History of Capital Punishment
Custom research papers on Capital punishment make it plain to see that putting people to death for crimes against other people or the state has been occurring for thousands of years. Examine the issues revolving around capital punishment from a criminal justice perspective, a historical report or from a philosophical standpoint when you order your project custom written from Paper Masters.
In some societies, victims were often executed even though innocent. In your term paper you could point to the early Christians as one good example. They were killed simply because of their religious faith. Conquering armies often executed the defeated army's officers and others, just because they felt is was something they had to do, and also to send a strong message to the people of the defeated nation. Here in America (then the Colonies) in 1622, Daniel Frank was the first person executed, for stealing. Executions continued, with perhaps the most well-known being the hanging of "witches" at Salem, Massachusetts, in the 1640s.
Criminal Justice Research Papers expose the following historical facts:
- Since 1930 - the first year for which accurate statistics were kept regarding executions - until 1967, 3,859 people were put to death by various states.
- Of those early statistics:
- 54 percent were black
- 45 percent white,
- 1 percent American Indians and other racial groups
- Capital punishment was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972, in the case of Furman v. Georgia.
- States began enacting new laws that would satisfy the Federal Court's guidelines
- The first execution under state's laws took place on January 17, 1977, when murderer Gary Gilmore was put to death by firing squad in Utah.
Between 1977 and 1999, there were 598 executions in the United States. Then and now, 12 states have no death penalty. All executions have been for murder. Killing another person or persons, in fact, has led to there being more than 3,200 prisoners on death row, though it is likely relatively few will ever be put to death.