Do you think governments should be allowed to execute people convicted of crimes? Is it ever justified, as with the most heinous crimes? Or are you generally against the death penalty? Do you support the use of the death penalty? Or do you think it should be abolished? What for? According to the Death Penalty Information Centre (DPIC), between 1973 and 2003 (i.e. during the modern death penalty), 22 detainees who were minors at the time of their crimes were executed. Texas executed 13 of these young offenders, followed by Virginia (three) and Oklahoma (two). Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri and South Carolina each executed one juvenile offender. One of the youths executed was 16 years old when he committed a capital crime; The other 21 teenagers were 17 years old when they committed crimes punishable by death. In 2015, a few months before his death, Justice Antonin Scalia said he would not be surprised if the Supreme Court abolished the death penalty. After the end of the national moratorium in 1977, the number of executions per year began to increase. Executions reached double-digit figures in 1984, when 21 detainees were killed in the United States, and peaked in 1999 when 98 detainees were executed. The number of detainees killed then began to decline, falling to 20 in 2016. These figures were much lower than the number of executions that took place in the first half of the 20th century. In 1938 alone, 190 people were executed.

A total of 1,465 people were executed between 1977 and 2017. More than 400 people were on death row in 1977. This number increased dramatically over the following decades, peaking at just over 3,600 in 2000. It then began a downward trend, falling to 2,881 in 2015. These statistics clearly show the rarity with which executions are carried out in the United States, compared to the large number of people sentenced to death. The number of executions that have taken place each year in the 21st century is in double digits, although thousands of inmates are sentenced to death. (Tracy L. Snell, “Figure 2. Number of people sentenced to death, 1953-2013”, “Figure 4. Persons executed in the United States, 1930-2013” and “Figure 5. Advanced number of executions, 1 January 2014–31 December 2014”, in Death Punishment in the United States, 2013 — Statistical Tables, U.S.

Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2014). And Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who held the decisive vote in many closely divided cases until his retirement in 2018, was the author of the majority views in several 5-to-4 decisions that set limits on the death penalty, including those prohibiting the execution of juvenile offenders and those convicted of crimes other than murder. In Roper v. Simmons (543 US 551 [2005]), the court ruled that Donald Roper`s execution was cruel and unusual, based on the fact that Roper was under the age of 18 when he committed murder. The majority argued that adolescents do not have the emotional maturity or understanding of the lasting consequences that adults have, and therefore should not be tied to an adult norm or punished with a death penalty. All states applying the death penalty then amended their laws to prohibit death sentences for people under the age of 18. This article traces the history of the arguments against the death penalty in three US states: Connecticut, Kansas and Texas. The authors note that the rhetoric around abolition in these regions has been formulated differently over time, with more recent arguments focused on the relationship between false convictions and executions. Although the founders of the United States generally accepted the death penalty, many early Americans opposed the death penalty. In the late 18th century, Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), a physician who helped found the movement for the abolition of slavery, denounced the death penalty. He attracted the support of Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), and at Franklin`s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Rush became one of the first Americans to propose a “House of Reform,” a prison where criminals could be imprisoned until they changed their antisocial behavior.

Therefore, in 1790, the Walnut Street Prison was built in Philadelphia, the primitive seed from which the American penal system emerged. Between 1989 and 2001, 18 states banned the execution of offenders with intellectual disabilities. The Federal Government also prohibits the execution of mentally handicapped prisoners. In the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, the government authorizes the death penalty for anyone who “works to promote an ongoing criminal enterprise, or for anyone involved in a drug-related offence who intentionally kills or counsels, orders or causes the intentional murder of a person,” but prohibits the imposition of the death penalty on any mentally handicapped person and commits such a crime. In 1994, Congress passed the Federal Death Penalty Act, which added more than 50 crimes punishable by death; It also exempts persons with intellectual disabilities from the death penalty. When the first European settlers arrived in North America, the death penalty was accepted as a just punishment for a variety of offenses. In fact, the first recorded execution took place in 1608, just a year after the English built their first settlement in Jamestown, Virginia. Captain George Kendall, one of the first leaders of the colony of Virginia, was convicted of mutiny by a jury of his colleagues and sentenced to death by shooting in Jamestown. In 1632, Jane Champion, a slave, became the first woman to be killed in the new colonies.

She was hanged in James City, Virginia, for the murders of her master`s children. The annual number of nationwide death sentences has dropped dramatically, from a peak of 330 in 1994 to 49 in 2015 (Snell, Capital Punishment in the United States, 2013 – Statistical Tables, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2014). Of the 1,465 executions carried out between 1977 and 2017, most took place in the following states: In 2015, the Nebraska Legislature voted to abolish the death penalty, largely for cost reasons. Governor Pete Ricketts (1964-) vetoed the bill, but the Legislature revoked his veto. The repeal of the death penalty did not last long. In the November 2016 election, Nebraska voters voted to reintroduce the death penalty. A more surprising result occurred this month in California. Voters rejected a vote to abolish the death penalty and narrowly approved several changes to state law to speed up appeals, reduce costs and alleviate various legal hurdles related to the death penalty in the state. These actions raised the possibility that California could resume executions. The state has the highest number of prisoners sentenced to death in the country, but it has not executed anyone since 2006 (Snell, Death Penalty in the United States, 2013 – Statistical Tables, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, December 2014).

He ended the executions after the courts ruled his lethal injection protocol unconstitutional. All States applying the death penalty face such legal challenges and have been forced to repeatedly optimize their protocols and take extraordinary measures to procure drugs for execution. Leading human rights groups and public figures, including former President Jimmy Carter (1924-), lobbied for Davis to receive a new trial. In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a U.S. District Court to hold an evidentiary hearing on the case. .