The Nation's Death Penalty
By Alexis, Jenny, Emma, Jacob, Kaleb, Parker, and Kara
What's this About?
What's the Death Penalty?
Ways of the Death Penalty
- Lethal Injections- Oklahoma was the first to use this method, the criminal is strapped to a gurney and a needle is injected into their arm.
- Electrocution- The prisoner is strapped into a chair, and is blind-folded, 500 to 2,000 volts are sent through the body.
- Gas Chamber- The criminal is placed in an air-sealed chamber, and gas then fills the chamber, the criminal dies from lack of oxygen to the brain.
- Hanging- Hanging is the suspension of a person by ligature. There are four methods of hanging- suspension, short drop, standard drop, and long drop.
- Firing Squad- The prisoner is strapped to a chair and is shot at
The Nation's History of the Death Penalty
- New Jersey became the first state to ban the death penalty
- Britain influenced the United States to use the death penalty more than any other country
- The first recorded United States execution was in Jamestown in 1608.
- From 1907 to 1917, six states completely abolished the death penalty.
- From 1930 to 1967, 3,589 civilian executions were conducted
The Current Nation and the Death Penalty
Current Cases in the Nation
- A jury recommended Richard Beasley be sentenced to death for killing three men who had answered a Craigslist ad for work as ranch-hands on a cattle farm in Ohio.
- Shameeka LaShae and Clarence McCord III both pleaded not guilty in April to charges against them for murdering pregnant 25-year-old Kejuan Charde Hall in December 2010, but after the district attorney filed a notice four months later that he planned to seek the death penalty, McCord and Watson by law need to be re-arraigned.
- Robert Woodall pleaded guilty to capital murder and chose not to testify in the sentencing part of his trial. His attorneys requested that the judge instruct the jury not to draw any adverse inferences from Woodall's decision not to testify on his own behalf, but his request was denied because the judge thought that Woodall's guilty plea waived his right to be free from self-incrimination. Woodall was sentenced to death.
- On May 28, 2013, the Court ruled (5-4) in Trevino v. Thaler that death row inmates in Texas can raise claims of ineffectiveness of counsel for the first time in federal court if they did not have a meaningful chance to raise the claim in state appeals
- The Cleveland man accused of holding three women captive in his home for about a decade agreed to plead guilty in a deal to avoid the death penalty.In exchange, prosecutors said 53-year-old Ariel Castro would be sentenced to life without parole plus 1,000 years
Iowa and the Death Penalty
- Iowa does not have a death penalty
- Iowa had a death penalty until it was abolished in 1965
- Iowa carried out 46 executions between 1834 and 1965
- Everyone that was executed during this time was male
- 43 were executed because of murder, and 3 were executed because of rape
- Notable cases: On July 15th, 1845, two brothers were hanged. In 1858, a hanging drew a crowd of 15,000 people
- Milestones: Iowa's death penalty remained active until 1872. When it was abolished, a wave of crime spurred. The death penalty was reinstated in 1878.
- It was abolished for the second and last time in 1964
Juveniles and the Death Penalty
Since 1642, there have been an estimated 364 executions for juvenile crimes
Due to slow appeals, very few of these people were executed under the age of 18
The youngest person to be executed was George Stinney, who was electrocuted in South Carolina at the age of 14 in 1944
In 1988, the execution of juveniles under age 16 was abolished (Thompson v. Oklahoma)
The Supreme Court ruled in 2005 that the minimum age at the time of crime to be put on death row is 18 (Roper v. Simmons)
Since 1632, there have been an estimated 571 cases of execution of women in the US
Since 1976, 13, or 0.97% of the people executed have been women
The Cost of the Death Penalty
Cost more than locking killers in jail for the rest of life
10s of millions of dollars cheaper
Job and paycheck cuts are made by killing them
10 times more expensive to kill them to life punishment
Due to money issues in 2007 New Jersey was the first state to ban the death penalty
Can cost up to 4.2 million dollars
Some states could save up to 1 billion dollars a year if they imprisoned people for life other than the death penalty
Sources Cited
- http://www.cncpunishment.com/forums/showthread.php?6538-Prosecutors-Pursue-Death-Penalty-Against-Shameeka-Lashae-Watson-in-2010-GA-Slaying-of-Kejuan-Charde-Hall
- http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/states-and-without-death-penalty
- http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/