Death Penalty in the USA

Death Penalty in the USA

As Thomas Jefferson said, “the care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government”. Introduction: Society has always used punishment to discourage would-be criminals from unlawful action. Since society has the highest interest in preventing murder, it should use the strongest punishment available to deter murder, and that is the death penalty. Capital punishment is the practice of executing someone as punishment for a specific crime after a proper legal trial. If murderers are sentenced to death and executed, potential murderers will think twice before killing for fear of losing their own life. Is death penalty an efficient and rightful criminal punishment in the US ?  Don't murderers deserve to die? The death penalty in the United States of America is a constant source of controversy. Efforts to abolish the death penalty in America go back over one hundred years and have continued to the present day.

So, I will hand over to ….. who will deal with Death Penalty’s History in the USA.

First of all, the Death Penalty also said the Capital Punishment is a legal penalty in the United States, currently used by 31 states and the federal government. Its existence can be traced to the beginning of the American colonies.

One particularity in the Death Penalty’s history is that there were no executions in the entire country between 1967 and 1977. Indeed, in 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down capital punishment statutes in the case of Furman v. Georgia, and reduced all death sentences pending at this time to life imprisonment.

Therefore, a majority of states passed new death penalty statutes, and the court affirmed the legality of capital punishment in the 1976 during the famous case Gregg v. Georgia.

The United States is the only Western country currently applying the death penalty.

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(Furman v. Georgia, was a criminal case in which the United States Supreme Court struck down all death penalty schemes in the United States

Gregg v. Georgia, reaffirmed the United States Supreme Court's acceptance of the use of the death penalty in the United States, upholding, in particular, the death sentence imposed on Troy Leon Gregg.)

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Firstly, the DP’s history in the USA really begin in 1789 with the Bill of Rights. In fact, this fundamental texte included the Eighth Amendment which prohibited cruel and unusual punishment. The Fifth Amendment was drafted with language that imply a possible use of the death penalty, requiring a grand jury charge for "capital crime" and a due process of law for deprivation of "life" by the government.

Later, the Fourteenth Amendment adopted in 1868 also requires a due process of law for deprivation of life but this time by any state.

Subsequently, three states abolished the death penalty for murder during the 19th century: Michigan in 1846, Wisconsin in 1853 and Maine in 1887.

Other states abolished the death penalty for murder before Gregg v. Georgia include: Minnesota in 1911, Vermont in 1964, Iowa and West Virginia in 1965 and North Dakota in 1973. Hawaii abolished the death penalty in 1948 and Alaska in 1957, both before their statehood. Puerto Rico repealed it in 1929 and the District of Columbia in 1981.

The states of Arizona and Oregon are quite particular because they abolished the death penalty by popular vote in 1916 and 1964 respectively, but both reinstated it, again by popular vote, some years later: Arizona in 1918 and Oregon in 1978.

Puerto Rico and Michigan are the only two U.S. jurisdictions to have explicitly prohibited capital punishment in their constitutions: in 1952 and 1964, respectively.

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However, the DP’s history is marked by a period of 10 years between 1967 and 1977 in which the capital punishment was firmly forbidden.

This decision was taken in response of the case of Furman v. Georgia.

In this legal case the U.S. Supreme Court considered a group of consolidated cases. The lead case involved an individual convicted under Georgia's death penalty statute, which featured a "unitary trial" procedure in which the jury was asked to return a verdict of guilt or innocence and, simultaneously, determine whether the defendant would be punished by death or life imprisonment.

The Furman decision caused all death sentences pending at the time to be reduced to life imprisonment

The capital punishment was reinstated in 1976 with the case of Gregg v. Georgia in which the United States Supreme Court's reaffirmed the acceptance of the use of the death penalty in the United States, upholding, in particular, the death sentence imposed on Troy Leon Gregg.

In sum, despite a quite controversy history, the DP is still use in the majority of the states in the USA. Nevertheless in 2015, there were 20 states where the DP is strictly prohibited but a couple of states still use the DP but to a limited extend by the moratorium which is imposed by the different governments.

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Finally, the capital punishment could be pronunce by 3 sorts of courts:

        •        Courts of special federals states in which there is a law including that the DP is approved by them.

        •        Federal courts, for some federal crimes (relatively rare) 

        •        Military courts for military cases including soldiers who have commited murder.

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Let’s move on to the impact of the popular culture on death penalty debate.