As a result of this decision, the use of the death penalty exploded in the United States. [38] This contrasts with trends observed in other parts of advanced industrial democracies where the use of the death penalty has declined or been banned. [38] Forty-seven European states, including Russia, are members of the Council of Europe,[39] and they all respect the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits the death penalty. The last execution in Britain took place in 1964[40] and in France in 1977. In 1632, 24 years after the first recorded male execution in the colonies, Jane Champion became the first woman known to have been legally executed. She was sentenced to death by hanging after being convicted of infanticide; About two-thirds of the women executed in the 17th and early 18th centuries were convicted of infanticide. As a married woman, it is not known whether Champion`s illegal lover, William Gallopin, who was also convicted of murdering his child, was also executed, although it appears he was convicted that way. [91] [92] For the Puritans, infanticide was the worst form of murder. [93] Only those convicted of capital crimes and misdemeanors can be sentenced to death. Crimes that fall into this category include murder, espionage, war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and treason. In addition, the U.S. government and military retain the death penalty.
[22] See Elizabeth Rapaport, A Modest Proposal: The Aged of Death Row Should Be Considered Too Old to Execute, 77 Brook. 1089 (Spring 2012); Michael J. Carter, Wanting to Die: The Cruel Phenomenon of the “Death Row Syndrome,” Alternet, 7. November 2008, www.alternet.org/rights/106300/waiting_to_die%3A_the_cruel_phenomenon_of_%22death_row_syndrome%22/; Dr. Karen Harrison and Anouska Tamony, Death Row Phenomenon, Death Row Syndrome, and Their Affect [sic.] on Capital Cases in the U.S., Internet Journal of Criminology 2010, available at www.internetjournalofcriminology.com/Harrison_Tamony_%20Death_Row_Syndrome%20_IJC_Nov_2010.pdf. It is sometimes argued that abolishing the death penalty is unfair to taxpayers, assuming that life imprisonment costs more than execution. However, if all relevant costs are taken into account, the exact opposite is true. “The death penalty is not now, and has never been a more cost-effective alternative to life imprisonment.”) A murder trial usually takes much longer when it comes to the death penalty than when it does not. The costs of litigation – including the time spent by judges, prosecutors, court-appointed lawyers and court reporters, as well as the high cost of pleadings – are largely borne by the taxpayer. The additional cost of segregated accommodation for death row inmates and additional security in courts and elsewhere also adds to the cost. A 1982 study showed that if the death penalty were reinstated in New York, the cost of capital punishment litigation alone would be more than twice as high as the cost of life imprisonment.
(N.Y. State Defenders Assn., “Capital Loss” 1982) In 1976, the Supreme Court moved away from abolition, ruling that “the death penalty does not always violate the Constitution.” The Court ruled that the new death penalty laws “contain objective standards to guide, regularize and make the death penalty process rationally verifiable.” (Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153). Subsequently, 38 state legislatures and the federal government enacted death penalty laws based on those upheld by the Court in the Gregg case. Congress has also enacted and expanded federal death penalty laws for peacetime espionage by military personnel and various categories of murder. Several States have included infanticide in their list of aggravating factors, but the age of the victim below which murder carries the death penalty varies. In 2011, Texas increased that age from six to ten. [106] The death penalty is an intolerable denial of civil liberties and incompatible with the fundamental values of our democratic system. The death penalty is uncivilized in theory and is unjust and unjust in practice. Through litigation, laws and advocacy against this barbaric and brutal institution, we strive to prevent executions and call for the abolition of the death penalty.
Hover over a state on the map to see its death penalty status and the year it was reinstated or abolished. For more detailed information on each state, click on the links below the map. Discretion in the criminal justice system is inevitable. The history of the death penalty in America clearly shows society`s desire to mitigate the harshness of the death penalty by limiting its scope.
