Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment:

A View of the punishments in America today:

Capital Punishment by definition is the term used for the death penalty. Capital punishment is the most extreme of all sentencing options. In the United States capital punishment is legal in thirty-nine of the fifty states. Beginning in 1973, prison populations began a sure growth. There were 204,211 inmates in 1973, and by 1977 the number of prisoners had grown to 285,456, which later grew to 315,974 in 1980. By 1976, it was clear that the death penalty had to be reinstated. America's twenty-one year experiment with capital punishment has resulted in a total of 392 executions, seventy eight of which took place in 1996 alone. Of these only thirty-four were federal cases, out of which thirty two were male and only two were female.

Every year about 15,000 killers are charged and only about 300 wind up on death row. The death row population is constantly increasing. It is now more than 3,000. Because of constant appeals, it takes a person on death row typically between five to eight years to finally get

Medugno 2 executed. To kill all the prisoners on death row, it is estimated that it would take two executions a day.

for seven years. Crimes such as aiding in suicide, causing a boat collision resulting in death, forced marriage, espionage, castrating another, rape, homicide, child molesting resulting in death, and conspiracy to kidnap for ransom among many others are, in some states, crimes that are punishable by death. What the law permits, however, is not always used by the courts or the executive authorities. Most executions are a result of a murder or rape, and a small number for robbery, kidnaping, burglary, aggravated assault and espionage.

In the US, the death penalty is currently authorized in one of five ways: hanging, which has been the traditional method of execution throughout the English-speaking world; electrocution, which was introduced by New York State in 1890; the gas chamber which was first adopted by Nevada in 1923; the firing squad which is used only in Utah and Idaho, and lethal

injection which was introduced in 1977 by Oklahoma and is the most common form of execution in the US.

Capital punishment is legal in Washington State, Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Nevada, California, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky,

Medugno 3 Tennessee, Alabama, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington DC. Out of these, lethal injection is legal in thirty two states, electrocution in ten states, the gas chamber in five states, hanging in three states and the firing squad in two states. Some states use more than one method. Out of the thirty nine states where the death penalty is legal, twelve have had no executions. Texas is the state with the most executions with a total of 127. Florida and Virginia follow with a huge difference, only thirty nine executions per state. There are currently more than 3,000 people on death row, many without lawyers. Texas has the most, an amazing 448. California is a close second with 444. Wyoming, New Hampshire and New York are currently the only ones with no criminals on death row. It is incredible to see how blacks, which are only twelve percent of the US population, are a sweeping forty one percent of the inmates on death row.

Timothy McVeigh is the new poster boy for capital punishment. After his home-made bomb exploded in the Murrah building in Oklahoma city, ending 168 innocent lives, including nineteen children, McVeigh was being prosecuted in courtroom C-204 in the United Stated Courthouse in Denver Colorado. This has been a two-year effort to execute the twenty nine year old man whom defendants are trying to make look like "the boy next door." The defendant's lawyers emphasized the fact that "he was brought up in a typical American family in upstate New York, and he won the Bronze Star for his combat service during the Persian Gulf War." Timothy was a man loved not only be family, but by his friends and neighbors as well. It was very obvious

Medugno 4 throughout the trial that McVeigh is smart and alert and in no way mentally impaired. As the case progressed, Timothy seemed emotionally unaffected, unlike the jurors, lawyers and, at one point, the judge Richard P. Matsch. "The crime was pure savagery, premeditated and unprovoked." Although the defense will not allow McVeigh to testify, they are making it quite clear that he loved his life. Timothy's bomb is practically identical to the one found in the plot of his favorite book, which is a racist and anti-Semitic book about a bomb attack on FBI headquarters in Washington by government "patriots." McVeigh's bomb, was worse however, due to the fact that in the book, no children were killed. It is almost impossible to believe that on April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh killed 168 innocent people out of fanaticism and hatred for his government.

There are many reasons why the Oklahoma City bomber deserves the death sentence. Jurors were asked not to let their feelings be a determining factor when deciding the verdict. Evidence designed to stir emotions up, such as wedding pictures, poetry, and the testimony of a boy who misses his mother would be unwanted. Jurors were also asked by the judge not to seek revenge and to ask themselves the following questions: Why does America put people to death? Is the death penalty meant to benefit society or to provide comfort to the victims? There is an important distinction that must be made between revenge and retribution. "Revenge is a hot, deeply personal desire to hurt the victim, and retribution is more carefully considered decision to uphold the values of society." The main question for the jurors, however, is to determine whether Timothy should die by lethal injection or spend the rest of his life in one of the jails in the federal corrections system. If the jurors would happen to decide against the death penalty, the state of

Medugno 5 Oklahoma could force him to face the death penalty a second time. Oklahoma has a long history of voting for the death penalty and has many inmates currently on death row. Some people believe that this is definitely the case that the death penalty