History and Status of the Death Penalty

The death penalty was prohibited in the United States between 1967 and 1976 by a series of court rulings. But these rulings have since been reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark case of Gary Gilmore, a convicted murderer who plead to be executed rather than serve a life term in prison. Today, state-sanctioned executions are increasingly common. The purpose of this research is to examine the history and current status of the death penalty in the United States.

Ever since the Gilmore case, the number of people sentenced to death as well as those actually executed have risen exponentially every year. In the few years following Gilmore's execution, only a handful of people were executed by the states. By 1987, 61 people were executed (Stack, 1987:532). And in 1988, there were 106 executions carried out in the nation (Malcolm, 1989:A9). The number of executions is expected to continue increasing at such a dramatic rate because of greater public acceptance of the death penalty and further court relaxations in the death penalty appeal process. By the early 1990s the number of people executed probably will average one a day.

Few political issues are as widely supported among the American public as the death penalty. Survey after survey demonstrates strong public feelings in favor of executing those convicted of cruel and murderous acts. Regardless of region, Americans favor at least a selective application of the death penalty generally wit

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nificant risk to society. One study traced the lives of 558 death row inmates whose executions were commuted by the 1972 Supreme Court decision. Of these murderers, four killed again--in prison. one inmate killed again on his release. And that former inmate then committed suicide. The recidivism rate for death row inmates is very low mostly because they remain incarcerated for all or the greater share of their lives. The justification of deterrence has dominated scholarly attention to capital punishment. Instead of sanctioning violence for the sake of violence, as advocated by the retributionists, deterrence theorists argue that state-sanctioned executions can actually save lives. The killing of convicted offenders is justified as a means of preserving the lives of potential future victims (Archer et al., 1983:992). In simple terms, it is the notion that a person deliberating a violent act may be compelled to forego the crime out of fear of capital punishment. One convicted murderer is executed in order to instill fear of a similar fate in another potential offender. EVIDENCE OF DETERRENCE Empirical evidence on the deterrent effect of capital punishment varies widely in methods of study and conclusions. Until 1975,

Category: Government - H