Introduction to Corrections CJC 2000

Darren Mingear

Chapter 12

CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

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12.1

12.2

12.3

12.4

Outline the history of capital punishment in the United States.

Explain the legal provisions for capital punishment in the United States.

Summarize the characteristics of current death-row prisoners.

Summarize the arguments for and against the use of the death penalty.

CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

Outline the history of capital punishment in the United States.

Learning Objectives After this lecture, you should be able to complete the following Learning Outcomes

12.1

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

Early Period

Modern Period

12.1

4

Capital Punishment

History

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5

12.1

Lethal Injection (Most Common) Electrocution Gas Chamber Firing Squad/

Hanging

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

Explain the legal provisions for capital punishment in the United States.

Learning Objectives After this lecture, you should be able to complete the following Learning Outcomes

12.2

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.2

Gregg Decision

Bifurcated Trial

Furman Decision

Guided Discretion

Key Terms

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.2

Furman Decision

In Furman v. Georgia (1972), the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the death penalty was cruel and unusual because it was imposed in an arbitrary and capricious manner.

Source: freewebs.com

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.2

Guided Discretion

A requirement that juries, after determining guilt in the first stage of a death penalty trial, consider both aggravating and mitigating circumstances during the sentencing stage of the trial.

Kennedy decision Source: wheelerscornernz.blogspot.com

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.2

Gregg Decision

Death penalty statutes that provide for bifurcated trials and that direct juries to use guided discretion in deciding the sentence are allowed under the Constitution (1976).

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Escaped and beaten to death in a bar fight in 1980 the night before his scheduled execution.

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.2

Bifurcated Trial

A requirement that death penalty cases have two stages, with the first stage being the traditional trial to determine guilt and a second stage to decide the sentence; death or life imprisonment.

Source: progressivepublius.blogspot.com

Source: adriandayton.com

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.2

Application of the Death Penalty

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12.2

Key U.S. Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishment

• Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968)

• Furman v. Georgia (1972)

• Gregg v. Georgia (1976)

• Death penalty used in all 13 U.S. Colonies at outbreak of American Revolution

• Weems v. United States (1910

• Louisiana ex rel. Francis v Resweber (1947)

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.2 Key U.S. Supreme Court Cases on Capital Punishment, cont.

• Ring v. Arizona (2002)

• Roper v. Simmons (2005)

• Kennedy v. Louisiana (2008)

• Coker v. Georgia (1977)

• Ford v. Wainwright (1986)

• Thompson v. Oklahoma (1988)

• Atkins v. Virginia (2002)

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

Summarize the characteristics of current death-row prisoners.

Learning Objectives After this lecture, you should be able to complete the following Learning Outcomes

12.3

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.3

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

Summarize the arguments for and against the use of the death penalty.

Learning Objectives After this lecture, you should be able to complete the following Learning Outcomes

12.4

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.4

Proportional Retributivism

The Innocence

Project

Abolitionists Retentionists

Key Terms

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.4

Abolitionists

Those favoring the abolition of the death penalty.

Source: theguardian.com

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.4

Retentionists

Those who favor keeping the death penalty.

Source: behance.net

behance.net

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.4

Proportional Retributivism

Requires the worst crime in any society be punished with the worst penalty.

Source: mshistorynow.mdah.state.ms.us

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.4

The Innocence Project

An organization instrumental in securing DNA exonerations of persons who had served time on death row.

Source: dallaslocalnews.blogspot.com

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.4

Arguments for and Against the Death Penalty

Deterrence Fairness

Retribution Innocence

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved

12.1

12.2

12.3

12.4

Capital punishment followed the British lead early on, went through a period of falling out of favor and a declaration of

unconstitutional in application, to the now modern era.

Today there are restrictions on the use of the death penalty, and trials involving capital punishment as a sentence are bifurcated.

Persons who are under age 18 at the time of the commission of their crime, are mentally ill, or mentally retarded can not be

given the death penalty. Most inmates on death row are white males.

Arguments for and against the death penalty are complex and numerous.

CHAPTER SUMMARY