History of the Death Penalty
The death penalty and its laws have been around for centuries, dating all the way back to the Eighteenth Century B.C. where the Code of King Hammurabi of Babylon codified the death penalty for 25 different crimes. As time progressed, the use of the death penalty increased because of the thirst for power of nations and the harsh rulers who made the rules. In the Tenth Century (A.D.), hanging became the most used method of execution. When William the Conqueror reigned during the following century, no executions were to be made in all cases except in times of war. This trend lasted for a few centuries, but was quickly changed when Henry VIII took control and around 72,000 executions were made during his reign. During this time the methods of execution included boiling, burning at the stake, hanging, beheading, and drawing and quartering. The crimes that were punished with the death penalty were not nearly as serious as “Capital Crimes” in modern day America. Britain began to use the death penalty at a rapidly increasing rate. By the 1700s, 222 different types of crimes were punishable by death; those included stealing, cutting down a tree, and robbing a rabbit warren. The death penalty was a very serious punishment even back then, so many times juries would not sentence the accused to death unless their offense was serious enough.
The principle of Capital Punishment was brought to America during its early years, arriving with the first of the Jamestown settlers from England in 1607. The first recorded execution in the United States was that of Captain George Kendall in 1608 who was accused of being a spy for Spain. Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral, and Martial Laws, which enabled the use of the death penalty for even minor offenses. The first recorded execution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was held in 1630, many years before the Capital Laws of New England were effective. The Duke’s Laws of 1665 went into effect in the New York colony, stating that crimes such as striking one’s parent or denying the fact that there was a God were punishable by death.
Those people who were not in support of the death penalty were in favor of the writings of many European theorists including Montesquieu, Voltaire and Bentham, and the English Quakers (John Bellers, John Howard, etc.). Cesare Beccaria’s essay called Crimes and Punishment written in 1767 established the theory that there was no justification for the right of any state to take a citizen’s life. Many people against the death penalty were influenced by the essay, causing them to take action against it. As a result, the death penalty was abolished in Austria and Tuscany.
Many people in the U.S. were in favor of reforming the use of the death penalty. Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill to revise the state of Virginia’s death penalty laws by proposing that capital punishment only be used for acts of treason and first degree murder. Though his proposal was defeated by one vote, this idea of reform was the first of many attempts to have the punishment abolished. Support for the death penalty was also a strong system throughout the young nation. Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and founder of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, believed that having a death penalty increased criminal conduct. He later gained the support of Benjamin Franklin and William Bradford. Bradford later led Pennsylvania to consider degrees of murder based on the damage done and extent of the crime. Pennsylvania outlawed the use of the death penalty for all crimes except first degree murder.
As time progressed, more and more states began to set laws that limited the use of the death penalty. In 1834 Pennsylvania became the first state to move executions away from the public eye and into correctional facilities. Michigan became the first state abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason. Following this trend, Rhode Island and Wisconsin soon outlawed the death penalty for crimes in all cases.
During the time of the Civil War focus on the abolishment of the death penalty lessened because of the growing Anti-Slavery movement. Once the war was over and issues with the African Americans and their supporters and opponents were somewhat taken care of, some focus shifted back to that of capital punishment. In 1888, the method of execution that involved the electric chair was first introduced. New York was the first stated to use this method in 1890 when William Kemmler was executed. Soon after, many other states began to adopt the use of the electric chair.
From 1907-1917, six states outlawed the death penalty all together, but this did not last long. With the rising threat of an attack and outbreaks of violence from Russia and other rebelling nations, the ban on the death penalty was repealed and was almost forgotten about because of the possibility of war. After World War I, most states who had previously abolished the death penalty had overruled that ban and began using it again.
Nevada became involved in finding a more “humane” way of executing those on death row in the 1920s. In 1924 the use of cyanide gas made its appearance when Gee John was to be executed with it. Those in charge of John’s execution tried to pump the fatal gas into his prison cell, but they realized their plan would fail quickly. With this realization, the gas chamber was constructed.
During the period of time before the US got involved in World War II, support grew for the death penalty because of the rise of successful criminologists. Those criminologists believed that the use of the death penalty was a necessary social measure. The 1930s were the years of the most executions in the recorded history of the United States with an average of about 167 execution per year during that decade.
Near the beginning, throughout, and for a while after World War II support for the death penalty began rapidly decreasing. Allied nations began to abolish capital punishment, and this made America rethink the rightness of the act. From 1960-1976, there were only 191 executions in the US. 1966 was the year that support for the punishment reached an all-time low with a poll showing that 42% of people maintained support for the death penalty. The 1960s not only lessened the support for the death penalty, but was also the age where many were questioning the interpretation of the Constitutional amendments in regards to the death penalty. The Supreme Court case Trop v. Dulles was not directly related to the death penalty, but made people think that with the “standard of decency” (an interpretation of the 8th amendment) capital punishment should be abolished once and for all.
During the late 1960s focus shifted not to the abolishment of the death penalty per se, but to the way it was administered. Two cases were brought to the Supreme Court regarding the situation. In the first one, U.S. v. Jackson, they argued about the application of the death penalty to a federal kidnapping offense on behalf of the jury’s request. This was quite controversial and was voted unconstitutional because it would potentially result in the defendants trying to waive their right to a trial by jury to be sure the jury would not sentence them to death.
The ruling of the Witherspoon v. Illinois case in 1968 stated that a juror’s opinion about the death penalty should have no part in deciding whether or not they should be allowed to serve on the jury. Their opinion could only prevent them from serving on the jury if the prosecutor was able to prove their attitude toward the punishment would result in an unfair sentence to the case.
During the 1970s, the issue about the death penalty violating 8th amendment rights that all US citizens have arose again in the Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia. In the 1972 case, Furman brought forth the statement that capital cases brought forth capricious punishments and sentences. In the ruling, the Supreme Court decided that in some cases, using the death penalty did violate the 8th amendment right of all citizens. From there, they banned the death penalty in 40 statutes, excusing 629 inmates on death row. The decision in this case opened a whole new window of reforming the use of the death penalty in states around the nation. The Supreme Court decided that with the differing opinions about the punishment, states could revise their constitution with eliminate the statutes considered unconstitutional in the most recent case. Some states just decided to use capital punishment for those convicted of committing capital crimes. That practice was later declared unconstitutional in the case Woodson v. North Carolina.
Advancing into the modern age, more reforms took place regarding the death penalty. The reformations included adopting new methods of execution to make the process more “humane”, including the use of lethal injections. Oklahoma was the first to adopt the use of the lethal injection in 1977, but it took five more years until Texas was the first state to actually use the lethal injection as a mean of execution when Charles Brooks was executed with it on December 7, 1982.
After World War II, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other humanitarian based treaties were signed and ratified by many European countries, decreasing the use of the death penalty throughout the continent. Somewhat following this trend, the United States did not necessarily abolish the death penalty but did place some restrictions on it. One of the restrictions was decided in the Supreme Court case Coker v. Georgia, which decided that the death penalty could not be given for the crime of raping an adult woman.
Starting in 1986, mental illnesses became an issue in sentencing people to death. In the Supreme Court case Ford v. Wainwright, it was decided that capital punishment could not be given to anybody with any type of mental illness. That decision was reversed in 1989 when the Supreme Court held that executing a mentally ill person was not a direct violation of the 8th amendment. The fact that they were ill would just simply be taken into considering the punishment, but not completely change the decision. The issue was then revisited in June 2002 when the Supreme Court decided in Atkins v. Virginia that issuing the death penalty to a mentally ill person was a violation of the 8th amendment, banning that type of sentence once and for all.
Race was also one of the controversial areas of the punishment. In the case McCleskey v. Kemp, McCleskey argued that there was racial discrimination in the application of Georgia’s death penalty. He based his arguments on statistical information that included percentages of executions in the state of Georgia of people that were of races other than white. The Supreme Court ruled that racial disparities would not be a violation of the constitutional right to “equal protection” unless there was some kind of evidence that the discrimination was direct.
The principle of Capital Punishment was brought to America during its early years, arriving with the first of the Jamestown settlers from England in 1607. The first recorded execution in the United States was that of Captain George Kendall in 1608 who was accused of being a spy for Spain. Virginia Governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted the Divine, Moral, and Martial Laws, which enabled the use of the death penalty for even minor offenses. The first recorded execution in the Massachusetts Bay Colony was held in 1630, many years before the Capital Laws of New England were effective. The Duke’s Laws of 1665 went into effect in the New York colony, stating that crimes such as striking one’s parent or denying the fact that there was a God were punishable by death.
Those people who were not in support of the death penalty were in favor of the writings of many European theorists including Montesquieu, Voltaire and Bentham, and the English Quakers (John Bellers, John Howard, etc.). Cesare Beccaria’s essay called Crimes and Punishment written in 1767 established the theory that there was no justification for the right of any state to take a citizen’s life. Many people against the death penalty were influenced by the essay, causing them to take action against it. As a result, the death penalty was abolished in Austria and Tuscany.
Many people in the U.S. were in favor of reforming the use of the death penalty. Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill to revise the state of Virginia’s death penalty laws by proposing that capital punishment only be used for acts of treason and first degree murder. Though his proposal was defeated by one vote, this idea of reform was the first of many attempts to have the punishment abolished. Support for the death penalty was also a strong system throughout the young nation. Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and founder of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, believed that having a death penalty increased criminal conduct. He later gained the support of Benjamin Franklin and William Bradford. Bradford later led Pennsylvania to consider degrees of murder based on the damage done and extent of the crime. Pennsylvania outlawed the use of the death penalty for all crimes except first degree murder.
As time progressed, more and more states began to set laws that limited the use of the death penalty. In 1834 Pennsylvania became the first state to move executions away from the public eye and into correctional facilities. Michigan became the first state abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason. Following this trend, Rhode Island and Wisconsin soon outlawed the death penalty for crimes in all cases.
During the time of the Civil War focus on the abolishment of the death penalty lessened because of the growing Anti-Slavery movement. Once the war was over and issues with the African Americans and their supporters and opponents were somewhat taken care of, some focus shifted back to that of capital punishment. In 1888, the method of execution that involved the electric chair was first introduced. New York was the first stated to use this method in 1890 when William Kemmler was executed. Soon after, many other states began to adopt the use of the electric chair.
From 1907-1917, six states outlawed the death penalty all together, but this did not last long. With the rising threat of an attack and outbreaks of violence from Russia and other rebelling nations, the ban on the death penalty was repealed and was almost forgotten about because of the possibility of war. After World War I, most states who had previously abolished the death penalty had overruled that ban and began using it again.
Nevada became involved in finding a more “humane” way of executing those on death row in the 1920s. In 1924 the use of cyanide gas made its appearance when Gee John was to be executed with it. Those in charge of John’s execution tried to pump the fatal gas into his prison cell, but they realized their plan would fail quickly. With this realization, the gas chamber was constructed.
During the period of time before the US got involved in World War II, support grew for the death penalty because of the rise of successful criminologists. Those criminologists believed that the use of the death penalty was a necessary social measure. The 1930s were the years of the most executions in the recorded history of the United States with an average of about 167 execution per year during that decade.
Near the beginning, throughout, and for a while after World War II support for the death penalty began rapidly decreasing. Allied nations began to abolish capital punishment, and this made America rethink the rightness of the act. From 1960-1976, there were only 191 executions in the US. 1966 was the year that support for the punishment reached an all-time low with a poll showing that 42% of people maintained support for the death penalty. The 1960s not only lessened the support for the death penalty, but was also the age where many were questioning the interpretation of the Constitutional amendments in regards to the death penalty. The Supreme Court case Trop v. Dulles was not directly related to the death penalty, but made people think that with the “standard of decency” (an interpretation of the 8th amendment) capital punishment should be abolished once and for all.
During the late 1960s focus shifted not to the abolishment of the death penalty per se, but to the way it was administered. Two cases were brought to the Supreme Court regarding the situation. In the first one, U.S. v. Jackson, they argued about the application of the death penalty to a federal kidnapping offense on behalf of the jury’s request. This was quite controversial and was voted unconstitutional because it would potentially result in the defendants trying to waive their right to a trial by jury to be sure the jury would not sentence them to death.
The ruling of the Witherspoon v. Illinois case in 1968 stated that a juror’s opinion about the death penalty should have no part in deciding whether or not they should be allowed to serve on the jury. Their opinion could only prevent them from serving on the jury if the prosecutor was able to prove their attitude toward the punishment would result in an unfair sentence to the case.
During the 1970s, the issue about the death penalty violating 8th amendment rights that all US citizens have arose again in the Supreme Court case Furman v. Georgia. In the 1972 case, Furman brought forth the statement that capital cases brought forth capricious punishments and sentences. In the ruling, the Supreme Court decided that in some cases, using the death penalty did violate the 8th amendment right of all citizens. From there, they banned the death penalty in 40 statutes, excusing 629 inmates on death row. The decision in this case opened a whole new window of reforming the use of the death penalty in states around the nation. The Supreme Court decided that with the differing opinions about the punishment, states could revise their constitution with eliminate the statutes considered unconstitutional in the most recent case. Some states just decided to use capital punishment for those convicted of committing capital crimes. That practice was later declared unconstitutional in the case Woodson v. North Carolina.
Advancing into the modern age, more reforms took place regarding the death penalty. The reformations included adopting new methods of execution to make the process more “humane”, including the use of lethal injections. Oklahoma was the first to adopt the use of the lethal injection in 1977, but it took five more years until Texas was the first state to actually use the lethal injection as a mean of execution when Charles Brooks was executed with it on December 7, 1982.
After World War II, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other humanitarian based treaties were signed and ratified by many European countries, decreasing the use of the death penalty throughout the continent. Somewhat following this trend, the United States did not necessarily abolish the death penalty but did place some restrictions on it. One of the restrictions was decided in the Supreme Court case Coker v. Georgia, which decided that the death penalty could not be given for the crime of raping an adult woman.
Starting in 1986, mental illnesses became an issue in sentencing people to death. In the Supreme Court case Ford v. Wainwright, it was decided that capital punishment could not be given to anybody with any type of mental illness. That decision was reversed in 1989 when the Supreme Court held that executing a mentally ill person was not a direct violation of the 8th amendment. The fact that they were ill would just simply be taken into considering the punishment, but not completely change the decision. The issue was then revisited in June 2002 when the Supreme Court decided in Atkins v. Virginia that issuing the death penalty to a mentally ill person was a violation of the 8th amendment, banning that type of sentence once and for all.
Race was also one of the controversial areas of the punishment. In the case McCleskey v. Kemp, McCleskey argued that there was racial discrimination in the application of Georgia’s death penalty. He based his arguments on statistical information that included percentages of executions in the state of Georgia of people that were of races other than white. The Supreme Court ruled that racial disparities would not be a violation of the constitutional right to “equal protection” unless there was some kind of evidence that the discrimination was direct.