Capital punishment in the United States
Capital punishment is currently practiced in some states and by the federal government in the United States of America. Each state using the death penalty has different laws regarding its methods, age limits, and crimes which qualify. There were 65 executions in 2003.
The most comprehensive source (the Espy file) lists less than 15,000 people executed in United States or its predecessors between 1608 and 1991.[1] China executed more than this number just in the 1990s. 4661 executions occurred in the U.S. in the period 1930-2002 with about 2/3 of the executions occurring in the first twenty years.[2] Additionally the U.S. Army executed 160 soldiers between 1930 and 1967. The last U.S. Navy execution was in 1849.
The death penalty was ruled unconstitutional in 1972 but it was reinstated in 1976. Since 1976, 885 people have been executed, mainly by the states. Texas has accounted for over a third of modern executions; the federal government has executed only 3 people in the last 27 years.
Age Limits
Only seven countries practice the death penalty for juveniles, that is criminals aged under 18 at the time of their crime. Nearly all actual executions for juvenile crime take place in the USA, although, due to the slow process of appeals, no one has been under age 19 at time of execution since at least 1964.[3] [4] The last juvenile execution may have been 17 year old Leonard Shockey executed on April 10, 1959. In the United States and ancestor bodies politic since 1642, an estimated 364 juvenile offenders have been put to death by states and the federal government. Since 1988, the death penalty cannot be applied to criminals under age 16 and higher ages are legislated in many states.
Since 1976, 22 people have been executed for crimes commited as juveniles. These executions occurred in only 7 states. As of 2003, 17 of the 38 states that allow capital punishment and the federal government do not allow it for juveniles. 5 states require the criminal to be at least 17 at the time of the crime. 16 states have the federally required age of 16 as a minimum.
Crimes subject to death penalty
Crimes subject to the death penalty vary by jurisdiction. All jurisdictions have murder as a crime subject to capital punishment although many jurisdiction require additional aggravating factors. Treason is a capital offense in several jurisdictions. Other capital crimes include: Aggravated kidnapping in Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky and South Carolina; train wrecking and perjury which leds to someone being executed in California; aircraft hijacking in Georgia and Mississippi; aggravated rape of victim under age 12 in Louisiana; capital sexual battery in Florida; and capital narcotics conspiracy in Florida and New Jersey. Federal death penalty crimes are various degrees and types of murder as well as treason, espionage, large scale drug trafficking, and attempting to kill any officer, juror,or witness in cases involving a Continuing Criminal Enterprise.
Methods
Various methods have been used in the history of the American colonies and the United States but only 5 methods are currently used. Historically, burning, pressing, gibbeting or hanging in chains, breaking on wheel and bludgeoning were used for a small number of executions while hanging was the most common method. Curently lethal injection is the method used or allowed in 37 of the 38 states which allow the death penalty and by the federal government. Nebraska requires electroction. Other states also allow electrocution, gas chambers, hanging and the firing squad.
From 1976-2003, 718 of 885 execution have been by lethal injection, 151 by electrocution, 11 by gas chamber, 3 by hanging, and 2 by firing squad.
Distribution of Sentences
It is noted that the death penalty is sought and applied more often in some jurisdictions, not only between states but within states.
Roughly one percent of those executed since 1976 have been women.
Critics not that African Americans make up 42% of death row inmates while making up only 12% of the population. (They have made up 34% of those actually executed since 1976.) Others note that this is lower than the 50% of the total prison population which is African American and that whites are twice as likely as African Americans to receive the death penalty and are executed sooner after sentencing.[5]