Death Penalty

Executions

• In 2005, 60 inmates were executed (43 in 2011)

•   Of persons executed in 2005:-- 41 were white-- 19 were black

•  Fifty-nine men and one woman were executed in 2005.

•  Lethal injection accounted for all of the executions.

Prisoners Under Death Sentence

• Year end 2004, 36 States and the Federal prison system held 3,314 prisoners

• Of persons under sentence of death in 2004:   -- 1,850 were white   -- 1,390 were black   -- 28 were American Indian   -- 32 were Asian   -- 14 were of unknown race

• 52 women were under a sentence of death at yearend 2004.

• The ave. age at time of arrest was 28; 2% of inmates were age 17 or younger at the time of arrest.

• At year end 2004, the youngest inmate under sentence of death was 18; the oldest was 89.

Pennsylvania

• Reenacted- 1978

• First- 1995

• Currently- 235 on Death Row

3 executed

PA History

1860-1912: hanging 1913-1989: electrocution present: lethal injection

States w/o Death Penalty

• Alaska• Hawaii• Iowa• Maine• Massachusetts• Michigan• DC

• Minnesota

• North Dakota

• Rhode Island

• Vermont

• West Virginia

• Wisconsin

Methods

• Hangings• The last hanging

was January 25, 1996 in Delaware

• primary method until 1890’s

• Firing Squad• still remains a

method of execution in Utah & Idaho

• Inmate chooses• Last execution

1996

• Electrocution

• NY made 1st chair

• A jolt of between 500 and 2000 volts, which lasts for about 30 seconds

...the prisoner's eyeballs sometimes pop out and rest on [his] cheeks. The prisoner often defecates, urinates, and vomits blood and drool. The body turns bright red as its temperature rises, and the prisoner's flesh swells and his skin stretches to the point of breaking. Sometimes the prisoner catches fire....Witnesses hear a loud and sustained sound like bacon frying, and the sickly sweet smell of burning flesh permeates the chamber. (Ecenbarger, 1994)

• Gas Chamber• use of cyanide

gas was introduced as Nevada sought a more humane way of executing its inmates

• 1977, Oklahoma became the first state to adopt lethal injection

• Today, 37 of the 38 states that have the death penalty use this method

Deterrence• 84% of criminologists do not feel

the death penalty stops murders.

• 64% support death penalty (down from 80%)

• US police chiefs believe the death penalty is an effective enforcement tool.

• http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/documents/FactSheet.pdf