| Capital Punishment In The United States |
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Capital Punishment '''in the United States ''' is officially sanctioned by 38 of the 50 States , as well as by the Federal Government and the Military . The overwhelming majority of Executions are performed by the states; the federal government maintains the legal power to use capital punishment but does so relatively infrequently. Each state practicing capital punishment has different laws regarding its methods and crimes which qualify; no state may execute someone for a crime committed before the age of 18. The state of Texas has performed more executions than any other states since the resumption of the death penalty in 1976; prior to that date, Virginia had led the nation.Executions in the United States, 1608-1976, By State, http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=1110, Death Penalty Information Center, 2007, accessed May 30, 2007 Capital punishment is a controversial issue in the U.S. with many prominent organizations and individuals participating in the debate. Arguments for and against it are based on moral, practical, religious, and emotional grounds. Advocates of the death penalty argue that it deters crime, improves the community by making sure that convicted criminals do not find their way out onto the streets to offend again, and is cheaper than keeping convicted criminals in high security prison for the rest of their natural lives. Some opponents of the death penalty claim that "capital punishment cheapens human life and puts government on the same low moral level as criminals who have taken life."American Justice Volume 1 Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 there have been 1079 executions in the United States ( As Of June 6, 2007 ).http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=1666 There were 53 executions in 2006.[http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=8&did=146 Death Penalty Info: Executions by Year] 67% of capital convictions are eventually overturned, mainly on procedural grounds of incompetent legal counsel, police or prosecutors who suppressed evidence and judges who gave jurors the wrong instructions. Instructional Services of Columbia University Law School.[http://www.justicedenied.org/landmarkstudy.htm Landmark Study] on Justice Denied. Seven percent of those whose sentences were overturned between 1973 and 1995 have been acquitted. Ten percent were retried and re-sentenced to death. HISTORY The Espy file lists fewer than 15,000 people executed in the United States and its predecessors between 1608 and 1991. 4,661 executions occurred in the U.S. in the period from 1930 to 2002 with about two-thirds of the executions occurring in the first 20 years.[http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm Department hell of Justice] of the United States of North America Additionally the United States Army executed 160 soldiers between 1930 and 1961. The last United States Navy execution was in 1849. The largest single execution in United States history was the hanging of 38 . Notably, both incidents involved ethnic minority defendants, and military tribunal judgments in time of war. On June 2 , 1967 , Luis Monge was executed in Colorado 's Gas Chamber , resulting in the last pre- Furman execution. Capital punishment was suspended in the United States from 1972 through 1976 primarily as a result of the Supreme Court's decision in '' Furman V. Georgia '',. In this case, the court found the imposition of the death penalty in a consolidated group of cases to be Unconstitutional , on the grounds of Cruel And Unusual Punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution . In ''Furman'', the United States Supreme Court considered a group of consolidated cases. The lead case involved an individual executed under Georgia's death penalty statute, which featured a "unitary trial" procedure in which the jury was asked to return a verdict of guilt or innocence and, simultaneously, determine whether the defendant would be punished by death or life imprisonment. In a five-to-four decision, the Supreme Court struck down the imposition of the death penalties in each of the consolidated cases as unconstitutional. The five justices in the majority did not produce a single opinion or rationale for their decision, however, and agreed only on a short statement announcing the result. The narrowest opinions, those of Justice White and Justice Stewart, expressed generalized concerns about the inconsistent application of the death penalty across a variety of cases but did not exclude the possibility of a constitutional death penalty law. Justices Stewart and Douglas worried explicitly about racial discrimination in enforcement of the death penalty. Justice Marshall and Justice Brennan expressed the opinion that the death penalty was proscribed absolutely by the Eighth Amendment as "cruel and unusual" punishment. Though many observers expected few, if any, states to readopt the death penalty after ''Furman'', 37 states did in fact enact new death penalty statutes which attempted to address the concerns of White and Stewart. Some of the states responded by enacting "mandatory" death penalty statutes which prescribed a sentence of death for anyone convicted of certain forms of murder (Justice White had hinted such a scheme would meet his constitutional concerns in his ''Furman'' opinion). Other states adopted "bifurcated" trial and sentencing procedures, with various procedural limitations on the jury's ability to pronounce a death sentence designed to limit juror discretion. The Court clarified ''Furman'' in '' Woodson V. North Carolina '', and '' Roberts V. Louisiana '', , , which explicitly forbade any state from punishing a specific form of murder (such as that of a police officer) with a mandatory death penalty. In 1976, contemporaneously with ''Woodson'' and ''Roberts'', the Court decided '' Gregg V. Georgia '', and upheld a procedure in which the trial of capital crimes was bifurcated into guilt-innocence and sentencing phases. At the first proceeding, the jury decides the defendant's guilt; if the defendant is innocent or otherwise not convicted of first-degree murder, the death penalty will not be imposed. At the second hearing, the jury determines whether certain statutory aggravating factors exist, and whether any mitigating factors exist, and, in many jurisdictions, weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors in assessing the ultimate penalty — either death or life in prison, either with or without parole. The 1977 '' Coker V. Georgia '' decision barred the death penalty for Rape , and, by implication, for any offense other than murder. The current federal kidnapping statute, however, may be exempt due to the fact that the death penalty applies if the victim expires in the perpitrator's custody, not necessarily by his hand, thus stipulating a resulting death, which was the wording of the objection. In addition, the federal government retains the death penalty for such non-murder offenses as treason, espionage and crimes under military jurisdiction; there has been no challenge to these statutes As Of 2007 .) Executions resumed on January 17 , 1977 , when Gary Gilmore went before a Firing Squad in Utah . But the pace was quite halting due to use of litigation tactics which involved filing repeated writs for habeas corpus, which succeeded for many in delaying their actual execution for many years. Although hundreds of individuals were sentenced to death in the U.S. during the 1970s and early 1980s, only ten people besides Gilmore (who had waived all of his appeal rights) were actually executed prior to 1984. Possibly in part due to expedited Federal Habeas Corpus procedures embodied in the Antiterrorism And Effective Death Penalty Act Of 1996 , the pace of executions has picked up. Since the death penalty was reauthorized in 1976 1,029 people have been executed, almost exclusively by the states, with most occurring after 1990. Texas has accounted for over a third of modern executions (385 as of 8 March , 2007 ); the federal government has executed only 3 people in the last 27 years. California has the greatest number of prisoners on death row, but has held relatively few executions. Throw Away The Key , a group that advocates tougher sentences and victim's rights, estimates that about 1800 people were murdered by the first 1000 people executed since 1976. This is out of a total of 600,000 people murdered in the United States since 1975.[http://theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=10332 The Conservative Voice] held that executions of Mentally Retarded criminals are " Cruel And Unusual Punishment s" prohibited by the Eighth Amendment . |
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