CHAPTER 15

Death: The Ultimate Sanction

Chapter Objectives

1.      Discuss the history of capital punishment.

2.      Describe the characteristics of people executed in the United States since 1977 and on death row today.

3.      Discuss the politics influencing capital punishment.

4.      Summarize the arguments for and against the death penalty.

5.      List and summarize the major U.S. Supreme Court decisions that influenced capital punishment legislation.

6.      Describe the death penalty appeals process.

7.      Summarize Liebman’s findings on the frequency of errors in capital punishment cases.

8.      Discuss the Supreme Court’s reasoning for banning the execution of the mentally retarded and juveniles.

Chapter Outline

I. History of Capital Punishment

·        Capital punishment began changing in the 18th century during the Enlightenment.

·        At the turn of the 20th century, some states began to ban capital punishment.

·        By 1950, as prosperity followed World War II, public sentiment for capital punishment faded.

·        In 1972, the Court in Furman v. Georgia case, temporarily banned capital punishment in the United States. 

A. Capital Punishment Around the World

·        In 2011, Amnesty International documented 676 executions in 20 countries, but the total did not include figures from China, which executes more people than the rest of the world combined. The five countries that reported the most executions in 2011 were Iran (360+), Saudi Arabia (82+)Iraq (68+), United States (43), Yemen (41+). Fifty-seven countries still retain the death penalty.

II. Capital Punishment in the United States

·        In 33 states, the U.S. military, and the federal government allow capital punishment. 17 states and the District of Columbia do not allow capital punishment.

·        The crimes which may result in the death penalty vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction 

A.The Federal Death Penalty

·        The Constitution of the United States does not mention the death penalty, but it does permit the federal government to deprive citizens of life after giving due process.

·        Since 1790, the federal government has executed 339 men and 4 women. Of these 135 (40 percent) were white; 119 (35 percent) were black; 63 (19 percent) were Native American; and 26 (8 percent) were Hispanic or of unknown origin.

·        In 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act which includes the Federal Death Penalty Act.

o    This act expanded the number of federal offenses punishable by death.

Procedures in Federal Capital Cases

·        Federal prosecutors who wish to file capital charges are required to obtain authorization from the attorney general.

·        Federal Death Penalty Act requires that an offender have a minimum of two lawyers, at least one of the two must have experience in capital work, and the federal court must consider the federal public defender’s recommendations regarding which counsel are qualified for appointment in capital cases.

Federal Death Row

·        The federal death row is at the U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Indiana. It is called the Special Confinement Unit (SCU), federal death row is located at the United States Penitentiary in Terra Haute, Indiana.

·        At yearend 2012, 58 people were on federal death row.

Race and the Federal Death Penalty

·        Justice Department study found minorities are overrepresented in the federal death penalty system, as both victims and defendants relative to the general population.

·        The majority of federal defendants were black, and one-half of the remaining defendants are Mexican-American.

III. Death Row Today

A. Characteristics of People Executed Since 1977

·        Since the death penalty began again in 1977, 1,321 people have been executed.

·        Thirty-seven percent of the executions have taken place in Texas.

·        Most executions take place in the south.

·        Only 0.1 percent have been women, 56 percent were white, 35 percent were black, 7 percent Hispanic, and 2 percent of other backgrounds.

B. Characteristics of Prisoners Under Sentence of Death

·        3,146 people are awaiting execution.

·        Most are in California (724), Florida (411), and Texas (304).

C. Victim Race and Gender and the Death Penalty

·        Defendant–victim racial combinations have been the subject of considerable debate.

·        Seventy-eight percent of the victims in cases resulting in executions since 1977 have been white.

D. Methods of Execution

·        Five methods of execution are used in the United States:

o    Lethal injection

o    Electrocution

o    Lethal gas

o    Hanging

o    Firing squad

E. What Is Death Row Like?

·        All but two states segregate death row inmates from the general prison population.

·        Most inmates spend 22 to 23 hours in a five-by-eight or six-by-nine-foot cell.

·        The inmates are allowed only two showers a week.

·        The inmates must eat in their cells.

·        The inmates usually lose their ties with the outside world. Some of the states allow contact visits.

·        Death row existence has been called the “living death” to convey a prisoner’s loneliness, isolation, boredom, and loss of privacy.

F. Public Opinion, Politics, and Capital Punishment

·        Public support for capital punishment in the United States was the lowest in 1966 when only 42 percent of Americans supported it.

·        Since then, Americans’ support for the death penalty as punishment for murder has plateaued in the low 60 percent range.

·        Support for the death penalty when compared with possible alternative such as life in prison without parole.

IV. The Courts and the Death Penalty

·        Every phase of a capital crime proceeding has been influenced by court rulings.

·        Landmark cases:

o    Furman v. Georgia—the Court ruled that the death penalty, as imposed and carried out under the laws of Georgia, was cruel and unusual punishment.

o    Woodson v. North Carolina and Roberts v. Louisiana—the Court rejected mandatory death penalty statutes.

o    Gregg v. Georgia—the Court approved guided discretion statutes. The Court approved automatic appellate review and a bifurcated trial process. In Gregg, the Court also approved the use of aggravating and mitigating circumstances.

o    Ring v. Arizona—the Court held that only juries, not judges, can determine the presence of “aggravating factors” to be weighed in the capital sentencing process.

A. Appealing the Death Penalty

·        Death penalty cases may pass through as many as 10 courts, across three stages: trial and direct review, state postconviction appeals, and federal habeas corpus appeals.

·        Impact of the 1996 federal Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act that defines filing deadlines and limits the reasons for subsequent federal appellate reviews.

V. Death Penalty Issues in the 21st Century

A. Wrongful Convictions: The Liebman Study

·        Four times as many people had their death sentences overturned or received clemency than were executed since 1977.

·        Liebman was asked to calculate the frequency of error in capital cases.

·        Findings: the overall rate of prejudicial error in the U.S. capital punishment system is 68 percent; more than two-thirds of the capital judgments reviewed by the courts were found to be seriously flawed; 10 states had overall error rates of 75 percent or higher; and almost 1,000 of the cases sent back for retrial ended in sentences of less than death and 87 ended in not guilty verdicts.

·        Liebman found two types of serious error.

o    Incompetent defense lawyering

o    Prosecutorial suppression of evidence that the defendant is innocent or does not deserve the death penalty

·        Wrongful convictions have a serious consequence for—the wrongfully convicted, the family of the victim and the person wrongfully convicted, subsequent victims of the real offender still at large, and the public in terms of lost confidence in the criminal justice system.

·        Twenty-six states, the District of Columbia, and the federal government have passed laws that compensate people wrongfully convicted.

·        Liebamn identifies two options to reduce serious capital errors.

o    The first option is to end the death penalty entirely.

o    The second option is to curb the scope of the death penalty to reach only the small number of offenses on which there is broad social consensus that only the death penalty will serve.

B. Banning the Juvenile Death Penalty

·        On March 2, 2005, the U.S. Supreme Courts banned executions of juveniles for crimes they committed before turning age 18. Seventy-two persons will end up receiving life sentences.

C. Banning the Execution of People with Mental Retardation

·        On June 19, 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court banned the execution of mentally retarded offenders as cruel and unusual punishment.

·        It is up to the states, though, to define mental retardation.