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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


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


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. 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.

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 BishopsExcerpts 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 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. 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

Historical TimelineHistory of the Death Penalty

1700 BC - 1799 1800-1945 1946-1979

1980-1999 2000-Present

1770 BC - 1799Date/Event/Sport Description

1700s BC

Code of Hammurabi Codifies the

Death Penalty for the First Time

Code of Hammurabi (c. 1760 BC).

Source: www.louvre.fr (accessed Apr. 15,

2010)"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., twenty-five 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

1608

First Recorded Execution in the British American Colonies Was for

Treason

"In fourteenth-century England, one could be executed for a crime as minor as disturbing the peace. And three centuries later, when the first

colonists came to the land now known as the United States, they brought the British penal system across the ocean with them. A colonist in Virginia could be executed for crimes as trivial as stealing grapes, killing chickens,

or trading with the Indians.


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, 20031682

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

Italian Jurist Presents a

Critique of the Death Penalty

That Influences Abolitionists

Portrait of Cesare Beccaria. Source:

www.giovannidallorto.com (accessed Jan. 9, 2010)

"The first prominent European to call for an end to the death penalty, Beccaria is considered the founder of the modern abolition movement... In 1764, Beccaria published his famous Essays on Crimes and Punishments. It was the first major study of the criminal justice system as it operated in

eighteenth-century Europe, as well as the first call for the abolition of


capital punishment. It remains the most influential attack on the death penalty ever published...

It was Beccaria, though, who focused the attention of philosophers and political leaders 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, 20011775

Death Penalty Used in All 13 US

Colonies at Outbreak of American

Revolution

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 10 crimes punishable by death. The colonies had "roughly comparable death statutes which covered arson, piracy, treason, murder, sodomy, burglary,

robbery, rape, horse-stealing, slave rebellion, and often counterfeiting. Hanging was the usual sentence. Rhode Island was probably the only

colony which decreased the number of capital crimes in the late 1700's."

Michael H. Reggio "History of the Death Penalty," Pbs.org (accessed Dec. 16, 2009)1787

Founding Fathers Allow for Death Penalty When

Writing Constitution

"To most constitutional lawyers there seems little doubt that the Founding Fathers intended to allow for the death penalty in drawing up the US

Constitution of 1787. Not only did certain provisions of the Constitution - such as the Fifth Amendment - expressly allow for the taking of life, but others - such as the Eighth Amendment - were deliberately phrased in

ambigious ways that suggested even if certain forms of punishment could be banned (such as crucifixions or beheadings) the basic principle of

government executions remained permissible if individual states and the federal government wished to legislate for these."

Robert Singh, PhD Governing America: The Politics of a Divided Democracy, 2003At 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 "Truth and Consequences: The Penalty of Death," Debating the Death Penalty: Should America Have Capital Punishment?, 2004

Apr. 30, 1790

First US Congress Establishes

Federal Death Penalty

"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 "First Federal Congress: Creation of the Judiciary," Gwu.edu (accessed Jan. 27, 2010)

June 25, 1790

First Person Executed Under

US Federal Death Penalty

"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

PA Attorney General's Writings

Introduce Concept of

Varying Degrees of Murder and Contributes to Softening of

Death Penalty Laws in PA and

Other StatesPortrait of William Bradford, 1872.

Source: www.justice.gov (accessed Jan. 7, 2010)"One of the first American documents in the discussion of the death

penalty was An Inquiry How Far the Punishment of Death is Necessary in Pennsylvania, published in 1793 by William Bradford, Pennsylvania's attorney-general. Although Bradford favored capital punishment, he

concluded that the death penalty made it harder for the state to convict the guilty in some cases because juries did not want to sentence people to death. This feeling was reflected in a wave of new laws throughout the

1790s that curbed capital punishment, abolishing it for certain classes of crime. Five states, for example, limited capital punishment to cases of

murder."

Rebecca Stefoff, MA Furman v. Georgia: Debating the Death Penalty, 2007

1800-1945Date/Event/Sport Description

1833-1835

Public Executions Are Attacked as Cruel and States Switch to Private

Hangings

Illustration of a public execution. Source: www.gettyimages.com

(accessed Apr. 23, 2010)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 or the rope for keepsakes. Violence 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

Rev. George Barrel Cheever and Abolitionist John O'Sullivan Hold Debates on

Capital Punishment in

New York

"Scores of legislative reports, newspaper articles, and essay on capital punishment flooded the reading public in the 1840s, but few of those works differed substantially from O'Sullivan's report and Cheever's book. When

the Broadway Tabernacle in New York decided to sponsor a series of public debates, no question was as controversial as capital punishment

and no two opponents as well known as O'Sullivan and Cheever...

For three evenings, January 27, February 3, and February 17, 1843, O'Sullivan and Cheever debated the question 'Ought Capital Punishment

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

1845First National Death Penalty

Abolition Society Is Formed

The first national death penalty abolition society, the American Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment, is founded.

US Department of State "The Evolution of the Death Penalty in the United States," Infousa.state.gov (accessed Dec. 15, 2009)

1846Michigan

Becomes the First US State to

Abolish Capital Punishment (Except for Treason)

"In 1846, the state of Michigan abolished the death penalty for all crimes, except treason, and replaced the death penalty with life imprisonment. The

law took effect the next year, making Michigan, for all intents and purposes, the first English-speaking jurisdiction in the world to abolish

capital punishment."

Robert Bohm, PhD "The Death Penalty in the United States,” Battleground Criminal Justice Vol. 1, Ed. Gregg Barak, PhD, 2007

1852

Rhode Island Becomes the First

State to Outlaw the Death Penalty

for All Crimes (Including

"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."



Treason)

July 9, 1868

14th Amendment Passes and Is Later Used to Challenge the Death Penalty

The Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution is passed after the Civil War. The amendment extends the Fifth Amendment's protections to the

states. The Fourteenth Amendment states: "nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to

any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." The Fourteenth Amendment was cited in the June 29, 1972 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

Thomas Edison Demonstrates

Power of Electricity by Electrocuting

Animals

Topsy the Elephant being electrocuted by Thomas Edison, 1903. Source: www.wired.com (accessed Apr. 23,

2010)"In the 1880s, inventor Thomas Edison started building electrical lighting

systems in U.S. cities. Edison's company demonstrated the power of electricity by electrocuting animals (killing them with electricity). These

demonstrations led some people to reason that electrocution was a quick and painless form of execution." In 1887, Edison conducted many of these demonstrations in West Orange, NJ where he electrocuted numerous dogs

and cats.

[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?, 2009Aug. 6, 1890

New York State Performs the First

Execution by Electrocution with the Assistance of Thomas Edison's

Engineers Artist's rendering of William Kemmler's execution. Source: www.ccadp.org

(accessed Jan. 7, 2010)


"On August 6, 1890, New York State used an 'electric chair' to carry out the first execution by electrocution. The condemned was murderer William Kemmler. As it turned out, the process was hardly quick or painless. It took two surges of electricity, one of them lasting more than one minute, to kill Kemmler. The electricity burned Kemmler to death. Despite the gruesome

procedure, people 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 Death Penalty: Fair Solution or Moral Failure?, 20091895-1917

Nine States Abolish Capital

Punishment during Second

Great Reform Era

"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

May 2, 1910

Weems v. United States Establish Precedents on

"Cruel and Unusual

Punishment"

US Supreme Court Room where the Court sat from 1860-1935. Source: www.supremecourt.gov, c. 1900

"In Weems v. United States, however, the Court did make a ruling that would significantly affect the debate on the death penalty. Weems

concerned a defendant who had been sentenced to fifteen years of hard labor, a heavy fine, and a number of other penalties for the relatively minor

crime of falsifying official records. The Court overturned the sentence, ruling that the penalty was too harsh considering the nature of the offense.

Ultimately, in the Weems decision, the Court set three important precedents concerning sentencing:

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


Feb. 8, 1924

First US Execution by Gas Chamber Carried

Out in Nevada

Interior of a gas death house in Nevada in 1926. Source:

Bettman/CORBIS"The first execution by lethal gas in American history [was] carried out in

Carson City, Nevada on Feb. 8, 1924. The executed man was Tong Lee, a member of a Chinese gang who was convicted of murdering a rival gang member. Lethal gas was adopted by 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 "First Execution by Lethal Gas," History.com (accessed Dec. 16, 2009)Mar. 1, 1932

Lindbergh Act Makes

Kidnapping a Federal Capital

Offense

"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 Capital Punishment, Revised Edition, 2000Aug. 14, 1936

Last Public Execution

Rainey Bethea in 1936, the last prisoner to be publicly executed.

Source: Associated PressAt 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-year-old 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 public executions in America.

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

1946 - 1979Date/Event/Sport Description

Jan. 13, 1947

US Supreme Court Finds That

a Second Execution

Attempt after Technical

Malfunction Does Not Constitute

Cruel and Unusual

Punishment

Willie Francis photographed in his cell the evening of the first

attempt to execute him. Source: www.executedtoday.com (accessed Jan. 8, 2010)

"In one case (Louisiana ex rel Francis v. Resweber, 329 U.S. 459 (1947) the Court confronted the situation of a young man who was condemned to

die in the electric chair. For some reason, the chair was faulty, and although electric current apparently shot through the man, he survived.

The issue was whether a second electrocution could proceed or whether it was barred by the constitutional proscription of cruel and unusual

punishment, double jeopardy and other violations of due process. [US Supreme Court Justice] Frankfurter, finding that the chair's deficiency was

entirely accidental, concurred in the 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

Rosenberg's Become the First

US Civilians Executed for Espionage

The Rosenbergs on their way from jail to court, 1951. Source:

www.rosenbergtrial.org (accessed Jan. 8, 2010)

"Julius Rosenberg, 33, and his 35-year-old wife, Ethel, were accused of stealing technical information from the atom research centre in Los Alamos

and turning it over to the KGB...

The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death on 5 April 1951 and despite numerous appeals 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, and their conviction fuelled US Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade against

'anti-American activities" by US citizens."

BBC "1951: Rosenbergs Guilty of Espionage," Bbc.co.uk, (accessed Dec. 16, 2009)1957-1972

Several States Abolish Capital

Punishment

"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 in the

U.S. Death row criminals gave their own moving accounts of capital punishment in books and film. Convicted kidnapper Caryl Chessman

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 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 "History of the Death Penalty," Society's Final Solution: A History and Discussion of the Death Penalty, Ed. Laura Randa, MBA, 1997

June 3, 1968 "Witherspoon v. Illinois: The Supreme Court rules that the practice of


US Supreme Court Forbids the

Dismissal of Jurors Based on

Personal Opposition to

Capital Punishment

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

June 29, 1972

US Supreme Court Rules Death

Penalty Unconstitutional as Administered and Overturns over 600 Death

SentencesWilliam Furman at the time of his arrest on Aug. 11, 1967. Source:

Rebecca Stetoff, Furman V. Georgia: Debating the Death

Penalty, 2007."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 administered violated the

Eight and Fourteenth Amendments. Of the five Supreme Court Justices, William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall were alone in declaring the death penalty unconstitutional as a form of punishment entirely. Justice Brennan

was sweeping in his indictment, claiming the death penalty was unconstitutional for any crime, 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...

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 Karol Lucken, PhD American Penology: A History of Control, 2000

Nov. 21, 1974

National Conference of

Catholic Bishops Publicly Opposes

Death Penalty

"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 self-protection for the state."

Harry Henderson Capital Punishment, Revised Edition, 2000


July 2,1976

US Supreme Court Reaffirms Constitutionality of Death Penalty

US Supreme Court. Source: www.supremecourt.gov (accessed Apr.

21, 2010)"The Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutionality of capital punishment

for aggravated murder in [the July 2, 1976, 7-2 decision] Gregg v. Georgia. The question presented to the Court in this case was whether the

imposition of capital punishment under Georgia's revised death penalty statute was prohibited under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendment to the

federal Constitution...

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

Jan. 17, 1977

Gary Gilmore Becomes the First

Person to be Executed in the US in 10 Years

Gary Gilmore in court, 1976. Source: www.apsu.edu (accessed Jan. 8, 2010)

"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."

Rebecca Stefoff, MA Furnam v. Georgia: Debating the Death Penalty, 2007June 29, 1977

US Supreme

"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


Court Finds Death Penalty to be an

Excessive Punishment for

Rape Crimes

punishments prohibited the death penalty for rape...

Justice Bryon White's plurality opinion for the Supreme Court [in a 7-2 vote on June 29, 1977,] reversed the sentence, finding the death penalty

disproportionate to the crime of raping an adult woman."

Paul Finkelman, PhD The Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties, 2006

1980 - 1999

Date/Event/Sport DescriptionJune 1980

American Medical Association

Passes Resolution Saying

Physicians Should Not

Participate in Executions

"The debate about the role of doctors in executions was never addressed seriously until legislation in 1977 in the states of Oklahoma and Texas

introduced execution by lethal injection onto their statutes. This started a vigorous discussion with the weight of argument being against

participation. In 1980, the Judicial Affairs Committee on the American Medical Association approved a statement recalling that the doctor's role was to preserve life where there was a possibility of doing so and that the only possible role for a doctor at an execution was to certify the death of

the prisoner." In June 1980, the House of Delegates of the AMA approved the resolution.

British Medical Association Medicine Betrayed: The Participation of Doctors in Human Rights Abuses, 1992

July 2, 1982

US Supreme Court Rules That

Capital Punishment Is Excessive for a Defendant Who Played a Minor

Role in a Felony Murder

"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 of the robbery and murder of an elderly couple in Florida. Endmund had not

directly participated in the murders himself, but had only drive the getaway car. This was enough, under Florida law, to make him a 'constructive aider and abettor' in the killings, and so liable to the death penalty. However, a majority of five of the Supreme Court justices rules that this is not enough to subject him to the death penalty, since they find Endmund had no intent

to kill."

Michael Kronenwetter Capital Punishment: A Reference Handbook, 2001

Dec. 2, 1982

Texas Performs First Lethal

Injection

Illustration of Charles Brooks execution, Dec. 7, 1982. Source:

"Charlie Brooks, Jr.," www.clarkprosecutor.org

"In 1977, an Oklahoma medical examiner named Jay Chapman proposed that death-row inmates be executed using three drugs administered in a specific sequence: a barbiturate (to anesthetize inmates), pancuronium

bromide (to paralyze inmates and stop their breathing) and lastly potassium chloride (which stops the heart)... Chapman's proposal was approved by the Oklahoma state 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 "A Brief History of Lethal Injection," Time website, Nov. 10, 2009July 26, 1983

US Supreme Court Approves

Streamlined Federal Appeals Procedures for Capital Crimes

Convicted cop-killer Thomas Barefoot, 1983. Source: "Justices Give Killer a

Reprieve," Gainseville Sun, Jan. 25, 1983

"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."

Bryan Vila, PhD Cynthia Morris Capital Punishment in the United States: A Documentary History, 1997

June 26, 1986

US Supreme Court Rules Execution of

Insane Persons Unconstitutional

"[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

California Chief Justice Rose Bird

Is Voted Out of Office for Voting Record in Death Penalty Cases

Chief Justice Rose Bird. Source: www.latimes.com (accessed

Jan. 8, 2010)"In 1986, California Chief Justice Rose Bird and two other 'liberal'

members of the state supreme court were ousted in a retention election. The election followed a bitter campaign that centered on the three justices'


records 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

"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, 2003June 29, 1988

US Supreme Court Rules

Executions of Individuals Under

Age of 16 Unconstitutional

"The main issue the Supreme Court considered in Thompson v. Oklahoma was whether it is constitutional to execute a person who was a 'child' at the

time he committed the offense. Thompson's attorneys argued that he should not be executed because this would violate Thompson's rights, as a

'child,' under the Eighth Amendment, which forbids 'cruel and unusual punishment.'

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."

Raymond Gibbs, PhD Intentions in the Experience of Meaning, 1999Apr. 21, 1992

First CA Execution in 25 Years Proceeds

after US Supreme Court Prevents Lower Courts from Granting Further Stays

Robert Alton Harris. Source: www.cdcr.ca.gov (accessed Jan.

9, 2010) "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.

Earlier Tuesday, a seemingly jaunty Harris came within seconds of death but was rescued by a federal judge, who halted the execution even as the


acid used to form the 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

Jan. 25, 1993

US Supreme Court Rules That New Evidence of Innocence Does

Not Entitle Prisoners to Be Freed Unless It Also Shows a Constitutional

Violation

"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 claim of innonence is based on newly discovered evidence, unless the

claim also includes an independent constitutional violation. The Supreme Court found that there is no due process violation in the execution of

someone who was arguably innocent."

Alan Clarke, JD, LLM Laurelyn Whitt, PhD The Bitter Fruit of American Justice: International and Domestic Resistance to the Death Penalty, 2007

June 28, 1993

Kirk Bloodsworth Becomes First

American Sentenced to

Death Row to Be Exonerated with

DNA Testing

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 was twice convicted of raping and killing was not his. Bloodsworth spent

one year awaiting trial, two years on death row, and then six years in prison after his death sentence was commuted to a life sentence before

being exonerated. Bloodsworth is the first prisoner to have served time on death row to be exonerated with DNA testing. He received $300,000 in

compensation for wrongful imprisonment and was granted a full pardon in Dec. 1994 by Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer.

CNN "Kirk Bloodsworth, Twice Convicted of Rape and Murder, Exonerated by DNA Evidence," CNN.com, June 20 2000

1994

Federal Death Penalty Is

Expanded When President Clinton Signs 1994 Crime

BillPresident Clinton signs the 1994

crime bill, 1994. Source: www.gpo.gov (accessed Jan. 9,

2010)"The 1994 crime bill (1.4 MB) - passed by the Democratic 103rd Congress

(1993-4) and signed by President Clinton - created sixty new federal crimes for which the death penalty could be imposed and extended it to

include certain drug offences." Offenses eligible for the federal death penalty include large-scale drug trafficking, terorrist homicides, murder of a

Federal law enforcement officer, and drive-by-shootings and carjackings that result in a death.

Robert Singh, PhD Governing America: The Politics of a Divided Democracy, 2003


Jan. 12, 1996

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)

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-Award-winning 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.

James J. Megivern, ThD The Death Penalty: An Historical and Theological Survey, 1997

Jan. 25, 1996

Last Execution by Hanging

James T. Vaughn Correctional Center where Delaware's only

gallows stood between 1986 and 2003. www.dpc.delaware.gov

(accessed Apr. 26, 2010)Convicted double-murder Bill Bailey was executed by hanging on Jan. 25, 1996 in Delaware. Bailey was the third person 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

Apr. 24, 1996

Ability of Judges to Reverse

Sentences of Death Row Inmates Is Restricted

"Over the past decade, death penalty proponents have made successful efforts at both the state and federal level to streamline the capital appeals process and expedite executions. The most significant of these efforts is

the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA). Capital punishment proponents argued that death row inmates abused the

writ of habeas corpus by filing multiple, repetitive petitions. Congress passed AEDPA to restrict the availability of federal habeas relief in 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 Capital Punishment in America: A Balanced Examination, 2004


Feb. 3, 1997

American Bar Association

Urges a Halt to Executions

"On February 3, 1997, the ABA therefore took action that it hoped would focus more attention on systemic problems and lack of fairness in the application of the death penalty in the United States. While taking no

position on the death penalty per se, the ABA adopted a resolution initiated by the Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities that urges a halt to

executions until concerns about capital punishment in the U.S. 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

Last Execution by Gas Chamber

German national Walter LaGrand was executed in an Arizona gas chamber on Mar. 3, 1999. In addition to US courts, his case was also

heard by the International Court of Justice in the Hague, where "Judge 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 DescriptionJan. 31, 2000

Illinois Governor George Ryan

Declares a Moratorium on

Executions

Governor George Ryan. Source: www.life.com

(accessed Jan. 9, 2010) "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 capital-punishment advocates who accused him of


abusing his power but were applauded both by legal scholars across country and by the growing movement to abolish the death penalty."


Dec. 21, 2000

Texas and Governor George W. Bush Lead US

with Most Executions

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

inmates. Virginia came in second most with 106 executions and Oklahoma in third with 92 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.

Death Penalty Information Center "Number of Executions by State and Region Since 1976," Death Penalty Information Center website, Mar. 30, 2010

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 Executed in

38 Years

Timothy McVeigh on the cover of Time magazine, 1997. Source:

www.time.com (accessed Jan. 9, 2010)

Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh becomes the first federal prisoner to be executed in 38 years. McVeigh was responsible for the death of 168 people in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in

Oklahoma City on Apr. 19, 1995.

BBC "Defiant McVeigh Dies in Silence," BBC.co.uk, June 11, 2001June 20, 2002

US Supreme Court Rules the

Execution of Mentally Retarded

Offenders

"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.

Of the 38 states that have a death penalty, 18 now prohibit executing the 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

June 24, 2002

US Supreme Court Rules That

Juries, Not Judges, Must

Determine Presence of Aggravating

Factors Necessary for a Death Sentence

"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 decisions as to whether a convicted murderer should receive the death penalty. Ring v.

Arizona overturned the law of that and four others - Colorado, Idaho, Montana, and Nebraska - where judges alone decided whether there were

aggravating factors that warrant capital punishment. The decision also raised questions about the procedure in four other states - Alabama,

Delaware, Florida, and Indiana - where the judge decided life imprisonment or death after hearing a jury's recommendation. The Ring

opinion also says that any aggravating factors must be stated in the indictment, thus also requiring a change in federal death penalty laws."

Todd Clear, PhD American Corrections, 2008Mar. 1, 2005

Death Sentences for Offenders

Under the Age of 18 Is Ruled

Unconstitutional

Christopher Simmons was 17 when he kidnapped and killed a

woman. Source: www.washingtonpost.com (accessed Jan. 9, 2010)

"Perhaps the most controversial death penalty decision by the Supreme Court in recent years was that handed down in 2005 in Roper v. Simmons.

This ruling overturned a 1989 Supreme Court decision in Stanford v. Kentucky, which allowed the execution of 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 punishment."

Robert Regoli, PhD John D. Hewitt, PhD Exploring Criminal Justice, 2007Jan. 17, 2006

California Executes a 76-year-old Inmate

"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

Execution of Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein at his trial, 2005. Source:

www.nytimes.com (accessed Jan. 9, 2010)

"The US joined its arch-foe Iran today in hailing the justice of Saddam Hussein's execution, but European powers opposed the 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.

Some key US allies expressed discomfort at the execution. And Russia, which opposed the 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

Dec. 18, 2007

United Nations General Assembly

Passes a Resolution

Calling for a Moratorium on

the Death PenaltyUnited Nations General

Assembly. Source: www.unmultimedia.org

(accessed Apr. 21, 2010)"The U.N. General Assembly passed a nonbinding resolution on Tuesday calling for a moratorium on the death penalty, overcoming protests from a bloc of states that said it undermined their sovereignty. The resolution (30

KB) , which calls for 'a moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty,' was passed by a 104 to 54 vote, with 29

abstentions...

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

US Supreme Court Finds Death Penalty Excessive

for the Crime of Child Rape

Patrick O. Kennedy was spared execution in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision. Source: www.cnn.com

(accessed Jan. 9, 2010)"A divided U.S. Supreme Court barred the death penalty for the crime of

child rape, saying a Louisiana man's execution would violate the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment. The justices, voting 5-

4 [in Kennedy v. Louisiana on June 25, 2008], spared Patrick Kennedy from becoming the first person since 1964 to be executed in the U.S. for a crime other than murder. Kennedy was convicted of raping his 8-year-old

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

Mar. 18, 2009

New Mexico Repeals the Death

Penalty

Former New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. Source:

www.deathpenalty.org (accessed Jan. 9, 2010)

"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 death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates 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

Executed Prisoner

Governor Rick Perry. Source: www.austinchronicle.com (accessed Jan. 9, 2010)

"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 "2004 Execution Haunts Texas Governor's Race," NPR.org, Dec. 21, 2009Dec. 8, 2009

Ohio Performs the First Execution with a One-Drug

Intravenous Lethal Injection

Execution chamber at Southern Ohio Correction Facility in

Lucasville where Kenneth Biros


was executed. Source: www.cleveland.com (accessed

Jan. 9, 2010)"On Dec. 8, 2009, Ohio prison officials executed a death row inmate, Kenneth Biros, with a one-drug intravenous lethal injection, a method

never before used on a human. The 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 intra-muscular 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 "Capital Punishment," NYTimes.com, Dec. 18, 2009Dec. 18, 2009

Lowest Annual Number of Death

Sentences Handed Down in 2009 since Death

Penalty was Reinstated in

1976

"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...

Fifty-two inmates were executed this year in 11 states... As in previous 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, 2009June 18, 2010

Last Execution by Firing Squad

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff Announces on

Microblogging site Twitter He Had Given FInal Approval for Gardner's Execution. Source:

www.twitter.com (accessed June 18, 2010)

"Utah executed convicted killer Ronnie Lee Gardner after midnight this morning by firing 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 squad (Gardner, convicted before the legal change, was 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 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.

TIME "Ronnie Lee Gardner Executed By Firing Squad," TIME website, June 18, 2010

CNN "Killer Executed by Utah Firing Squad," CNN.com, June 18, 2010Aug. 2010

Lethal Drug Shortage Delays

Executions in Kentucky

"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, 2010Sep. 23, 2010

Woman with 72 IQ Executed in

Virginia

"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 payment. The 41-year-old was the first woman to be executed in the United States in

five years...

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 post-conviction 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

Jan. 21, 2011

Sole Firm Stops Making Key Death

Penalty Drug

Pentothal Sodium. Source: www.addictionsearch.com (accessed Jan. 21, 2011)

"The sole U.S. maker of the anesthetic used in executions announced Friday [Jan. 21, 2011] it would stop manufacturing sodium thiopental to

prevent its product from being used to put prisoners to death...

Hospira Inc., of Lake Forest, Ill., stopped making its brand of sodium thiopental, Pentothal, at a North Carolina plant early last year because 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

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