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FEDRAL vs. STATE DEATH PENALTY

This article explores the difference between state and federal laws regarding the death penalty in the United States, discussing its history, methods, and current state laws. It also raises the question of whether or not the death penalty should be allowed.

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FEDRAL vs. STATE DEATH PENALTY

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  1. FEDRAL vs. STATE DEATH PENALTY "The death penalty in the United States is primarily governed by state law, not federal law. Although there is a federal death penalty, more than 98 percent of the men and women on death rows across the United States are incarcerated as a result of state laws. Therefore, the legislation that most directly affects who is sentenced to death in the United States, what appellate processes they have, and how and when they are executed, is legislation at the state level." Mar. 19, 2009 - American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) 

  2. STATES WITH THE DEATH PENALTY Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wyoming

  3. The death penalty was abolished in 1957. The last execution in Alaska was in 1950 in Juneau. Eugene Moore was hanged for the murder of Juneau storekeeper Jim Ellen during a robbery in 1947.

  4. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TIMELINE • 1700s BC - Code of Hammurabi Codifies the Death Penalty for the First Time • 1608 - First Recorded Execution in the British American Colonies Was for Treason • June 25, 1790 - First Person Executed Under US Federal Death Penalty • The first federal execution was on June 25, 1790, when U.S. Marshall Henry Dearborn coordinated the hanging of Thomas Bird in Massachusetts. Dearborn spent five dollars and fifty cents for the construction of a gallows and a coffin. 

  5. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TIMELINE • 1833-1835 - Public Executions Are Attacked as Cruel and States Switch to Private Hangings • Aug. 6, 1890 - New York State Performs the First Execution by Electrocution with the Assistance of Thomas Edison's Engineers • Feb. 8, 1924 - First US Execution by Gas Chamber Carried Out in Nevada • On average it takes 8-10 minutes to die by cyanide gas.

  6. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TIMELINE • Aug. 14, 1936 - Last Public Execution • At 5:45 a.m. on Aug. 14, 1936, Rainey Bethea became the last person to be publicly executed in the US. Bethea was hanged for raping and murdering a 70-year-old woman in Owensboro, Kentucky. The execution garnered significant media and public attention because it was the first hanging in the US to be conducted by a woman. At least 20,000 people witnessed Bethea's hanging, which reporters called the "carnival in Owensboro." Several scholars believe Bethea's execution was an important contributor to the eventual ban on public executions in America.

  7. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TIMELINE • June 19, 1953 - Rosenberg's Become the First US Civilians Executed for Espionage • Julius Rosenberg, 33, and his 35-year-old wife, Ethel, were accused of stealing technical information from the atom research center in Los Alamos and turning it over to the KGB... • The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death on 5 April 1951 and despite numerous appeals for clemency were executed by the electric chair at Sing-Sing Prison on 19 June 1953. They were the only people in the United States ever executed for Cold War espionage, and their conviction fuelled US Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade against 'anti-American activities" by US citizens.

  8. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TIMELINE • Nov. 1987 - A Study Finds 350 Cases of Defendants Wrongfully Convicted for Capital Crimes • June 29, 1988 - US Supreme Court Rules Executions of Individuals Under Age of 16 Unconstitutional • June 28, 1993 - Kirk Bloodsworth Becomes First American Sentenced to Death Row to Be Exonerated with DNA Testing

  9. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TIMELINE • 1994 - Federal Death Penalty Is Expanded When President Clinton Signs 1994 Crime Bill • The 1994 crime bill (1.4 MB) - passed by the Democratic 103rd Congress (1993-4) and signed by President Clinton - created sixty new federal crimes for which the death penalty could be imposed and extended it to include certain drug offences." Offenses eligible for the federal death penalty include large-scale drug trafficking, terrorist homicides, murder of a Federal law enforcement officer, and drive-by-shootings and car-jackings that result in a death. • Mar. 3, 1999 - Last Execution by Gas Chamber (Arizona – it took 18 minutes)11 executions since 1976 • June 11, 2001 - Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh Becomes the First Federal Prisoner to Be Executed in 38 Years

  10. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT TIMELINE • June 20, 2002 - US Supreme Court Rules the Execution of Mentally Retarded Offenders Unconstitutional • Dec. 18, 2007 - United Nations General Assembly Passes a Resolution Calling for a Moratorium on the Death Penalty • June 18, 2010 - Last Execution by Firing Squad - Utah

  11. Breakdown of American Death Penalty by Race

  12. Death Penalty by Crime

  13. Executions by Method

  14. SHOULD THE DEATH PENALTY BE ALLOWED?

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