• Background: Executions are concentrated in certain states. Court cases and legislation.
• Debate: Justice v. Impractical and racist
• Country Comparison: Only a handful of countries still use state sponsored executions as a form of punishment
• Recent Legislation: Supreme court will hear a case assessing the use of lethal injection

Background

• In the United States, 38 states retain the use of capital punishment though only 14 of those states execute anyone at all. Most executions are carried out in only a few of these states. 53 people were executed in the United States in 2006, with nearly half taking place within Texas. Some states that still have the death penalty, like New Jersey, have not executed anyone for decades.
• In 1972, the United States Supreme Court ruled that all state death penalty statues were unconstitutional because they allowed for "arbitrary and capricious" application.
• In 1994, the federal death penalty was expanded to 60 different offenses, among them being murder of certain government officials, kidnapping resulting in death, murder for hire, fatal drive-by shootings, sexual abuse crimes resulting in death, car jacking resulting in death, and certain crimes not resulting in death, including the running of a large-scale drug enterprise. The number of federal prosecutions in which an offense punishable by death is charged, and to which special statutory requirements for the appointment and compensation of counsel apply, increased sharply after the 1994 Federal Death Penalty Act increased the number of federal crimes punishable by death.
• A study released in 2000 by the US Department of Justice at the request of President Clinton found numerous racial and geographic disparities applied to death penalty sentences. For example, the death penalty is given more often to racial minorities than to Caucasians for the same crimes.

Debate

• Criminals should pay for their crimes. Taxpayers should not pay for the most horrific criminals to live out the rest of their lives behind bars.
• Most Americans are highly supportive of capital punishment. Polls taken in late 2006 report that two-thirds of Americans support the death penalty. for people convicted of murder. This figure has remained level for nearly a decade.
• Critics point to the clear racial bias cases that end in capital punishment as opposed to life imprisonment. It is also argued that capital punishment has not been an effective deterrent and many countries, including its country's closest allies, urged the U.S. to abandon this cruel and antiquated practice. Execution costs the state over twice as much as life imprisonment. Execution does not reverse the crimes.

How The World Views Capital Punishment

Country Comparison

• According to Amnesty International, at least 1,591 people were reported to be executed in 25 countries in 2006 (although true figures may vary). 91 per cent of all known executions during 2006 took place in China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq, Sudan and the USA.
• China carried out a known 1,010 executions in 2006, though some have claimed many more; Iran took second place with 177, and the USA took 6th with 53.

• The image to the above and right shows the world's view of capital punishment by country.

  Blue = abolished for all offenses (90 countries)

  Green = abolished for all offenses except under special circumstances (11 countries)

  Orange = retains power to use capital punishment, but not used for at least ten years (32 countries)

  Red = Retains and uses death penalty (64 countries) - though in the US, some states would fit into the above categories if judged separately on the map.

Recent Legislation

• Within recent years, the death penalty has been challenged in many states. Legislation is being considered to abolish the death penalty completely in some states or to introduce less painful chemical formulas and procedures in executions. In other states, moratoriums have been imposed on executions because of continual problems in procedural processes.
• In a 2002 decision by the US Supreme Court, the execution of mentally retarded prisoners was found to be in violation the 8th Amendment as it is considered cruel and unusual punishment. Invoking the same standards of decency, the court struck down the juvenile death penalty in 2005.
• In February 2007, the Supreme Court significantly shortened the amount of time that death-row inmates have to challenge their convictions and death sentences in federal court. It also held that death-row inmates must forfeit their right to file a federal habeas petition if their state-appointed and state-monitored attorneys miss the filing deadline.
• In September 2007, U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider the constitutionality of lethal injections. Several state appeals courts, including Texas, have moved to put executions on hold until this ruling. Lethal injection, one of two methods of execution used in the United States (the other being electrocution), has come under increasing scrutiny since numerous errors have surfaced in the execution process. The Lancet medical journal published a study of autopsies done in 2005 which showed that 88% of criminals from four states had been given inadequate levels of anesthetics.