A researcher named Watt Espy established that from the colonial era in American history until 1988, there were 16,000 men, women, and children killed by judicial execution in this country. This does not include lynchings. The earliest confirmed execution was in 1608, and this man was shot. Executions have been carried out in many ways, including burnings, a common practice until the nineteenth century. The five preferred methods of execution have been shooting, hanging, electrocution, gassing, and lethal injection. Lethal injection is the new method among the group, dating from the 1980s.
Capital punishment has a long history in the nations of the world, and the recent trend in industrialized nations has been to stop this practice in favor of the punishment of life in prison. The United States has had capital punishment in at least some states since the creation of the Republic, except for a period in the 1970s after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down all capital punishment statutes on constitutional grounds. That decision did not mean capital punishment was no longer possible, only that the laws had to be rewritten to assure certain constitutional requirements and guarantees. The public at the present time expresses a desire for the imposition of capital punishment and for swifter execution of criminals, perhaps even if this means undermining certain constitutional rights. This stems largely from a fear of violent crime. Some may believe that capital punishment is a deterrent, and others may simply want to exact the full measure of revenge possible against violent criminals. Opponents find capital punishment to be cruel and unusual punishment, to be imposed unfairly and even capriciously, to be a barbarism that should have been eliminated in a civilized society long ago, and even as insufficient punishment for many offenders when compared with life in prison where they might suffer daily. An examination of the history...