executions by state
Comparative murder rates between states
shows a great variance in the number of executions (see chart 1).
The same can be said for different regions throughout the country.
The South leads the way with the most number of executions followed by
the West and Midwest, then by the Northeast (see chart 3). Since
the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976 executions per year have
been on the rise (see chart 2) along with the rise in murder and homicide
rates. States without the death penalty have lower murder and homicide
rates. The death penalty or the swiftness of execution has
not been found as an effective deterrent of crime. Many studies have
found that there is serious reversible errors or wrongful convictions in
numerous amounts of cases.
The chart shows the recorded number of executions by
states from 1976 to 2001
executions by state
Latest Uniform Crime Report Shows Highest Murder Rate Again in the South
According to the latest FBI Uniform
Crime Report (2000) the South remains the regions
with the highest murder rate in the country. Although
the national murder rate decreased 3.1%
from 1999, there was little decline in the south.
The Northeast had the lowest murder
rate of 4.0 victims for every 100,000, followed
closely by the West and Midwest at 5.1. The South
exceeds them both, with a rate of 6.8
victims per 100,000.
Since the death penalty was reinstated,
the South has accounted for over 80% of all executions
and the Northeast accounted for less than 1%. This showing
that the death penalty doesn't neccessarily decrease the rates of crimes
being committed because states that inforce the death penalty still have
higher crime rates.
States Method of Execution and The Circumstances for
Which the Death Penalty is Inforced
The following chart tells the methods of executions used
by different states and the circumstances
for which the death penalty is applied. Although,
thirty-eight states legally have the death penalty
not all of them use it. The following chart is
a chart of the top ten states that do enforce it.
| State | Methods | Circumstances |
| Alabama: | electrocution is the sole method
|
Murder during kidnapping, robbery, rape, sodomy, burglary, sexual assault or arson, murder of a peace officer, correctional officer, or public official; murder while under a life sentence; murder for pecuniary gain or contract; murder by a defendant with a previous murder conviction; murder of a witness to a crime; murder when a victim is subpoenaed in a criminal proceeding; when the murder is related to the role of the victim as a witness; murder when the victim is less than 14 years old; murder in which a victim is killed while in a dwelling by a deadly weapon fired from outside the dwelling; murder by a deadly weapon fired from outside a vehicle carrying the victim; murder where a victim is killed by a deadly weapon fired from a motor vehicle, aircraft piracy. |
| Arkansas: | Authorizes lethal injection for persons committing a
capital offense after 7/4/83; those who committed the offense before that
date may select lethal injection or electrocution
|
Felony murder; arson causing death; intentional death of a law enforcement officer; teacher of school employee; murder of prison, jail, court or correctional personnel or of military personnel acting in the line of duty; multiple murders, intentional murder of a public officeholder or candidate; intentional murder while under life sentence; contract murder. |
| Georgia: | lethal injection is the sole method. (on October 5, 2001, the Georgia Supreme Court held that the electric chair was cruel and unusual punishment and struck down the state's use of the method) | Murder, kidnapping with bodily injury when the victim dies, kidnapping for ransom when the victim dies, aircraft hijacking, treason |
| Florida: | allows prisoners to choose between lethal injection and electrocution. | : Murder, sexual battery of a female aged 11 or under or by a male 18 or older |
| South Carolina: | allows prisoners to choose between lethal injection and electrocution | : Murder with one of 10 aggravating factors |
| Mississippi: | lethal injection is the sole method | Capital Murder; Capital Rape; Aircraft Piracy |
| Texas: | lethal injection is the sole method
|
: Criminal homicide with one of eight aggravating factors, including murder of a public safety officer, firefighter or correctional employee, murder during the commission of specified felonies (kidnapping, burglary, robbery, aggravated rape, arson), multiple murders, murder during a prison escape, murder of an individual under 8 years old |
| Virginia: | allows prisoners to choose between lethal injection and
electrocution
|
First Degree Murder with one of nine aggravating factors, including murder during an abduction, armed robbery, rape or sodomy; contracted murder, murder of a law enforcement officer; multiple murders; murder of a child under the age of 12 during an abduction |
| Maryland: | authorizes lethal injection for those whose capital offenses occurred on or after 3/25/94; those who committed the offense before that date may select lethal injection or lethal gas. | First degree murder, either premeditated or during the commission of a felony |
| Tennessee: | authorizes lethal injection for those sentenced after 1/1/99; others choose between the electric chair and lethal injection | First degree murder |
~Electrocution: The prisoner is first strapped to a specially built chair after having their head shaved to have a better contact. Wet copper plates are plaed in contact with the prisoner's skull. Then three executioners push a button to start the flow of electricity. However, only one button sends the electricity.
~Gas Chamber: The prisoner is first placed in an air tight chamber with a pan of hydrochloric acid then sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide are placed in the pan which creates a hydrocyanic gas. This gas causes the prisoner to choke to death.
~Hanging: A noose is placed around a prisoner's neck and a trap door is opened. The prisoner falls and the noose is supposed to break the third and fourth vertabre in the neck. The length of rope is limited according to the prisoner's weight in order to prevent decapitation.
~Firing Squad:Five men shoot at the trunk of the prisoner.
States
Method of Execution and Circumstances
CRIMINOLOGISTS' VIEWS ON DETERRENCE AND THE DEATH PENALTY
From a survey of experts from the
American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences,
and the Law and Society Association it was shown that the majority did
not believe to death penalty to be a deterrent of homoide.
More than 80% believe the existing
research fails to support the death penalty as a deterrent. More than 75%
of those polled do not believe that by increasing the number of executions,
or decreasing the time spent on death row before execution, the death penalty
would produce a general deterrent effect. (M. Radelet and R. Akers, Deterrence
and the Death Penalty ? The Views of the Experts, 1995)
deterrence
Wrongful Convictions and Executions
Studies have proven that there are
serious, reversible error in 68% of the cases dealing with the death penalty
or just about nearly in 7 out of 10 cases at the state or federal level.
It is also 1 in 19 of these cases resulted in there being an execution.
State courts had to do away with 47% of death sentences because they
found a number of flaws in many of the court cases. For all the cases
fully reviewed 68% r received a reversal or a sentence less than
the death penalty due to major error, also 7% resulted in not guilty verdict.
Major error is defined as instances of wrong doing by authorities that
substantially undermined the reliability of the death penalty.
wrongful
convictions and executions
States With the Death Penalty vs. States Without
Studies have found that states without the death penalty
tend to have lower murder and homicide rates. When looking at the
last twenty years homicide rates in death penalty states have been
48%-101% higher. Ten out of twelve states without the death penalty
were found to have homicide rates below the national average. In
1999 a study found that the average murder rate per 100,000 people in death
penalty states we 5.5 compared to 3.6 in non death penalty states.
When comparing neighboring states, one with and one without the death penalty,
it was found the the murder and homicide rates in the death penalty states
was higher.
states
with the death penalty vs. states without
Percentage of Reversible Judicial Errors (1973-1995)
| Kentucky | 100% |
| Maryland | 100% |
| Tennessee | 100% |
| Mississippi | 91% |
| Wyoming | 89% |
| California | 87% |
| Montana | 87% |
| Idaho | 82% |
| Georgia | 80% |
| Arizona | 79% |
Race and the Big Needle by: Stephen Wissink;
Spectator,
March 2001
Conclusion
The murder and execution rates vary from state to state,
however the highest concentration is found in the South and the lowest
in the Northeast. States without the death penalty have been found
to have some of the lowest crime rates in the country, proving the death
penalty does not act as deterrent. Many states no longer use the
death penalty or placed a moratorium on it due to the fact there are numerous
serious reversible errors and convictions.
