Racial discrimination was one of the reasons why the Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional in the Furman case. Half a century ago, Gunnar Myrdal reported in his classic American Dilemma (1944) that “the South applies the death penalty most widely and black criminals have far more than their share of executions.” A study of the death penalty in Texas shows that the current system of the death penalty is a consequence of the “racist legacy of slavery.” Between 1930 and the end of 1996, 4,220 prisoners were executed in the United States; More than half (53%) were Black. It is widely reported that the American public overwhelmingly supports the death penalty. However, closer analysis of public attitudes shows that most Americans prefer an alternative; They would oppose the death penalty if convicted murderers were sentenced to life in prison without parole and had to pay some form of financial compensation. In 2010, when California voters were asked what sentence they preferred for a first-degree murderer, 42 percent of registered voters said they preferred life without parole and 41 percent said they preferred the death penalty. In 2000, when voters were asked the same question, 37% chose life without parole, while 44% chose the death penalty. A 1993 national poll found that while 77 percent of the public supports the death penalty, support drops to 56 percent if the alternative is a non-parole sentence of up to 25 years in prison. Support drops even more to 49% if the alternative is not probation. And if the alternative is not probation plus restoration, it drops even more, to 41%.
Only a minority of the American public would support the death penalty if such alternatives were proposed. In the second half of the 17th century, 14 women and 6 men accused of witchcraft during the witch-hunt hysteria and Salem witch trials were executed. While both men and women were executed, 80% of the charges were directed against women, so the list of executions disproportionately involved men with a margin of 6 (actually) to 4 (expected), i.e. 50% more men than expected compared to the percentage of defendants who were men. [95] The traditional method of execution, hanging, is an option still available in Delaware, New Hampshire, and Washington. Death on the gallows is easily botched: if the gout is too short, it comes to a slow and excruciating death by strangulation. If the drop is too long, the head is torn off. Traditionally, article 1983 has been of limited use to a state prisoner sentenced to death, as the Supreme Court has ruled that habeas corpus, not article 1983, is the only means by which a state prisoner can challenge his death sentence. [148] In Hill v. 2006.
However, in McDonough, the U.S. Supreme Court authorized the use of section 1983 as a means of challenging a state`s method of execution as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The theory is that a prisoner who raises such a challenge is not directly attacking his death sentence, but the means by which the sentence is carried out. Therefore, in Hill, the Supreme Court ruled that a prisoner can use section 1983 instead of habeas corpus to bring a lawsuit. But, as the case of Clarence Hill shows, lower federal courts have often refused to hear prosecutions against methods of execution on the grounds that the prisoner filed the lawsuit too late and solely for the purpose of delay. In addition, the Court`s decision in Baze v. Rees, who maintains a lethal injection method used by many states, has limited the possibility of redress under Article 1983. In 1994, the United States signed the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
[40] The treaty, which has now been ratified or signed by 176 nations, prohibits the imposition of physical or psychological abuse on people in detention. Although it does not explicitly prohibit the death penalty, the treaty prohibits the intentional infliction of pain. Since 1976, however, more than 20 executions in the United States have resulted in protracted, painful or shocking errors, such as an inmate`s head catching fire or a long and agonizing search for a vein suitable for lethal injection. Accidents aside, our methods of execution – lethal injection, electric shock, firing squad, gas chamber and hanging – can be inherently painful. The CAT also prohibits the infliction of pain and suffering “on the basis of discrimination” [41], but racial inequality is endemic on our death row. Although the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that Kentucky`s three-drug lethal injection procedures did not violate the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment,[11] it is unclear whether the states` adapted procedures exist. Indeed, in February 2012, a three-judge panel of the Ninth District Court of Appeals rebuked the Arizona Department of Corrections, stating that its approach to execution “cannot continue” and questioning the “regularity and reliability” of protocols that give the prison director discretion to determine which drugs are used for each execution and how many drugs. [12] In Georgia, the state Supreme Court suspended the execution of Warren Hill hours before his expected death in July 2012 to review the new procedure for lethal injection of individual drugs. [13] The Missouri Supreme Court imposed a temporary moratorium on executions in August 2012, stating that it would be “premature” to set execution dates for death row inmates due to a legal battle over whether the state`s lethal injection procedures are humane.
The state had changed its injection protocol to use a single drug, propofol, which its proponents say causes severe pain when injected. [14] The death penalty is currently approved by the federal government and the U.S. military in 27 states. In recent years, New Mexico (2009), Illinois (2011), Connecticut (2012), Maryland (2013), New Hampshire (2019), Colorado (2020) and Virginia (2021) have legally abolished the death penalty and replaced it with life imprisonment without parole. The Nebraska legislature also abolished the death penalty in 2015, but was reinstated in 2016 by a national vote. In addition, courts in Washington and Delaware have recently ruled that state death penalty laws are unconstitutional. States across the country will continue to discuss fairness, reliability and implementation costs. But if the just desert principle means that the severity of sentences must be proportionate to the gravity of the crime – and since murder is the most serious crime, it deserves the heaviest punishment – then the principle is undoubtedly reasonable. Nevertheless, this premise does not oblige us to support the death penalty; What is needed is that other crimes be punishable by prison sentences or other deprivations less severe than those used to punish murder. The death penalty has no deterrent effect.
Claims that every execution deters a number of murders have been completely discredited by social science research. People usually commit murder in the heat of passion, under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or because they are mentally ill, and think little or nothing about the possible consequences of their actions. The few murderers who plan their crimes in advance – professional executioners, for example – intend and expect to avoid punishment altogether by not getting caught. Some self-destructive individuals may even hope to be caught and executed. In 1972, in Furman v. In Georgia, the Supreme Court struck down hundreds of death sentences, declaring that state laws in place at the time were applied in an “arbitrary and capricious” manner, violating the Eighth Amendment`s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and the Fourteenth Amendment`s guarantees of equal protection of the law and due process. But in 1976, in Gregg v. In Georgia, the Court reinstated the death penalty: it ruled that the penalty “does not invariably violate the Constitution” if it is imposed in a manner that protects against arbitrariness and discrimination. Several States immediately adopted or enacted death penalty laws. One study found that at least 34 of the 749 executions carried out in the United States between 1977 and 2001, or 4.5 percent, “involved unforeseen problems or delays that at least caused unnecessary torment to the prisoner or reflected the executioner`s gross incompetence.” The pace of these “botched executions” remained constant during this period. [80] A study published in The Lancet in 2005 found that in 43% of cases of lethal injection, the prisoner`s blood level of hypnotics was insufficient to ensure unconsciousness.
[81] Nevertheless, in 2008, the Supreme Court ruled (Baze v.