Criminal Justice System - Death Penalty
Capital punishment dates to ancient times — it is mentioned in one of the oldest existing set of laws, the Code of Hammurabi, dating from around 1750 B.C. In 1608 George Kendall was executed in Jamestown, Virginia Colony. Historians estimate that since that time more than 20,000 people have been put to death in the United States. The movement to abolish the death penalty dates from 18th century Enlightenment Europe. By the 1840s some U.S. states had begun to grant juries the discretion to impose life sentences rather than the death penalty. The number of executions in the U.S. dropped over time, as the number of capital offenses were reduced.
International trends have left the United States virtually alone among democracies to impose the death penalty with frequency. Recently, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's name has been removed from his Austrian hometown Graz' Web sites as well as from the city's main football stadium because of his recent refusal to grant clemency to a death row inmate. As of 2004, 84 countries had entirely abolished the death penalty — but according to Amnesty International nearly 4,000 people were executed that year, the second largest number in 25 years. In 2004 the United States ranked fourth in the number of executions carried out, behind China, Iran and Vietnam.
Death Penalty Facts - Social Issues
International trends have left the United States virtually alone among democracies to impose the death penalty with frequency. Recently, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's name has been removed from his Austrian hometown Graz' Web sites as well as from the city's main football stadium because of his recent refusal to grant clemency to a death row inmate. As of 2004, 84 countries had entirely abolished the death penalty — but according to Amnesty International nearly 4,000 people were executed that year, the second largest number in 25 years. In 2004 the United States ranked fourth in the number of executions carried out, behind China, Iran and Vietnam.
Death Penalty Facts - Social Issues
Documentaries1. Is Georgia about to Execute an Innocent Man? The Story of Troy Davis (follow the timeline)
3. Fourteen Days in May |
Articles - For and Against the Death Penalty |