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Capital Punishment (from Bruce A. Arrigo's Encyclopedia of Surveillance,

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The SAGE Encyclopedia of Surveillance,
Security, and Privacy
Capital Punishment

Contributors: Robert M. Worley

Edited by: Bruce A. Arrigo
Book Title: The SAGE Encyclopedia of Surveillance, Security, and Privacy
Chapter Title: "Capital Punishment"
Pub. Date: 2018
Access Date: April 5, 2018
Publishing Company: SAGE Publications, Inc.
City: Thousand Oaks,
Print ISBN: 9781483359946
Online ISBN: 9781483359922
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483359922.n62
Print pages: 136-137
©2018 SAGE Publications, Inc.. All Rights Reserved.
This PDF has been generated from SAGE Knowledge. Please note that the pagination of
the online version will vary from the pagination of the print book.
SAGE SAGE Reference
Copyright © 2018 by SAGE Publications, Inc.

Despite the fact that fewer than 120 people in the United States are sentenced to death every
year, capital punishment (death penalty) still remains one of the most deeply debated and
contested issues in criminal justice. To some scholars, especially those who are leery of an
omnipotent government, state-sanctioned execution represents a fundamental infringement
on constitutional rights where criminal justice officials are the principle actors in a theater of
cruelty. Other academics, however, do not perceive that capital punishment, as it is currently
practiced, poses a significant threat to either the civil liberties or the privacy interests of the
majority of Americans. In fact, some scholars have even suggested that executing society’s
worst offenders may actually preserve fundamental freedoms by reducing the population of
habitual violent offenders. Perhaps this is why the majority of Americans support the practice
of capital punishment, in spite of strong evidence suggesting that it is more costly to execute
than to incarcerate an offender. This entry examines how states vary in their laws regarding
capital punishment, the frequency with which the death penalty is carried out, the historical
context of capital punishment in the United States and globally, and how the American public
views capital punishment.

Prevalence of Capital Punishment in the United States

While there is considerable disagreement as to whether or not capital punishment erodes or

protects civil liberties, both liberals and conservatives agree that the imposition of the death
penalty is an extraordinarily rare phenomenon in the United States. In fact, less than 1% of
individuals who commit homicide actually receive the death penalty. For example, in 2010,
14,748 persons were murdered nationwide, yet only 114 offenders were sentenced to death
that year. Even in the rare cases in which criminal defendants are sentenced to death, the
odds are actually quite high that they will die of natural causes in prison, as correctional
officials tend to refrain from scheduling execution dates. For example, California, the state
that has the largest death row population in the United States, rarely executes offenders. In
2015, there were nearly 750 people on death row in California, yet only 13 individuals had
been executed since capital punishment was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976.
This is not altogether unusual. In fact, many states, such as New Hampshire, Kansas,
Wyoming, New Mexico, and Connecticut, do not administer the death penalty despite the fact
that it is allowable by law. Perhaps this gives a sense of comfort to voters, who feel secure in
knowing that they can impose the ultimate punishment without having to risk the guilt of
possibly executing an innocent person.

Even though a criminal defendant can theoretically receive the death penalty if he or she
commits a capital offense in one of the 32 states that permit capital punishment, as previously
mentioned, such individuals are much more likely to receive life sentences. Of the executions
that do occur in the United States, more than 80% take place in the southern states, with
fewer than 1% of all executions taking place in the northeast. On the rare occasions when
executions do occur in the northeast, it is often because the individual on death row waives all
appeals and either volunteers or requests to be executed. When this happens, criminal justice
officials may be able to give citizens the illusion that they are being protected from dangerous
criminals. But, in reality, justice officials seem to be much more concerned with sentencing
individuals to death than with actually imposing the death penalty. However, unbeknown to
many, Ohio, which is the farthest east of the midwestern states, has become quite aggressive
in executing offenders who are sentenced to death. For example, in 2010, eight of the 46
executions in the United States occurred in Ohio. While the vast majority of states within the
United States, including Texas, are beginning to execute fewer people, statistics indicate that
Ohio is an exception to this rule. This is something that researchers have not addressed and

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is likely to be the subject of future academic inquiry if this trend continues.

There is, indeed, enormous variation across all 50 states and the federal government
regarding the use of the death penalty. This is likely a reflection of the fundamental
differences that citizens from state to state have regarding the role government should play in
attempting to balance security with individual freedom. Michigan, in 1846, became the first
state to abolish capital punishment. Interestingly, there is evidence that legislators in the state
of Michigan may have been inspired to abolish the death penalty following a well-publicized
incident in Canada where an innocent man was put to death. To some observers, it may be
ironic that states such as Michigan (1846), Wisconsin (1853), and Maine (1887) actually led
the abolitionist movement against the use of the death penalty in the 19th century. Even as
recently as 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court, in Furman v. Georgia, overturned the
sentences of more than 600 death row inmates, officials in France guillotined two inmates
who had murdered a nurse and a prison guard during their escape from Clairvaux Prison.

Historical and Global Perspective

By 1973, the entire United Kingdom had officially abolished the death penalty. Several years
prior to this, legislators in Northern Ireland were reluctant to follow the lead of England,
Wales, and Scotland by halting executions. However, it is possible that legislators in Northern
Ireland were encouraged not to allow the death penalty after the world watched the U.S.
Supreme Court put a halt to capital punishment in the landmark 7–2 decision of Furman v.
Georgia (1972). This was a case in which all nine Supreme Court justices took the time to
write a separate opinion, something that is extraordinarily rare according to legal experts.
Even though in this case the death penalty itself was never declared unconstitutional per se,
the Court ruled that it had been applied arbitrarily, with racial minorities often being the
recipients of capital punishment. During this period in U.S. history, it is likely that capital
punishment was, indeed, administered in a capricious fashion. According to the Death
Penalty Information Center, 54% of all offenders executed from 1930 to 1976 were African
Americans, despite African Americans constituting no more than 11% of the population during
this time frame.

Immediately prior to Furman v. Georgia (1972), and in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement
and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty,” the U.S. prison population began to
decline by approximately 1% per year. In the early 1970s, there were only 96 convicts per
100,000 U.S. residents, a figure that prompted prominent prison scholars, such as Michel
Foucault, Norval Morris, and David Rothman, to suggest that correctional institutions were in
an inevitable state of decline. This, coupled with Furman v. Georgia, initially led many
scholars to believe that the United States’ obsession with punishment was fading and that
more diversified and humane instruments of social control would soon replace the death
penalty. However, beginning in 1973, and around the demise of Keynesian economics, the
U.S. imprisonment rate began to rapidly escalate. It was also during the same time that
legislators began to craft laws in an attempt to reintroduce Americans to the death penalty.
Only a few years later, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of capital punishment
in Gregg v. Georgia (1976). Since then, opinion polls have reflected that Americans tend to
support the death penalty. Many believe that capital punishment makes society a safer place,
despite the fact that very little, if any, evidence exists that demonstrates that it deters would-
be criminals.

While the death penalty is also utilized in democratic and developed nations, such as India
and Japan, critics tend to point only to the United States as the country that is presently

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violating the international norm against capital punishment. In fact, some scholars who are
vehemently against the death penalty have argued that as long as this method of punishment
is used, the United States will find itself in the company of other “less enlightened” countries
such as China, Iran, Pakistan, Syria, Palestine, and North Korea, which frequently execute
offenders. Many abolitionists throughout the world have criticized Americans for ignoring
international opinion regarding the proper role of punishment. Officials in some Western
democracies have even commented that the United States is a “vigilante nation,” obsessed
with punishment and retribution.

The American Public’s View of Punishment

In 2015, more than 2.4 million persons were incarcerated within correctional facilities across
the United States. The United States’ criminal justice juggernaut consumes more than $200
billion a year, with the carceral function constituting more than one third of the price tag. The
United States incarcerates more than 25% of the world’s prisoners, despite constituting only
5% of the world population. Most states in the United States have retained the death penalty,
as Americans seem to place a high premium on punishment. Indeed, U.S. criminal justice
officials are often able to shield themselves from criticism by arguing that by enacting and
administering the death penalty they are merely carrying out the will of the people. They see
themselves as public servants who are doing the voters’ bidding while still taking care to
respect the due process rights of criminal defendants. While some critics argue that it is ironic
that a democratic nation such as the United States still executes some of its own citizens,
defenders of the death penalty nevertheless contend that this form of punishment is actually
possible only because it reflects the will of the people and criminal justice officials are carrying
out a democratic legal mandate. As long as capital punishment is approved of by most
Americans and is not deemed to be either cruel or unusual by the U.S. Supreme Court, it is
likely to remain in parts of the country.

While the death penalty certainly has its critics, some legal scholars argue that defendants
are afforded many more procedural rights in a capital case than they would normally receive
in an ordinary felony case. For this reason, the procedures employed during the adjudication
of capital cases have been referred to as a form of “super due process.” As a result of Gregg
v. Georgia (1976), states now use what is referred to as a bifurcated trial. In bifurcated trials,
there are two phases: The first phase determines a defendant’s guilt or innocence, and the
second phase determines whether the defendant will receive death or imprisonment. During
the penalty phase, jurors must carefully balance both aggravating and mitigating factors to
ascertain whether or not to impose the ultimate penalty on someone who is found to be guilty
of a capital offense.

Sentencing guidelines require jurors to weigh all variables prior to imposing a sentence of
death. For example, if a defendant is believed to be immature or has no prior criminal record,
this could be sufficient to encourage a jury to temper justice with mercy and not impose the
death penalty. In addition, even if an individual is sentenced to death, his or her case is
automatically reviewed by a state supreme court. Also, some jurisdictions have proportionality
review, a process in which appellate courts seek to identify any disparities that may occur in
sentencing individuals to death. Finally, in the unlikely event that an individual is sentenced to
death, he or she has multiple opportunities to appeal this sentence. This is because capital
punishment is regulated by federal law, which requires that criminal justice officials go to
great lengths to ensure due process and follow well-established procedures.

Although capital punishment is rarely imposed in the United States, it is nevertheless the

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subject of much discussion and debate. The evidence suggests that the majority of
Americans perceive that the death penalty makes society a safer place, and they are therefore
tolerant of state-sanctioned executions.

See alsoAmnesty International; Bill of Rights; Death Row; Life Without Parole; Punishment;
Supermax Prisons

capital punishment
punishment
death row
death
defendants
execution
sentencing

Robert M. Worley
http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781483359922.n62
10.4135/9781483359922.n62
Further Readings
Acker, James and Robert M. Bohm. America’s Experiment With Capital Punishment:
Reflections on the Past, Present, and Future of the Ultimate Penal Sanction (3rd ed.).
Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Alarid, Leanne F. and Philip L. Reichel. Corrections.Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012.
Bohm, Robert M. Capital Punishment’s Collateral Damage.Durham, NC: Carolina Academic
Press, 2013.
Death Penalty InformationCenter. “Executions in the U.S. 1608–2002: The Espy File.”
www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/executions-us-1608-2002-espy-file (Accessed November 2014).
Del Carmen, Rolando, et al. The Death Penalty: Constitutional Issues, Controversies, and
Case Briefs (
3rd ed.
).New York, NY: Routledge, 2014.
Fox, J., et al. The Will to Kill: Making Sense of Senseless Murder
(4th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2012.
Furman v. Georgia, 408 U.S. 238 (1972).
Garland, David. Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in a n A g e o f
Abolition.Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2010.
Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153 (1976).

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