History Of Capital Punishment In The United States
Introduction Capital punishment has been a topic that has been talked about for ages. It has been an issue in the adjudication process since the first execution took place in the United States of America in 1608 (Schneider & Smykia, 1991). Today, cases are being brought before the courts constantly, and they are forced to decide what exactly is “cruel and unusual punishment” in accordance with the eighth amendment. This paper will be looking at how the death penalty has evolved and developed in the United States. It will also be evaluating the effects of the death penalty and looking at the issues that are being faced today in regards to capital punishment. Also, does the death penalty have a place in the future for America?
The Past
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The first phase is the reduction of crimes that are being punished by death penalty. Most states that use capital punishment only use it in cases involving first-degree murder (1994). 80% of capital case involve defendants charged with “felony-murder”, or first degree murder (Amnesty International, 1987). The second trend, as stated by Constanzo & White, is the attempt by states to reduce the “cruelty” of executions (1994). These various types of executions will be discussed more in the following paragraph. The third trend that was observed by Costanzo & White, is that policymakers are attempting to make death sentencing as fair as possible (1994). However, Baldus, Woodworth. & Pulaski state that when the victim is white the offender, especially in southern states, still are sentenced to death more likely than when other races are victim (1990). The last trend observed, is that executions are much more sanitized. These events are not as public as they used to be and are done more respectfully (Costanzo & White, …show more content…
The Supreme Court has ruled in cases such as Furman v. Georgia, 1972, Gregg v. Georgia, 1976, and Gardner v. Florida 1977, that sentencing someone to death is unique and requires a “super due process” (Costanzo & White, 1994). Costanzo and White also state that another defence to streamlining the system in that there are a significant amount of cases on death row that are appealed and overturned and that “a streamlined system presumably would allow some percentage of these cases to “slip through" to the death chamber” (1994). This evidence suggests that streamlining the system to reduce cost is not a valid solution. It leaves room for too much error and the courts have made it so that death penalties have to be carefully
The Past
This …show more content…
The first phase is the reduction of crimes that are being punished by death penalty. Most states that use capital punishment only use it in cases involving first-degree murder (1994). 80% of capital case involve defendants charged with “felony-murder”, or first degree murder (Amnesty International, 1987). The second trend, as stated by Constanzo & White, is the attempt by states to reduce the “cruelty” of executions (1994). These various types of executions will be discussed more in the following paragraph. The third trend that was observed by Costanzo & White, is that policymakers are attempting to make death sentencing as fair as possible (1994). However, Baldus, Woodworth. & Pulaski state that when the victim is white the offender, especially in southern states, still are sentenced to death more likely than when other races are victim (1990). The last trend observed, is that executions are much more sanitized. These events are not as public as they used to be and are done more respectfully (Costanzo & White, …show more content…
The Supreme Court has ruled in cases such as Furman v. Georgia, 1972, Gregg v. Georgia, 1976, and Gardner v. Florida 1977, that sentencing someone to death is unique and requires a “super due process” (Costanzo & White, 1994). Costanzo and White also state that another defence to streamlining the system in that there are a significant amount of cases on death row that are appealed and overturned and that “a streamlined system presumably would allow some percentage of these cases to “slip through" to the death chamber” (1994). This evidence suggests that streamlining the system to reduce cost is not a valid solution. It leaves room for too much error and the courts have made it so that death penalties have to be carefully