Capital punishment in the United States of America

The capital punishment in the United States of America is restored since 1976. It is one of the last countries of the western world to apply the Capital punishment.

Three types of jurisdictions can pronounce the capital punishment:

  • federal courts, for certain federal crimes (rare);
  • courses of certain federate States not having abolished the capital punishment, for crimes such as the murder;
  • military courses, in the case of soldiers making of the serious crimes such as the murder (very rare).

The vast majority of condemned to dead are it by the federate States. Condemned to the capital punishment are in general held under a mode of high security in special districts of the prisons known as “corridors of dead the”.

The capital punishment is one of the subjects of controversy between the United States, where the population is in majority favorable to the death penalty, and certain countries or political groups present in States having abolished the capital punishment, in particular in Western Europe. The American abolitionists, organized in associations, militate for the suppression of the capital punishment in the United States.

History

17th century - 1967

The capital punishment was for the first time used in the Thirteen Colonies in 1608 in Virginia. In 1791, the American Constitution protected in his second amendment freedom from the wearing of weapon by stipulating that a “well controlled militia is necessary to the safety of the State”. The capital punishment proceeds of this expeditious design of the justice which was firmly anchored in the American history with the Conquête of the West. To this design the religious convictions of certain Protestants in particular and the literal reading of the Bible were added (Loi of Retaliation). This is why the capital punishment was called very little into question: the Pennsylvania is the first State to restrict the capital punishment only for the businesses of murder. The Michigan is one of the rare States of the world to prohibit the capital punishment in the Années 1840. The years of organized crime, in the Years 1930 and 1940 mark the apogee of the executions in the United States. Indeed, the majority of the public stations being submitted to election, all these elected officials, in particular those of proximity, cannot reform with their own way without having the approval of their voters. Moreover, the American Constitution separates the capacities strictly: the judicial power is completely independent of the two other capacities (executive and legislature). It is the Supreme court of the United States which will start to slice in the societal debates (segregation, wearing of weapon, Avortement, capital punishment). Starting from 1967, the Supreme court starts to invalidate then to impose moratoriums in fact on the capital punishment for violation of VIIIe and XIVe amendment S of the constitution. Of 1972 (stop Furman v. Georgia) with 1976 (stop Greg v. Georgia, which reverses the precedent), the Supreme court blocked the application of the Capital punishment in all the country, considering that it was about a punishment cruel and exceptional ( Cruel and Unusual Punishment ), prohibited by the VIIIe amendment with the Constitution.

Return of the capital punishment (after 1976)

In 1976, the judges approved the reformed penal codes of the Georgia, the Texas and the Florida, which limited the capital punishment to certain crimes at the end of a double lawsuit (on the culpability, then on the sorrow). Trentecinq States takes again then these provisions and individually reintroduces the capital punishment in their legislation by the means of or private bills Référendum. The death sentences thus included in the States where the capital punishment is legal.

In 2005, thirty-eight States on fifty preserve the capital punishment in their legislation. Several States, although not being free trade, did not apply the capital punishment since many years (the New Hampshire, for example, does not hold any criminal in the Couloir of dead the).

On the thirty-eight States not-abolitionists, the supreme courts of two of between-them, New York and the Kansas, judged recently that the sorrow was incompatible with the constitution of the State, causing consternation in the local public opinion obliging the town councilors to propose constitutional modifications. On another side, the governor of the Massachusetts decided in 2004 for the re-establishment of the capital punishment in his State, supported by the opinion polls, and submitted a bill to the hostile local parliament and which thus has only few chances to lead by this way.

The number of executions is in fall these last years: 71 in 2002, 65 in 2003 and 59 in 2004 and 53 in 2006. Certains States does not practice any more the capital punishment, even if it is not abolished.

In May 2005, the Connecticut has carried out the first application of the capital punishment in New England for forty-five years. In July 2005, a federal court sitting in the Neighboring state of the Vermont, has pronounced its first death sentence for fifty years against a murderer. The capital punishment was officially abolished in 1987 in Vermont. However as there were kidnapping and murder, only the federal authorities are qualified.

December 2nd, 2005 took place it thousandth execution since the re-establishment of the capital punishment in 1976. Condemned was carried out by lethal injection in North Carolina. Kenneth Boyd had been condemned to died for the murder of his wife and her father-in-law. More than three thousand four hundred prisoners await their execution in the United States of America.

The Supreme court limited the field of application of the capital punishment, reserving it for the murders (1977), then by excluding the delayed mental ones (2002) and the minor (2005).

The November 7th 2006, the voters of the Wisconsin approved at the time of a Référendum a motion asking the legislator of the state to restore the capital punishment for the crimes of blood proven by DNA. This referendum is indicative, which means that the government of the State is not obliged to follow the opinion of the voters.

Eleven States, whose Texas, decided to suspend the capital punishment in 2007, while waiting for a decision of the Supreme court on the lethal injection. The best hope of the abolitionists to hope to make rock the public opinion in their favor remains the first formal evidence of innocent carried out by error.

The capital punishment in the United States in figures since 1976

The number of executions is in fall these last years with the the United States: 71 in 2002, 65 in 2003 and 59 in 2004 and 53 in 2006. In 2006,58% of condemned to death were Blancs, 34% were Noirs (whereas they account for 12% of the population), 6% were Hispaniques and 2% belonged at other communities.

Few women were condemned to death; they account for 1,58% of the prisoners of the corridors of death. Eleven women appear among: 1000 carried out since 1976|date= October 2nd, 2007 .

The minors also very few among are condemned to dead: twenty-two minor criminals at the time of the facts were put at died before the prohibition of this practice in March 2005|date= October 2nd, 2007 .

Many innocent is condemned to died but little is cleared and slackened|date= October 2nd, 2007 . Since 1973, 122 people in 25 States were released from the “corridors of died” thanks to evidence of their innocence|date= October 2nd, 2007 .

At least twenty nonAmerican nationals were carried out in the United States since 1976, and 118 are currently likely to be carried out soon: Mexico (50), Cuba (6), Jamaica (6), El Salvador (5), Vietnam (5), Colombia (4), Kampuchea (3), Honduras (3) and Germany (2)|date= October 2nd, 2007 .

The large majority (90%) of the executions takes place in the States of the South.

Majority of the executions.

List States

List of the 12 free trade States (of swears) in 2005

Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Massachusetts, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia-Western, Wisconsin.

With those there is added the District of Columbia which is not a State but a territory under federal jurisdiction.

List of the 38 States having reintroduced the capital punishment

Little time after, the democratic governor of the Maryland also imposed a moratorium which was, undoubtedly, one of the reasons of the defeat of the democratic candidate Kathleen Townsend Kennedy at the time of the elections of November 2002. The new republican governor did not prolong this moratorium.

January 9th, 2006, the members of Parliament of the New Jersey voted, by 55 votes against 21 and two abstentions, a moratorium on the capital punishment, becoming the first American legislators to suspend the application of the capital punishment. A commission is established with for mission of measuring the impact of the capital punishment on criminality (Seulements ten condemned are in 2006 prisoners in the corridors of dead). This moratorium should be ratified and promulgated at the last day of its mandate by the governor by interim Richard Codey.

The June 12th 2006, the supreme court allows one condemned to dead of Florida to dispute the method of execution (injection).

The December 15th 2006, Jeb Bush, the governor of the state of Florida pronounced a moratorium on the capital executions following the lethal injection operated on Angel Nieves Diaz.

In its stop on the business Roper v. Simmons , returned on March 1st 2005, it abolished the capital punishment for the minor criminals (of less than 18 years) at the time of the facts with 5 votes against 4. The court judged that the capital punishment for the minors was unconstitutional and violated the 8th amendment of the Constitution of the United States, which prohibits the cruel or disproportionate punishments. The United States was the only country with the China, the Iran and the Pakistan to carry out minor criminals. It would seem that the weight of the international public opinion was very important in this decision.

On their side, the American abolitionists asserted that the capital punishment for the minors was of nothing dissuasive, the minors not realizing of the import of their acts. The exemplarity of the capital punishment, preached by its partisans, could not thus be effective near the minors.

See too

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