Sociology: Death Penalty Now Rational
Research Memo
Sociology 419
TR 4:30
25OCT2012
Death Penalty Now Rational?
1. Question
Throughout the last century, has the death penalty become less acceptable due to the movement from moral and cognitive decision making to rational decision making?
Relevance to Sociology of Law:
Society is always changing. In the sense of capital punishment it has changed from firing squads, hangings, and electric chairs to lethal injection. Numbers have declined of inmates facing state executions. But why has society changed in these matters? If we can deduce that Americans are thinking rationally about the death penalty we can see where America’s view and trends will go in the future, see what type of executions are to emerge, and see what reflection this has on society as a whole.
2. Evidence
a. Throughout the last decade death penalty rates have been the lowest in U.S. history. In 2010, …show more content…
Some examples of how drastically the use of the death penalty has changed in just the past fifty years can be seen in situations like Mayor Cermak’s murder by Giuseppe Zangara in 1993. Zangara’s bullet, intended for Franklin Roosevelt missed and hit the Mayor of Chicago, Cermak on March 3rd. Two weeks later on March 20th, after pleading guilty, Giuseppe Zangara was executed. Fast forward to 2010, murderers sit on death row for years before facing execution. In 1950 Caryl Chessman was sent to the gas chamber for kidnapping after becoming highly publicized due to appeals, books and attention from Hollywood Chessman was one of the last criminals to be executed for a crime other than murder. Through pure number reports, we can see that rates of executions have significantly dropped over the past decade alone. From example cases, we can see how executions from fifty and even ten years ago differ from executions now. Now inmates are usually on death row for years before facing lethal injection, and the offender usually must be a murder. ("This Day in
Sociology 419
TR 4:30
25OCT2012
Death Penalty Now Rational?
1. Question
Throughout the last century, has the death penalty become less acceptable due to the movement from moral and cognitive decision making to rational decision making?
Relevance to Sociology of Law:
Society is always changing. In the sense of capital punishment it has changed from firing squads, hangings, and electric chairs to lethal injection. Numbers have declined of inmates facing state executions. But why has society changed in these matters? If we can deduce that Americans are thinking rationally about the death penalty we can see where America’s view and trends will go in the future, see what type of executions are to emerge, and see what reflection this has on society as a whole.
2. Evidence
a. Throughout the last decade death penalty rates have been the lowest in U.S. history. In 2010, …show more content…
Some examples of how drastically the use of the death penalty has changed in just the past fifty years can be seen in situations like Mayor Cermak’s murder by Giuseppe Zangara in 1993. Zangara’s bullet, intended for Franklin Roosevelt missed and hit the Mayor of Chicago, Cermak on March 3rd. Two weeks later on March 20th, after pleading guilty, Giuseppe Zangara was executed. Fast forward to 2010, murderers sit on death row for years before facing execution. In 1950 Caryl Chessman was sent to the gas chamber for kidnapping after becoming highly publicized due to appeals, books and attention from Hollywood Chessman was one of the last criminals to be executed for a crime other than murder. Through pure number reports, we can see that rates of executions have significantly dropped over the past decade alone. From example cases, we can see how executions from fifty and even ten years ago differ from executions now. Now inmates are usually on death row for years before facing lethal injection, and the offender usually must be a murder. ("This Day in