5.3 POL210

docx

School

Southern New Hampshire University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

210

Subject

Political Science

Date

Feb 20, 2024

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by gabberbean

The Death Penalty 1 The Death Penalty: Cruel and Unusual or Gabrielle Nacey POL210: American Politics Southern New Hampshire University

The Death Penalty 2 Abstract For my final research paper topic, I have chosen to analyze an issue that is one of the oldest topics of political discussion, the death penalty (the legal execution of a criminal). Although the death penalty is not uniquely American, I will only focus on its history in the States. The main design for capital punishment in the United States was derived from Britain. The different methods of execution have included shooting, hanging, electrocution, poison gas, and lethal injection. Today, all states that allow capital punishment use lethal injections because it is seen as the most humane. The first recorded execution in the new colonies was a Jamestown Captain in the Virginia colony in 1608 for being a Spanish spy (Bohm, 1999). By 1612, a Virginia governor signed into law the Divine, Moral, and Martial Laws, which dealt with the death penalty for minor offenses like killing chickens, stealing grapes, denying the “true God”, and trading with Native Americans. Laws regarding the death penalty varied from colony to colony, like the varying state laws today. People who support the death penalty interpret capital punishment as supported by the Constitution. People against capital punishment argue that sentencing anyone to death is unconstitutional and inhumane. The criminal justice system is not perfect, as innocent people have been wrongfully convicted and guilty people have been incorrectly exonerated; which means this is a world where innocent people are put to death. The history-long debate asks, “Is it acceptable to execute an individual who may be guilty in order to hopefully execute a few guilty ones?” Keywords: Capital punishment; death penalty and the constitution; death row innocence project; death sentence debate; constitutional law; individual laws; criminal procedure; eighth amendment; cruel and unusual punishment. Introduction

The Death Penalty 3 A nonprofit organization founded in 1920 to preserve civil rights and liberties guaranteed in the Constitution called the American Civil Liberties Union states that the death penalty violates the 5 th , 8 h , and 14 th amendments. Supporters of the death penalty use the fifth amendment as evidence that capital punishment cannot be unconstitutional because the Framers referenced it in the writing process of the Grand Jury clause, which prohibits the government from bringing charges against a person, “for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury,” (Blocher, 2016). People against the death penalty use the 1958 precedent set pertaining to the 8 th amendment as evidence that America has matured past the point of tolerating the death penalty and an eye for an eye culture. The Supreme Court ruled that the Cruel and Unusual clause is not violated by capital punishment, rather procedures should be adjusted to match the, “evolving standard of decency that marked the progress of a maturing society,” (Bohm, 1999). The fourteenth amendment discusses equal protection of the law, “no state [shall] deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law,” In the 1972 case Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court ordered a retrial for anyone sentenced to death row, declaring then existing laws, “the imposition and carrying out of the death penalty constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, violating the 8 th and 14 th amendments,” (Bohm, 1999). The Court concentrated on the way death penalty laws have been applied and ordered and declared them as “harsh, freakish, and arbitrary.” History of the Death Penalty in the Court The first Supreme Court case to address capital punishment was Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972) , where the decision invalidated existing death penalty under violation of the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment. The reasoning being that the laws disproportionately discriminated against minority and impoverished communities.

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

The Death Penalty 4 The Supreme Court refused to expand Furman in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976). They decided that the death penalty laws were constitutional because they served the social purposes of retribution and deterrence. The Court supported Georgia’s new laws and stated they reduced the problem as seen in earlier statutes. In Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977), The Supreme Court determined that a penalty must be proportionate to the crime, to not violate the Eighth Amendment’s clause against cruel and unusual punishment. Twenty years later, the Supreme Court extended its Coker ruling in Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008), upholding that the death penalty is categorically unavailable in cases of child rape where the victim lives. The Court found a national consensus for this decision. In Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002), The Supreme Court concluded that it is unconstitutional for a judge to sentence anyone to death for any circumstance without a sitting jury present. The case of Kansas v. Marsh, 548 U.S. 163 (2006), refined the principle of individualized sentencing jurisprudence even further when the Supreme Court ruled that states are allowed to use the death penalty if a jury finds any aggravating and mitigating factors to be equally weighted. In the case of Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002) , the Supreme Court ruled that intellectually and developmentally disabled criminals cannot be executed under the law because it violated the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment. In Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005), the Supreme Court banned the death penalty being used for all juvenile offenders due to their diminished culpability for their crimes. Current Laws and Public Opinion

The Death Penalty 5 In addition to the U.S. Government and the U.S. military, these 27 retain the death penalty; Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Neveda, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennesse, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. These 23 states have abolished the death penalty; Alaska (1957), Colorado (2020), Connecticut (2012), Delaware (2016), Hawaii (1957), Illinois (2011), Iowa (1965), Maine (1887), Maryland (2013), Massachusetts (1984), Michigan (1847), Minnesota (1911), New Hampshire (2019), New Jersey (2007), New Mexico (2009), New York (2007), North Dakota (1973), Rhode Island (1984), Vermont (1972), Virginia (2021), Washington (2018), West Virginia (1965), and Wisconsin (1853). According to contemporary research, states without the death penalty have lower homicide rates than states with the death penalty (Sarat et al., 2017). The New York Times found that 10 out of 12 states without the death penalty have below-national-average homicide rates. In the past ten years, the number of executions in the United States has increased while the rate of murder has declined. Supporters of the death penalty argue that the homicide drop is due to the increase in executions. However, during this same period, the murder rate in non-death penalty states has remained consistently lower than the rates in death penalty states. In 2004, the average homicide rate for death penalty states was 5.71 per 100,000 people, against 4.02 per 100,000 people in states without the death penalty. Evidence around the world supports these findings as well. A study in Canada found that twenty-seven years after the country abolished the death penalty, the murder rate had fallen by 44% (Sarat et al., 2017). According to a Pew Research Center survey, the death penalty draws support from most Americans (60%) and about four in ten Americans oppose capital punishment (Nadeem, 2017).

The Death Penalty 6 Many citizens share a concern over how the death penalty is applied and are unconvinced that it deters crime. An alarming amount of people in America (78%) believe there is a risk of an innocent person being put to death, while only 21% believe there are safeguards to prevent that (Nadeem, 2017). Among the overall supporters of the death penalty, 90% claim that the death penalty is morally justified in cases of murder, compared with the 25% of death penalty opponents. The death penalty debate is divided on the partisan line, with three-quarters (77%) of Republicans favoring the death penalty for anyone convicted of murder, while a little under half (46%) of Democrats favor the death penalty. According to a Pew Research Center Survey, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to believe the death penalty is morally justified, that it deters crime, and that adequate safeguards exist to prevent innocent people from being put to death (Nadeem, 2017). An area of even more divide between the political parties is over whether White people and Black people are equally likely to be sentenced to death for committing similar crimes. About 72% of Republicans believe that White people and Black people are equally likely to be sentenced to death for the same crimes, while only 15% of Democrats believe this (Nadeem, 2017).

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

The Death Penalty 7 References Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00- 8452.ZD1.html Blocher, J. (2016). Law review: "The death penalty and the fifth amendment" . Death Penalty Information Center. https://deathpenaltyinfo.org/news/law-review-the-death-penalty-and- the-fifth-amendment Bohm, R. (1999). “Deathquest: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Capital Punishment in the United States,” Anderson Publishing. Coker v. Georgia, 433 U.S. 584 (1977). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/433/584/ Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/408/238/ Gaffney, E. M., Jr. (1999). The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies. Commonweal , 126 (2), 34. https://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=edsglr&AN=edsglr.A53972968&site=eds-live&scope=site Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/428/153/ Johnson, R., & McGunigall-Smith, S. (2008). Life without Parole, America’s Other Death Penalty: Notes on Life under Sentence of Death by Incarceration. Prison Journal , 88 (2), 328-347–350. https://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=edshol&AN=edshol.hein.journals.prsjrnl88.19&site=eds-live&scope=site Kansas v. Marsh, 548 U.S. 163 (2006). https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/548/163/ Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/554/407

The Death Penalty 8 Nadeem, R. (2021). Most Americans favor the death penalty despite concerns about its administration . Pew Research Center - U.S. Politics & Policy. Retrieved February 4, 2023, from https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/06/02/most-americans-favor-the-death- penalty-despite-concerns-about-its-administration/ Ring v. Arizona, 536 U.S. 584 (2002). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/01-488 Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005). https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/03- 633.ZO.html Sarat, A., Kermes, R., Cambra, H., Curran, A., Kiley, M., & Pant, K. (2017). The Rhetoric of Abolition: Continuity and Change in the Struggle against America’s Death Penalty, 1900- 2010. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology , 107 (4), 757–iv. https://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx? direct=true&db=edshol&AN=edshol.hein.journals.jclc107.28&site=eds-live&scope=site Stimson, C. (2019). The Death Penalty is Appropriate. The Heritage Foundation. https://www.heritage.org/crime-and-justice-/commentary/the-death-penalty- appropriate/

5.3 POL210

Related Documents