After talking about the Constitution of the United States, speaking about the Supreme law and in detail about the Bill of Rights and how to conjure a Bill into the law, we want to discuss issues like death penalty, gun ownership, abortion and the gay marriage. In our today´s post we will start to talk about death penalty and it’s beginnings in the USA.

Death penalty- how it was introduced

When death penalty was introduced in the United States of America, Britain was the country that influenced the United States more than any other country. When the settles came to the new world the years after 1492 they brought the practice of death penalty ( in law language: capital punishment). The execution of Captain George Kendall in 1608 in the Jamestown colony of Virginia was the first recorded execution in the new colonies. He was executed for allegedly spying for the Spanish Government. In 1612 the Virginian Governor Sir Thomas Dale enacted the divine, material and moral laws which provided the death penalty as well for as punishment for minor acts such as stealing grapes and vegetables, killing chickens, rejecting the idea of one god and trading with Indians. Hanging was the preferred method of execution, however method like burning, beating and breaking on a wheal where also used, but were infrequently. From colony to colony the laws about death penalty differed from one another.

The Abolitionist Movement

The abolitionist movement began early. It was the essay of Cesare Beccaria's, which was published in1767 with the title “On Crimes and Punishment “that had a strong impact throughout the world. In the essay, Beccaria stated that there was no justification for the state's taking of a life. The essay gave abolitionists an authoritative voice.

American intellectuals as well were influenced by Beccaria. The first attempts to reform the death penalty in the U.S. occurred when founding father Thomas Jefferson introduced a bill to revise Virginia's death penalty laws in 1777. The bill proposed that capital punishment  should be used only for the crimes of murder and treason. It was defeated by only one vote.

However in 1790 the US Bill of rights ended its 8.amendment saying that “no cruel and unusual punishment would be inflicted on united states citizens”.

In 1794, Pennsylvania abolished the death penalty for all offenses except first degree murder.

States, which did not introduce the capital punishment

However, some states never introduced the capital punishment, such as Michigan. The newest states on that time, Alaska and Hawaii, repealed the death penalty prior to statehood. Other states with long histories of no death penalty are Wisconsin (the only state with only one execution), Rhode Island (although later it was reintroduced, not used and abolished again), Maine, North Dakota, Minnesota, West Virginia, Iowa, and Vermont. The District of Columbia has also abolished the death penalty; it was last used in 1957. Oregon abolished the death penalty due to an overwhelming majority in a public referendum held in 1964. However, reestablished it in a death penalty/life imprisonment referendum in 1984.

On this map you can see in green the stats that did not introduce the capital punishment and in red the states that introduced it make use of it.

Although some U.S. states began abolishing the death penalty, most states held onto it. Some states made more crimes capital offenses, especially for offenses committed by slaves. The 1838 enactment of discretionary death penalty statutes in Tennessee, and later in Alabama, were seen as a great reform. This introduction of ordering discretion in the capital process was perceived as a victory for abolitionists because prior to the enactment of these statutes, all states mandated the death penalty for anyone convicted of a capital crime, regardless of circumstances.

During the Civil War there was more attention given to the anti-slavery movement. After the war, new developments in the means of executions appeared and eased its use. The electric chair was introduced at the end of the century. New York built the first electric chair in 1888, and in 1890 executed William Kemmler. This method was considered to be more human than hanging and it was quickly adopted by other states.

Source:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9DtjJFQnmY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_mb7tuNJS0

http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/part-i-history-death-penalty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States