“Between 1977 and 2017, the US sentenced a total of 8,440 death row inmates and since 1976, the United States justice system has executed over 1,500 inmates on death row” (Kaira 4). Capital punishment, also commonly referred to as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for a crime. From its inception, Great Britain influenced America’s use of the death penalty more than any other country. The first recorded execution in the new colonies was in 1608 in Jamestown. The individual, Captain George Kendall, was executed for espionage (specifically for Spain). Laws relative to capital punishment varied from colony to colony. Nevertheless, the Massachusetts Bay Colony held its first execution in 1630. The first attempted reform of the death penalty in the United States occurred when Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill to revise Virginia’s death penalty laws. The bill itself proposed that capital punishment be used only for crimes of murder and treason, however, it failed by one vote.
In 1834, Pennsylvania became the first state to move executions away from the public eye and rather carry them out in correctional facilities. As a result, states began passing laws in 1838 against mandatory death sentencing and enacted discretionary death penalty statutes. Tennessee and Alabama were the first states to take this to action. In 1846, Michigan was the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason. After the Civil War, new developments in the means of executions emerged. The first electric chair was built in 1888 and then used for the first time in 1890 with William Kemmler.
During the Progressive Era (1900 to 1917), six states completely outlawed capital punishment and three limited it to rarely committed crimes of treasons and first-degree murder of a law enforcement official. Because of panic caused by the Russian Revolution and the United States entering World War I, citizens began to worry about the threat of revolution. By 1920, five of the six states that outlawed it reinstated their death penalty. In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was introduced in Nevada; authorities tried pumping the gas into a cell, however it was not successful. As a result, the gas chamber was built. From the 1920s to the 1940s, a resurgence of the death penalty occurred. This was due in part to the writings of criminologists that saw it as a necessary social measure.
In the 1950s, many allied nations began to turn away from capital punishment. At the same time, there were 715 executions committed in the United States. In 1966, support for capital punishment was at an all-time low of 42 percent; moreover, there were only 191 executions from 1960-1976. The 1960s brought challenges to the fundamental legality of capital punishment. Before the 1960s, the Fifth and Eighth Amendments were interpreted as permitting the death penalty. However, it was noted that capital punishment was “cruel and unusual punishment”, therefore being unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. For reference, the Eighth Amendment states that “excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
In 1972, a series of cases that soon became known as Furman vs. Georgia argued that capital cases resulted in arbitrary and capricious sentencing. To reiterate, they argued the Eighth Amendment was violated (cruel and unusual punishment). The court stated that a punishment would be cruel and unusual if it was too severe for the crime, arbitrary, offended society’s sense of justice, or not more effective than a less severe penalty. On June 29th, 1972, the Supreme Court voided forty death penalty statutes and commuted the sentences of 629 death row inmates.
As a result of the Furman decision, states began to pass new statutes addressing the arbitrariness in capital sentencing. In 1976, the Gregg Decision held that the new death penalty statutes in Florida, Georgia, and Texas were constitutional. Because of this ruling, capital punishment was reinstated. On January 17th, 1977, Gary Gilmore was executed by firing squad in Utah. Later in 1977, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution. Lethal injection consists of midazolam to sedate the individual, vecuronium bromide to paralyze the muscles, and potassium chloride to stop the heart from beating.
In 1996, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act was passed and signed by Bill Clinton. This was meant to streamline the appeal process in capital cases. In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled individuals with an intellectual disability to not be eligible to undergo capital punishment. In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to execute murderers who were under eighteen when they committed the murder. There are 28 states with the death penalty currently, and it takes 16 years from sentence of death to execution. In 2019, the Federal government reinstated federal executions and there are 2,656 convicts on death row.
Proponents of capital punishment argue that it is a necessary tool for inhabiting law and order, deterring crime, and costing less than life imprisonment. Additionally, they claim that it helps give grieving families a sense of closure and ensures that the perpetrators of heinous crimes never have the opportunity to cause a future tragedy. On the contrary, opponents of the death penalty state that it has no apparent effect on crime, wrongly gives the government the power to take a human life, and perpetuates social injustices by disproportionately targeting people of color (racism), and people who cannot afford adequate lawyers (classism). Furthermore, they claim that lifetime jail sentences are a more severe and less costly investment and punishment than death itself.
In regards to racial justice, it has been historically found that “white victims account for approximately one-half of all murder victims and that eighty percent of all Capital cases involve white victims. Moreover, twelve people have been executed where the defendant was white and the murder victim was black, compared with 178 black defendants executed for murders with white victims as of October 2002.” There was also a study conducted in April 2001 from the University of North Carolina studying all homicide cases in North Carolina between 1993 and 1997. After examining the data, researchers concluded that “the odds of getting a death sentence increased three and a half times if the victim was white rather than black” (ACLU).
Albert Camus, an adamant opposer of the death penalty, once stated, “[Capital punishment] is...the most premeditated of murders, to which no criminal’s deed, however calculated...can be compared...For there to be an equivalence, the death penalty would have to punish a criminal who had warned his victim of the date at which he would inflict a horrible death on him and who, from that moment onward, had confined him at mercy for months. Such a monster is not encountered in private life.” Immanuel Kant, on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, states that “if...he has committed a murder, he must die. In this case, there is no substitute that will satisfy the requirements of legal justice. There is no sameness of kind between death and remaining alive even under the most miserable conditions, and consequently there is no equality between the crime and the retribution unless the criminal is judicially condemned and put to death.” As shown, the viewpoints vary greatly among those who have strong thoughts concerning the matter.
Studies have shown that the death penalty has actually had the opposite effect in which it does not discourage crime. Subsequently, crime rates may increase in the United States rather than what was originally intended when implementing it. Additionally, the death penalty does not prevent violent behavior in mentally ill or retarded criminals. The criminals who are not mentally coherent before they are sent to prison do not have the state of mind or intellect to determine right from wrong. Because of this, the controversy among this subject escalates even further.
As an alternative to capital punishment, longer jail times for felons and first-time offenders would keep them from entering society until they were able to rehabilitate. Life sentences would prevent violent offenders from committing more crimes upon society. A study from the Death Penalty Information Center revealed that North Carolina alone pays “2.16 million per execution over the costs of a non-death penalty murder case with a sentence of imprisonment for life” (Ott). Furthermore, “maintaining each death row prisoner costs taxpayers $90,000 more per year than a prisoner in the general population” (Social Justice Resource Center). The amount of time, money, and effort being put forth into the criminal justice system regarding capital punishment is, no doubt, a large amount. However, the only choice authoritative figures have is the death penalty or sentence of life without parole. The family of the victim often prefers life without parole (LWOP) with the unknowingness of capital punishment. Individual states have been looking into ways of reducing crime as a solution to the overarching theme such as “community policing, the introduction of crime-fighting technology, and restorative justice.” The primary purpose of restorative justice is to revert or mend the damage caused by a crime. Within this, workers encourage reintegration and solidarity as opposed to isolation and constraint. Despite the presence of these alternatives, some see it as a potential factor that can be seen as threatening and cross ethical and moral groundings.
A recently conducted survey concluded that “public support for the death penalty is at its lowest level in half-century, with opposition higher than any time since 1966.” Demographic trends are also showing continuing opposition to the death penalty. According to the 2020 annual Gallup poll on Americans’ attitudes about capital punishment, “support fell 9 percentage points among non-Hispanic white adults, from 70% to 67% to 61%; and 6 percentage points among non-white adults (who already had low support for capital punishment), from 52% to 46% where it remained over the last four years” (Gallup Poll).
In general, the controversy among the subject has not disappeared, rather in recent years there has been a prevalent social justice movement for minority groups against what could be considered a heinous act. The constant alterations that are being made on an individual and federal level will thus affect the way society views capital punishment and its outcomes. It is necessary to acknowledge and understand the history of this controversial subject in order to view another aspect of the social/racial justice movement.
References and Further Reading
“Capital Punishment Facts & Figures.” Social Justice Resource Center, socialjusticeresourcecenter.org/facts-and-figures/capital-punishment/.
Capital Punishment: Our Duty or Our Doom?, www.scu.edu/mcae/publications/iie/v1n3/capital.html.
“Centre for Justice and Reconciliation.” Restorative Justice, restorativejustice.org/.
“The Death Penalty: Society's Injustice System.” San Joaquin Delta College, 14 Mar. 2018, www.deltacollege.edu/student-life/student-media/delta-winds/2004-table-
“Gallup Poll: Public Support for the Death Penalty Lowest in a Half-Century.” Death Penalty Information Center, deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/gallup-poll-public- support-for-the-death-penalty-lowest-in-a-half-century.
Government of Canada, Department of Justice. “Principles of Restorative Justice.”
Government of Canada, Department of Justice, Electronic Communications, 18 Dec. 2017, www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/cj-jp/victim/rest.html.
“Homepage.” Death Penalty Information Center, 15 Sept. 2020, www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/.
Kaira. “40 Death Penalty Facts That Are Too Spine-Chilling.” Facts.net, Facts.net, 11 June 2021, facts.net/history/culture/death-penalty-facts/.
“Pros & Cons - ProCon.org.” Death Penalty, 25 Jan. 2021, deathpenalty.procon.org/.
“Sentencing Alternatives.” Death Penalty Information Center, 24 Nov. 2020, deathpenaltyinfo.org/policy-issues/sentencing-alternatives.
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