum ages for executions before Roper v. Simmons      No capital punishment     Minimum age of 18     Minimum age of 17     Minimum age of 16

Limitations

In two major cases, the Supreme Court has limited who may be executed. In Atkins v. Virginia (2002), the Court decided that executing people with intellectual disabilities is cruel and unusual punishment, and is against the Eighth Amendment.[24] Before this decision, between 1984 and 1992, forty-four people with intellectual disabilities were executed in the United States.[24]

Also, in Roper v. Simmons (2005), the Supreme Court made it illegal to execute a person who was younger than 18 when they committed their crime.[25]

Number of executions

In 2004, two researchers named M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykia put together a list of executions that became known as "The ESPY File."[26] The Espy File says that between 1608 and 1991, in the American colonies and then the United States, 15,269 people were executed.[26] The Espy File is "the most often cited and used list of America's legal executions."[27] However, in a 2011 study, two researchers criticized The Espy File. They wrote that researchers should not use the File as a complete source of information about executions.[27]

According to the United States Department of Justice, between 1930 and 2002, the United States executed 4,679 people.[28] About two-thirds of these people (about 3,100 people) were executed between 1930 and 1950.[28]

Between 1916 and 1955, the United States military executed 135 soldiers.[29] The military has not executed anyone since 1955.[29]

In 2016, only 5 of 50 or 10% of US states had executions. They were Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Missouri and Texas.

Methods

 
Ann Hibbins is hanged for witchcraft in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1656

Throughout American history, different methods of execution have been used. During colonial times, cruel and painful methods like burning or crushing people to death were sometimes used.[6] However, since 1776, all but a few executions have been carried out in one of five ways: hanging, firing squad, the electric chair, the gas chamber, or lethal injection.[32]

Since the Bill of Rights was added to the United States Constitution in 1791, "cruel and unusual punishment" has been against the law in the United States.[33] This means that even if a person commits a terrible crime, the Constitution says their punishment cannot be painful or cause suffering on purpose.

Hanging

Until the beginning of the 20th century, hanging was the most common method of execution in the United States.[32]

However, hanging did not always work the way it was supposed to. If the rope and noose were not put in the correct position, a person could be decapitated. If the rope was not long enough, the person could slowly die of strangulation.[32] People started looking for more 'civilized' ways to execute people.[32]

Electric chair

See also: Electric chair

After Thomas Edison discovered direct current (DC) electricity in 1882, his company showed how powerful it was by using it to kill animals.[3] The idea of using electricity to kill humans grew out of this. New York built the first electric chair, and first used it to execute a prisoner on August 6, 1890.[32] Other states also adopted the electric chair as a method of execution, believing that it was a less painful way to die than hanging.[32]

However, it became clear, even to some members of the Supreme Court, that dying in an electric chair was very painful.[34] Also, even up until the 1990s, electric chairs would work incorrectly, causing prisoners to catch fire or be awake while they were being electrocuted.[32] Around the 1980s, most states began to use lethal injection instead.[32]

Gas chamber

See also: Gas chamber
 
The former gas chamber at New Mexico State Penitentiary

Still looking for a more "humane" methods of execution, in 1924, Nevada prison officials tried to secretly pump cyanide gas into death row prisoner Gee Jon's cell to kill him while he slept. This did not work, and they had to build a gas chamber. On February 8, 1924, Jon became the first person to be executed by gas chamber.[32]

From 1924 to 1972, the United States executed about 600 people in gas chambers.[35] Most states used hydrogen cyanide gas. However, by the mid-1970s and 1980s, many people had started to criticize the use of gas chambers.[35] Death from hydrogen cyanide poisoning can be long and painful,[36][37] and in some executions, prisoners suffered long deaths.[38][39] After one of these executions, a federal court in California ruled that "execution by lethal gas under the California protocol is unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment."[40]

Also, according to sociologist Clifton Bryant, the way it is used in the United States, "the gas chamber is ... the most dangerous, most complicated, and most expensive method of administering the death penalty."[41] By the late 20th century, most states had switched to using lethal injection.[35]

Lethal injection

See also: Lethal injection

In the 1970s, Oklahoma passed the first law that allowed executions by lethal injection.[42] This was a practical decision: Oklahoma's old electric chair would need expensive repairs, and building a gas chamber would cost over $200,000. However, executing a person by lethal injection would only cost $10 to $15 per person.[42] Lethal injection grew more and more popular in death penalty states. It was viewed as less painful, with less suffering, than the electric chair or gas chamber.[35] Texas was the first state to execute someone by lethal injection, in 1982.[43] Over the next 30 years, all of the death penalty states passed laws making lethal injection their first-choice (or only) method of execution.[43]

 
The execution room at San Quentin State Prison where lethal injections are done

However, in the 2010s, American prisons started having trouble getting enough of the medications used to carry out lethal injections. The states had been using three medications for lethal injections:[44]

  1. Sodium thiopental (an anesthetic to put the prisoner to sleep)
  2. Pancuronium bromide (to paralyze the prisoner)
  3. Potassium chloride (to stop the prisoner's heart)

Then, in 2011, Hospira, the only American company that made sodium thiopental, stopped making the drug.[45] The European Union makes other anesthetics, like propofol. However, since the European Union is against the death penalty, they made it illegal to export any product that could be used in an execution.[45] Another anesthetic, pentobarbital, is also only made in the European Union, and the company that makes it has put limits on selling it to U.S. government customers.[46] A few states have tried mixtures of other drugs, but those executions have not gone well.[47][48][49]

As of 2016, many death penalty states have temporarily stopped using lethal injection until they can find a solution to this problem.[32]

Other options

As of January 1, 2016, fifteen states have laws that allow them to use a method of execution other than lethal injection. Before the lethal injection drug shortages, these other methods were rarely used. From 1976 to March 23, 2016, there were 1,431 executions:[50]

  • 1,256 (88%) were by lethal injection
  • 158 (11%) were by electric chair
  • 11 (0.8%) were by gas chamber
  • 3 (0.2%) were by hanging
  • 3 (0.2%) were by firing squad

However, since they stopped being able to get lethal injection drugs, some states have thought about going back to other methods of execution. Here are the states whose laws allow them to use other methods, as of January 1, 2016:[43]

Allowed when drugs used for lethal injection are not available
State Method Notes
Delaware Hanging
New Hampshire Hanging Also allowed any time prison officials choose[51]
Oklahoma Gas chamber Law approving nitrogen asphyxiation passed after
drugs became unavailable[52]
Tennessee Electric chair
Utah Firing squad Approved in 2015 for use when drugs are unavailable[32]
Wyoming Gas chamber
Allowed when prisoner was sentenced
before lethal injection was legal
Arizona Gas chamber
Arkansas Electric chair
Kentucky Electric chair
Tennessee Electric chair
Allowed if the prisoner chooses not to have lethal injection
Alabama Electric chair
Florida Electric chair
Missouri Gas chamber
South Carolina Electric chair
Utah Firing squad
Virginia Electric chair
Washington Hanging

Laws

This table shows the death penalty laws in 49 of the 50 states; Washington, D.C.; the federal government; and the United States military, as of January 1, 2016.[43][54] Under the category "Status," there are four possibilities:

  1. Abolished. This state no longer uses the death penalty.
  2. Legal. This state still uses the death penalty.
  3. Moratorium. This means the death penalty law has been temporarily stopped.
  4. De facto moratorium. This means the death penalty is still officially legal. However, the state has not executed anyone in at least five years (except for people who ask to be executed).

Click on the little triangle at the top of each header box to sort the information in this table by a certain category.

State/Jurisdiction Status Year Abolished Executions
Since 1976		 Death Row
Inmates		 Notes
U.S. government Moratorium (de facto) 16 62 13 executions from July 2020 - January 2021 under Trump
U.S. military Moratorium (de facto) 0 6 No executions since 1976
Michigan Abolished 1846 0 0 Banned in 1846 except for treason; banned for all crimes in 1963
Wisconsin Abolished 1853 0 0
Maine Abolished 1887 0 0
Minnesota Abolished 1911 0 0
Alaska Abolished 1957 0 0 Abolished death penalty before becoming a state
Hawaii Abolished 1957 0 0 Abolished death penalty before becoming a state
Iowa Abolished 1965 0 0 Originally abolished in 1872; restarted in 1878, then abolished in 1965
Vermont Abolished 1965 0 0
West Virginia Abolished 1965 0 0
North Dakota Abolished 1973 0 0 Abolished in 1915 except for treason or murder by prison inmates; completely abolished in 1973
Washington, D.C. Abolished 1981 0 0
Massachusetts Abolished 1984 0 0 Found unconstitutional by Massachusetts Supreme Court in 1984
Rhode Island Abolished 1984 0 0 Originally abolished in 1852; restarted in 1873
New York Abolished 2004 0 0 Ruled unconstitutional in 2004 and 2007; death penalty could be used again if the legislature changed unconstitutional sentencing laws
New Mexico Abolished 2009 1 2
Illinois Abolished 2011 12 0 Governor ordered moratorium in 2000; abolished by legislature in 2011
Connecticut Abolished 2012 1 0
Maryland Abolished 2013 5 0
Washington Abolished 2018 5 0
New Hampshire Abolished 2019 0 1 No executions since 1976
Ohio Moratorium (de facto) 53 143 All executions delayed until 2017 due to not having enough lethal injection drugs
North Carolina Moratorium (de facto) 43 155 State medical board refused to let doctors participate
Louisiana Moratorium (de facto) 28 81 No executions since 2010
Arkansas Moratorium (de facto) 27 36 State Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the death penalty law is invalid till the state says what chemicals it will use for lethal injection
Indiana Moratorium (de facto) 20 13 No executions since 2009
California Moratorium (de facto) 13 743 In 2006 & 2014, court ruled current process unconstitutional; new process being developed
Nevada Moratorium (de facto) 12 79 All executions stopped due to lethal injection problems
Tennessee Moratorium (de facto) 6 71 No executions since 2009
Kentucky Moratorium (de facto) 3 34 In 2009, state Supreme Court set a moratorium until new protocol existed; new protocol being developed
Montana Moratorium (de facto) 3 2 In 2012, protocol found unconstitutional; new 2013 protocol being challenged
Wyoming Moratorium (de facto) 1 1 No executions since 1992
Kansas Moratorium (de facto) 0 10 No executions since 1976
Texas Legal 536 263
Virginia Legal 111 7
Florida Legal 92 396 In 2015, state Supreme Court ruled Florida's method of sentencing is unconstitutional; state will have to change sentencing laws and review death penalty cases
Missouri Legal 86 28 Originally abolished in 1911, restarted in 1917 and again in 1975 after Furman
Georgia Legal 62 78
Alabama Legal 86 28
South Carolina Legal 43 43
Mississippi Legal 21 48
Delaware Legal 16 18 Originally abolished in 1958, restarted in 1961 and again in 1974 after Furman
Utah Legal 7 9
Nebraska Legal 3 10 Repealed in 2015 by the unicarmarel. Reinstated in 2016 by a ballot initiative.
Idaho Legal 3 9
South Dakota Legal 3 3
Oklahoma Moratorium 112 49 In 2014, state Department of Corrections suggested a moratorium after an execution that went badly
Arizona Moratorium 37 125 In 2014, Attorney General set a moratorium while investigating an execution that went badly
Washington Moratorium 5 9 Governor ordered moratorium in 2014
Pennsylvania Moratorium 3 180 Governor ordered moratorium in 2015
Oregon Moratorium 2 34 Governor ordered moratorium in 2011
Colorado Moratorium 1 3 In 2013, Governor stopped all executions due to unfairness of the system, and did not say when executions could start again
Totals 1,431 2,943

Sentencing

In some areas, prosecutors ask for the death penalty, and judges grant the death penalty, more often than in other areas. Also, once people are convicted and are on "death row," how quickly they are executed depends on the state they are in. On average, in 2004, death penalty states had executed about 10% of the people on their "death rows." However, California had executed only 1% of its prisoners who are sentenced to death. Texas executed 40% of theirs.[55]

Among races

One of the controversies about the death penalty is whether it is given unequally to people of different races.

In a report in 1983, David Baldus and others wrote a famous report that looked at whether the death penalty was applied equally to people of different races in Georgia. They found that:[56]

  • People are more likely to be sentenced to death for killing whites than for killing blacks
  • Black defendants are more likely to get the death penalty than whites

In 1987, the Supreme Court decided a case called McCleskey v. Kemp. McCleskey's lawyers showed that in Georgia, where McCleskey lived, black people convicted of killing whites were four times more likely to get the death penalty than people convicted of killing non-whites.[57] The Supreme Court accepted this, but ruled against McCleskey. They wrote: "[inequalities] in sentencing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice system."[57] Since then, judges have not allowed lawyers to argue that racial bias plays a part in the death penalty.[58]

“ [Inequalities] in sentencing are an inevitable part of our criminal justice system.

– United States Supreme Court, McCleskey v. Kemp (1987) 		”

Anti-death penalty groups like Amnesty International say:[59]

  • As of 2003, African Americans made up 41% of death row inmates, but only 12.6% of the United States population
    • 34% of the people executed since 1976 have been African American
  • About the same number of blacks and whites are murdered. However, 80% of the people executed since 1977 were convicted of murdering white people

The United States Department of Justice says that between 1980 and 2008, African Americans committed 52.5% of the murders in the United States; whites committed 45.3%; and Native Americans and Asians committed 2.2%. This means African Americans are less likely to be executed on a per capita basis.[60] The Department of Justice also says that as of 2009, Hispanic or Latino people make up 17.4% of the United States population, but only 13.5% of death row prisoners.[61]

A 2012 study found that non-white soldiers in the United States military are twice as likely as white soldiers to be given the death penalty.[62] Of the 16 soldiers the military has sentenced to death between 1985 and 2012, 10 (62.5%) were non-whites, one of the study's authors said.[63]

Among sexes

The death penalty is definitely given much more often to men than women. As of October 1, 2014:[64]

  • 98.12% of the people currently on death row are men (2,978 men); 1.88% (57) are women
  • 98.92% of the people executed since 1976 have been men (1,374 men); 1.08% (15) have been women

Exoneration

The University of Michigan Law School keeps a list of people who have been exonerated from death row. The list counts "exonerations" as cases where "a person who has been convicted of a crime is officially cleared based on new evidence of innocence."[65]

According to the list, between 1989 and 2015, 116 people have been exonerated from death row. The most common reasons why these people were exonerated were:[g][66]

  • The person was convicted at least partly because police, prosecutors, judges, or other government officials abused their power (88 people were exonerated at least partly for this reason. This is about 76% of the 116 exonerated people.)
  • Somebody lied in court or lied when they accused the person of the crime: (85 people – 73%)
  • The person was convicted based on forensic evidence that was wrong, exaggerated, not proven to be good science, or was fake: 32 people (28%)
  • The person's lawyer gave the person an "inadequate legal defense" (the lawyer did not give the person even a basic defense, or made very serious errors during the trial): 31 people (27%)

DNA evidence proved that 25 of these people – about 22% – were innocent of the crimes they were sentenced to death for.[66]

Of the 116 people who were exonerated, 62 (about 53%) were black, 43 (37%) were white, 9 (8%) were Hispanic, and two were members of other races (2%). In the 88 cases where a government official abused their power, 51 of the exonerated people (about 58%) were black; 29 were Caucasian (33%); and 8 (9%) were Hispanic. Seventeen of the 31 people who received an "inadequate legal defense" (about 55%) were black; 12 (about 39%) were white; and two (about 6%) were Hispanic.[66]

Arguments

The death penalty is a very controversial topic in the United States. People have argued about it since before the Thirteen Colonies became the United States. There are many different arguments for and against the death penalty. This list does not include all of them, just some of the most common ones.

Possibility of mistakes

 
Gravestone of someone who was hanged by mistake in Arizona in 1882[h]

People who do not agree with the death penalty (death penalty opponents) say our trial system is not perfect. Judges and juries make mistakes. One study done by Columbia Law School found that there were serious mistakes in two-thirds of all capital trials.[67] In these trials, the defendants were sentenced to death anyway. However, when their cases were appealed, over 80% of the defendants were not sentenced to death; 7% were found not guilty.[67]

Opponents argue that because mistakes are so common in capital trials, people can be executed even though they were innocent.[68] As proof, they point the 116 people who were exonerated from death row between 1989 and 2015.[66]

People who support the death penalty (death penalty supporters) say that mistakes are very rare, especially since new laws were made in the 1970s to add protections for death row inmates. For example, Steve Stewart, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the Clark County, Indiana, Fourth Judicial Court, says:

“ No system of justice can produce results which are 100% certain all the time. Mistakes will be made in any system which relies upon human testimony for proof. ... However, the risk of making a mistake with the extraordinary due process applied in death penalty cases is very small, and there is no credible evidence to show that any innocent persons have been executed at least since the death penalty was reactivated in 1976 [after Furman].

The 100+ death row inmates [called] "innocent", "exonerated" and released, as trumpeted by anti-death penalty activists, is a fraud. The actual number of [truly] innocent released death row inmates is closer to 40,[i] and in any event should be considered in context of over 8,000 death sentences handed down since 1973. It stands as the most accurate judgment/sentence in any system of justice ever created.[69]

 ”

Preventing other crimes

Death penalty supporters say that capital punishment is a deterrent. This means that people are scared of the death penalty and are less likely to commit a capital crime if they know they could get the death penalty.[70]

Supporters also argue that the next most serious punishment for capital crimes is life in prison. In some states, this means the person could be let out of prison someday. Also, even being in prison for life does not keep killers from killing more people in prison. Executing people is the only way to make sure they will never kill another person.[69]

Opponents argue that nobody has ever proved that capital punishment is more of a deterrent than a long prison sentence.[71][72] They point out that most states and countries that do not have the death penalty have lower murder rates than death penalty states.[68] They also say that the death penalty is not a deterrent because people often commit murders when they are very upset and are not thinking about what might happen in the future.[71]

Among scholars and researchers, there is no agreement about whether capital punishment is more of a deterrent than any other punishment. Some researchers have done studies that say the death penalty is a deterrent.[73][74][75] Other studies have found that the death penalty is not a deterrent – in the United States,[76][77] or in other countries.[78]

Whether the death penalty is applied unfairly

Opponents argue that defendants who are poor and/or non-white are more likely to get the death penalty than whites, even if they have committed the same crimes.[71] Supporters say that opponents misuse statistics and exaggerate the situation.[70] For more information, see the section on Sentencing: Among races farther up on this page.

Whether the death penalty is cruel and unusual punishment

Death penalty debaters argue about whether capital punishment is "cruel and unusual punishment" (which would be unconstitutional). Even the people on the Supreme Court have disagreed on this issue. In 2004, the Court ruled in Baze v. Rice that even if an execution causes pain, that does not make it cruel and unusual.[79] However, in his dissenting opinion in Gregg v. Georgia, Justice William Brennan wrote that the death penalty is "an unusually severe punishment, unusual in its pain... [it] is today a cruel and unusual punishment prohibited by the ... Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments."[80]

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), an anti-death penalty group, adds that capital punishment is "unusual" because:[71]

  • The United States is the only western nation that uses the death penalty; and
  • Only a very small number of murderers in the United States get the death penalty.

Morals and religions

 
A death penalty protestor holds a sign quoting the Bible (Matthew 25:40)

Religion plays a complicated role in death penalty arguments. To support the death penalty, some people quote from the Old Testament of the Bible, which says: "An eye for an eye, a life for a life." This means that if you take a life, you should pay with your own life. However, others use parts of the New Testament, where Jesus talks about forgiveness and nonviolence, to oppose the death penalty. They say that no one has the right to take a life but God – even if that person has taken a life himself.[68]

In 1999, a group of Jewish rabbis and Catholic Bishops had this to say:

“ [T]eaching people to respond to violence with violence will, again, only breed more violence. ... Respect for all human life and opposition to the violence in our society are at the root of our long-standing 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.

... 'We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing.'[81]

 ”

Opponents also point out:

“ The [idea] of an eye for an eye, or a life for a life, is a simplistic one which our society has never [supported]. We do not allow torturing the torturer, or raping the rapist. Taking the life of a murderer is a similarly disproportionate punishment, especially in light of the fact that the U.S. executes only a small percentage of those convicted of murder, and these defendants are typically not the worst offenders but merely the ones with the fewest resources to defend themselves.[68] ”

Graphs and charts

  • Hover over each photo to view label detail; click on the photo to make it bigger

  • Number of executions in the American colonies and the United States, from 1608 to 2009

  • Number of executions from 1608 to 2009, by method of execution

  • Total number of prisoners sentenced to death in the United States from 1953 to 2008

  • Executions in the United States from 1960 to 2010 (no executions happened between 1972-1976 because of Furman)

  • States that use lethal injection
         State uses only this method      State uses this method primarily but has secondary methods      State has never used this method

  • Electric chair use
         Possible second-choice method      Used in the past      Never used

  • Map showing how countries voted when the UN suggested a death penalty moratorium (2008)
         In favour (106)     Against (46)     Did not vote (34)

Notes

  1. ↑ The Massachusetts Bay Colony, and other colonial cities by the ocean, also used this punishment on pirates. The goal was to warn other pirates who might be sailing by what the punishment would be if they were caught.[18]
  2. ↑ Wirz was in charge of Andersonville Prison, where almost 13,000 Union Army prisoners of war died or were killed.[30]
  3. ↑ Stinney was the youngest person in the United States to be convicted and executed in the 20th century. In 2014, he was exonerated.[31]
  4. ↑ Photo is from Rutland County Museum in England
  5. ↑ Photo is from Cuba, 1956
  6. ↑ For lethal injections, the brown table is used. For execution by firing squad, guards point their rifles through the slots in the wall at the middle-left of the picture. The prisoner is strapped into the black chair. Witnesses can watch through the windows on the right of the picture.
  7. ↑ Some people were exonerated for more than one reason.
  8. ↑ The gravestone says: "Here lies George Johnson Hanged by mistake 1882 He was right We was wrong But we strung him up And now he's gone
  9. ↑ Many death penalty supporters argue that when prisoners are exonerated, this does not mean they were actually innocent. They argue that guilty people get set free from death row because of legal mistakes.[69]

References

  1. ↑ Legislatures, National Conference of State. "States and Capital Punishment". www.ncsl.org. Retrieved 2018-11-01.
  2. ↑ Leigh B. Bienen (2010). Murder and Its Consequences: Essays on Capital Punishment in America (2nd ed.). Northwestern University Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-8101-2697-8.
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 Reggie, Michael H. (1997). "History of the Death Penalty". In Laura E. Randa (ed.) (ed.). Society’s Final Solution: A History and Discussion of the Death Penalty (online version). University Press of America, Inc. ISBN 978-0761807131. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Knight, Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Gates (May 24, 1610). "Articles, Laws and Orders, Divine, Politic, and Martial for the Colony in Virginia". Colonial Williamsburg. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  5. ↑ Kronenwetter, Michael (1993). Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, Inc. p. 71. ISBN 978-0874367188.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Hume, Ivor Noel (2011). "Upon Paine of Death: The Lawes Divine, Morall and Martiall (online version)". The Colonial Williamsburg Journal. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  7. ↑ Jewett, Clarence F. (1881). The Memorial History of Boston: Including Suffolk County, Massachusetts, 1630–1880. Ticknor and Company. pp. 138–141. ISBN 978-1241516611.
  8. ↑ Wallenfeldt, Jeff (January 26, 2016). "Salem Witch Trials". Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  9. ↑ Society of Friends (1921). Christian Life, Faith and Thought in the Society of Friends. Book of Discipline Part 1. London: Friends Book Centre. p. 31. ASIN B0024J3T5I.
  10. ↑ Brennan, John T. (2007). Ghosts of Newport: Spirits, Scoundrels, Legends and Lore. The History Press. p. 15. ISBN 978-1596293359.
  11. ↑ Schwarz, Frederic D. (August/September 2005). "1780: 225 Years Ago – Benedict's Betrayal". American Heritage Magazine. 56 (4). Archived from the original on May 7, 2006. Retrieved March 23, 2016. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ↑ "Timeline of Events Leading to the Brown v. Board of Education Decision, 1954". Teachers’ Resources. United States National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved March 2, 2016.
  13. ↑ "Constitution of the United States: Amendments 11-27". Charters of Freedom. United States National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  14. ↑ Moore, Wilbert Ellis (1980). American Negro Slavery and Abolition: A Sociological Study. Ayer Publishing. p. 114. ISBN 978-0405129827.
  15. ↑ Lasgrayt, Deborah (1999). Ar'n't I a Woman?: Female Slaves in the Plantation South (2nd ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. ISBN 978-0393314816.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Christian, Charles M., and Bennet, Sari (1998). Black Saga: The African American Experience : A Chronology. Basic Civitas Books. pp. 27-28. ISBN 978-0395687178.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 DeLombard, Jeannine Marie (2012). In the Shadow of the Gallows: Race, Crime, and American Civic Identity. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 81. ISBN 978-0812206333.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 Cahill, Robert Ellis (1994). New England’s Cruel and Unusual Punishments. Old Saltbox Publishing House. p. 63, 78. ISBN 978-0962616297.
  19. ↑ Rawick, George P. (1972). "'From Sundown to Sunup'": Making of the Black Community. p.1. ISBN 978-0837162997.
  20. ↑ Mackey, Phillip English (1976). Voices Against Death: American Opposition to Capital Punishment, 1787-1975. New York: Burt Franklin & Co., Inc. pp. xi-xii. ISBN 978-0891020622.
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 "31 States with the Death Penalty and 19 States with Death Penalty Bans". The Death Penalty. ProCon. 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 408 U.S. 238 (1972).
  23. ↑ 428 U.S. 153 (1976).
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 536 U.S. 304 (2002).
  25. ↑ 543 U.S. 551 (2005).
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Espy, M. Watt; Smykia, John Ortiz (2004). "Executions in the United States, 1608-2002: The ESPY File (ICPSR 8451)". National Archive of Criminal Justice Data. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. Retrieved March 24, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) doi:http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR08451.v4.
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 Blackman, Paul H.; McLaughlin, Vance (August 2011). "The Espy File on American Executions: User Beware". Homicide Studies. SAGE Publications. 15 (3): 209–227. doi:10.1177/1088767911418054. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 Bonczar, Thomas P.; Snell, Tracy L. (November 2003). "Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin: Capital Punishment, 2002" (PDF). Bureau of Justice Statistics. United States Department of Justice. Retrieved March 24, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 Carter, Chelsea J. (August 6, 2013). "Military death row: More than 50 years and no executions". CNN Online. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  30. ↑ "History of the Andersonville Prison". National Park Service: National Historic Sites. United States Department of the Interior. 2016. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Bever, Lindsey (December 18, 2014). It took 10 minutes to convict 14-year-old George Stinney Jr. It took 70 years after his execution to exonerate him. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/12/18/the-rush-job-conviction-of-14-year-old-george-stinney-exonerated-70-years-after-execution/. 
  32. ↑ 32.00 32.01 32.02 32.03 32.04 32.05 32.06 32.07 32.08 32.09 32.10 Ford, Matt (March 13, 2015). "How to Execute People in the 21st Century". The Atlantic Online. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  33. ↑ Madison, James,; et al. (1789). "Bill of Rights". The Charters of Freedom. United States National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved March 23, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  34. ↑ Glass v. Louisiana, 472 U.S. 1033 (1985) (Brennan, J., dissenting).
  35. ↑ 35.0 35.1 35.2 35.3 Denno, Deborah W. "Gas Chamber". Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Encyclopaedia Britannica Inc. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  36. ↑ Palmer, Jr., Louis J. (2008). Encyclopedia of Capital Punishment in the United States (2nd ed.). McFarland. p. 319. ISBN 978-0786432639.
  37. ↑ Schabas, William (1996). The Death Penalty as Cruel Treatment and Torture: Capital Punishment Challenged in the World's Courts. Northeastern. p. 194. ISBN 978-1555532680.
  38. ↑ Weil, Elizabeth (February 11, 2007). The needle and the damage done. https://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/magazine/11injection.t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin. Retrieved March 23, 2016. 
  39. ↑ MacDonald, Neil (November 7, 2007). "Might we make executions more civilized, please?". CBC News Online. CBC. Archived from the original on October 14, 2010. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  40. ↑ Fierro, Ruiz, Harris v. Gomez, 94-16775 (U.S. 9th Circuit 1996).
  41. ↑ Bryant, Clifton D. (2003). Handbook of Death and Dying. SAGE Publications. p. 499. ISBN 978-0761925149.
  42. ↑ 42.0 42.1 Bedau, Hugo Adam (1982). The Death Penalty in America. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-0195029871.
  43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 43.2 43.3 "States and Capital Punishment". National Conference of State Legislatures. January 1, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  44. ↑ Sanburn, Josh (May 15, 2014). "Creator of Lethal Injection Method: 'I Don't See Anything That is More Humane'". TIME Online. Time Inc. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 Horne, Jennifer (2016). "Lethal Injection Drug Shortage". Capitol Ideas Newsletter. The Council of State Governments. Archived from the original on March 23, 2016. Retrieved March 23, 2016.
  46. ↑ Rath, Arun (host) (October 26, 2013). Lacking Lethal Injection Drugs, States Find Untested Backups [Transcript]. https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=241011316. 
  47. ↑ New drug combo used in Ohio execution. Turner Broadcasting System Inc. http://edition.cnn.com/2014/01/16/justice/ohio-dennis-mcguire-execution/. Retrieved March 23, 2016. 
  48. ↑ Unclear future for executions after Ohio's longest. January 18, 2014. http://www.ctpost.com/news/crime/article/Unclear-future-for-executions-after-Ohio-s-longest-5154773.php. Retrieved March 23, 2016. 
  49. ↑ Fretland, Katie (April 30, 2014). "Oklahoma execution: Clayton Lockett writhes on gurney in botched procedure". The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/30/oklahoma-execution-botched-clayton-lockett. Retrieved March 23, 2016. 
  50. ↑ "Facts about the Death Penalty" (PDF). Death Penalty Information Center. March 23, 2016. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  51. ↑ New Hampshire Laws, TITLE LXII: Criminal Code, Chapter 630: Homicide, Section 630:5, Procedure in Capital Murder. – Clause XIV. From statutes 1974, 34:10. 1977, 440:2. 1986, 82:1. 1990, 199:3, eff. Jan. 1, 1991. General Court of New Hampshire State. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  52. ↑ Sunburn, Josh (April 17, 2015). The Dawn of a New Form of Capital Punishment. TIME. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  53. ↑ "Capital Punishment Exhibit". Texas Prison Museum. 2015. Retrieved March 26, 2016.
  54. ↑ "The Death Penalty in Flux". Death Penalty Information Center. March 23, 2015. Archived from the original on January 3, 2016. Retrieved March 22, 2016.
  55. ↑ Blume, John; Eisenberg, Theodore; & Wells, Martin T. (March 2004). "Explaining Death Row's Population and Racial Composition". Journal of Empirical Legal Studies. 1 (1): 165–207. doi:10.1111/j.1740-1461.2004.00006.x. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  56. ↑ Baldus, David C.; Pulaski, Charles; Woodworth, George (1983). "Comparative Review of Death Sentences: An Empirical Study of the Georgia Experience". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Northwestern University. 74 (3): 661–753. doi:10.2307/1143133. JSTOR 1143133.
  57. ↑ 57.0 57.1 481 U.S. 279 (1987).
  58. ↑ Touré (May 3, 2012). "Put to Death for Being Black: New Hope Against Judicial System Bias". TIME Online. Time Inc. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  59. ↑ "United States of America: Death by discrimination – the continuing role of race in capital cases". Amnesty International. April 23, 2003. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  60. ↑ Cooper, Alexia (2012). Homicide Trends in the United States, 1980–2008. BiblioGov. p. 3. ISBN 1249573246.
  61. ↑ Snell, Tracy L. (December 2010). "Bureau of Justice Statistics: Statistical Tables – Capital Punishment, 2009" (PDF). Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics. United States Department of Justice. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  62. ↑ Baldus, David C.; Grosso, Catherine M.; Woodworth, George; & Newell, Richard (2012). "Racial Discrimination in the Administration of the Death Penalty: The Experience of the United States Armed Forces (1984-2005)" (PDF). The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology. Northwestern University School of Law. 101 (4): 1227–1336. Retrieved March 24, 2016.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  63. ↑ Parker, Kristen; Grosso, Catherine (February 17, 2012). "Study: Military Death Sentence More Likely for Minorities". MSU Today. Michigan State University. Retrieved March 24, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  64. ↑ Fins, Deborah (Fall 2014) Death Row U.S.A. . Criminal Justice Project of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc, 1-62. Report.
  65. ↑ "Glossary". University of Michigan Law School. 2016. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  66. ↑ 66.0 66.1 66.2 66.3 "Detailed View [Sentence: Death]". University of Michigan Law School. 2016. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  67. ↑ 67.0 67.1 Liebman, James S.; Fagan, Jeffrey;; et al. (February 11, 2012). "A Broken System, Part II: Why There Is So Much Error in Capital Cases, and What Can Be Done About It" (PDF). A Broken System. Columbia Law School. Retrieved March 24, 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 68.2 68.3 "High School Curriculum: The Death Penalty" (PDF). The Death Penalty: A Curriculum for High School Students and Teachers. Missouri State University. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  69. ↑ 69.0 69.1 69.2 Stewart, Steven D. "A Message from the Prosecuting Attorney". The Clark County Prosecuting Attorney. Office of the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  70. ↑ 70.0 70.1 David B. Muhlhausen (June 27, 2007). The Death Penalty Deters Crime and Saves Lives (Speech). Washington, D.C. (Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Property Rights of the Committee on the Judiciary of the United States). 
  71. ↑ 71.0 71.1 71.2 71.3 "The Death Penalty: Questions and Answers". American Civil Liberties Union. Retrieved March 25, 2016.
  72. ↑ Ehrenreund, Max (April 30, 2014). "There's still no evidence that executions deter criminals". The Washington Post Online. WP Company LLC. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  73. ↑ Dezhbakhsh, Hashem; Rubin, Paul H.; & Shepherd, Joanna M. (2003). Does Capital Punishment Have a Deterrent Effect? New Evidence from Postmoratorium Panel Data. American Law and Economics Review 5 (2): 344-376. doi:10.1093/aler/ahg021.
  74. ↑ Mocan, H. Naci; & Gittings, R. Kaj (2003). Getting Off Death Row: Commuted Sentences and the Deterrent Effect of Capital Punishment. International Library of Critical Writings in Economics 195 (3): 1-36.
  75. ↑ Zimmerman, Paul R. (2004). State Executions, Deterrence, and the Incidence of Murder. Journal of Applied Economics 7: 1-31. doi:10.2139/ssrn.354680.
  76. ↑ Donohue, John J., & Wolfers, Justin (2006). Uses and Abuses of Empirical Evidence in the Death Penalty Debate. Stanford Law Review 58: 791-846. doi:10.3386/w11982.
  77. ↑ Katz, Lawrence; Levitt, Steven D.; & Shustorovich, Ellen (2003). Prison Conditions, Capital Punishment, and Deterrence. American Law & Economics Review 5 (2): 318-343. doi:10.1093/aler/ahg014.
  78. ↑ Zimring, Franklin; Fagan, Jeffrey; & Johnson, David T. (August 31, 2009). Executions, Deterrence and Homicide: A Tale of Two Cities. Columbia Public Law Research Paper No. 09-206; CELS 2009 4th Annual Conference on Empirical Legal Studies Paper. doi:10.2139/ssrn.1436993.
  79. ↑ 553 U.S. 35 (2008).
  80. ↑ 428 U.S. 153 (1976), Brennan, J., dissenting.
  81. ↑ The National Jewish/Catholic Consultation (November 9, 1999) To End the Death Penalty . The National Council of Synagogues and the Bishops’ Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2. Report.

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