Capital Punishment in USA

Capital Punishment in America

Capital punishment is a highly contentious issue for many Americans. However, in order to determine how one feels about the issue of capital punishment, it is critical to have an accurate overview of how capital punishment works in American society? Are most people convicted of capital murder sentenced to the death penalty? Are there racial disparities in sentencing? Are there gender disparities in sentencing? What percentage of the nation's population sits on death row? Do all states have capital punishment? Do the states that have capital punishment impose the death penalty in similar proportions? Knowing the answers to these and similar questions can help people come to their own informed decisions about whether or not they support capital punishment.

First, it is important to realize that a criminal who commits a capital offense can be subject to the death penalty in any territory in the United States, because the military can impose the death penalty and federal offenses are subject to the death penalty. However, not all crimes will fall under those jurisdictions. Not all states impose the death penalty. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, 34 states have the death penalty: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming. The District of Columbia and 16 states do not have the death penalty: Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. While New Mexico no longer imposes the death penalty, it has two inmates who remain on death row (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty).

People do need to be aware that race appears to be a factor in death-row sentences. Since the end of the moratorium on death penalty cases in 1976, there have been 1277 defendants executed in the United States. Of those executed, 716 (55%) were white, 441 (35%) were black, 96 (8%) were Hispanic, and 24 (2%) were of another race (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty). Of people currently on death row, 42% are black, 12% are Hispanic, 44% are white, and 2% are of another race (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty). Those percentages do not reflect proportional numbers from the population. According to the most recent U.S. Census, whites compose 72.4% of the overall population, blacks compose 12.6% of the population, and Hispanics compose 16.3% of the overall population (U.S. Census Bureau). While those numbers cannot be directly compared because Hispanics were also identified as a race, most of them white. However, one can see that blacks were significantly overrepresented among those executed.

Race also plays an additional role in executions. Over 75% of the murder victims in cases resulting in executions were white, though only around 50% of murder victims nation-wide are white (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty). In 15% of executions, the victim was black; in 76% of execution, the victim was white; in 6% of executions, the victim was Hispanic; and in 3% of executions the victim was of another race (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty).

Another interesting fact about the death penalty is that death-penalty states impose the sentence in varying numbers. As of January 1, 2011, the number of death row inmates by state was as follows: California 721, South. Carolina 63, Connecticut 10, Florida 398, U.S. Government 61, Utah 9, Texas 321, Mississippi 60, Kansas 9, Pennsylvania 219, Missouri 50, Washington 9, Alabama 206, Arkansas 43, U.S. Military 6, North Carolina 165, Kentucky 36, Maryland 5, Ohio 159, Oregon 34, Colorado 4, Arizona 138, Delaware 20, South Dakota 3, Georgia 103, Idaho 16, Montana 2, Tennessee 87, Illinois 16, New Mexico 2, Louisiana 86, Indiana 14, Wyoming 1, Nevada 81, Nebraska 12, New Hampshire 1, Oklahoma 77, and Virginia 11 (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty). That was a total of 3251 on death row at the beginning of 2011 (Death Penalty Information Center, Death Row Inmates by State).

Of course, state populations vary, so it is important to examine the number of death sentences per capita. From 1977 to 2007, the number of death sentences per capita was as follows: Alabama .89, Oklahoma .818, Mississippi .558, Nevada .546, Delaware .497, North Carolina .481, Florida .463, South Carolina .422, Arizona .412, Arkansas .399, Texas .379, Louisiana .342, Missouri .313, Pennsylvania .277, Ohio .270, Tennessee .270, Idaho .267, Georgia .236, Illinois .233, California .219, Kentucky .193, Virginia .192, Oregon .184, Indiana .148, Nebraska .147, Wyoming .134, Montana .104, Maryland .094, South Dakota .075, New Mexico .071, Utah .068, New Jersey .066, Washington .057, Connecticut .037, Kansas .029, Colorado .027, and New York .004 (Death Penalty Information Center, Death Sentences Per Capita by State). Therefore, it becomes clear that the leaders in executions may not be the per capita leaders in executions, and that one must examine executions in comparison to state populations.

The number of executions in each state also varies dramatically, and some of that variance becomes clearer when one looks at recent numbers. For example, in 2011, of the 34 states with the death penalty, 21 and the federal government of them had no executions (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty). Likewise, in 2010, 22 states and the federal government had no executions (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty). However, some states had significant numbers of executions in those years. In 2011 executions by state, for those that had executions, were: Texas 13, Virginia 1, Oklahoma 2, Florida 2, Missouri 1, Alabama 6, Georgia 4, Ohio 5, South Carolina 1, Arizona 4, Mississippi 2, Delaware 1, and Idaho 1 (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty). In 2010 executions by state, for those states that had executions, were: Texas 17, Virginia 1, Oklahoma 1, Florida 1, Alabama 5, Georgia 2, Ohio 8, Louisiana 1, Arizona 1, Mississippi 3, Utah 1, and Washington 1(Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty). Examining the number of executions since 1976, one sees some major differences in the numbers of executions per state. The number of total executions in each state since 1976 is as follows: Texas 477, Virginia 109, Oklahoma 96, Florida 71, Missouri 68, Alabama 55, Georgia 52, Ohio 46, North Carolina 43, South Carolina 43, Louisiana 28, Arizona 28, Arkansas 27, Indiana 20, Mississippi 15, Delaware 15, California 13, Illinois 12, Nevada 12, Utah 7, Tennessee 6, Maryland 5, Washington 5, Nebraska 3, Pennsylvania 3, Kentucky 3, Montana 3, Oregon 2, Idaho 2, Connecticut 1, New Mexico 1, Colorado 1, Wyoming 1, South Dakota 1, and the U.S. government 3 (Death Penalty Information Center, Facts about the Death Penalty).

Murder rates seem to vary by state as well. In 2010, the national murder rate was 4.8 people per 100,000 people (Death Penalty Information Center, Murder Rates). Murder rates in death penalty states are higher, on average, than murder rates in non-death-penalty states (Death Penalty Information Center, Murder Rates). However, there is no direct correlation between the number of executions and the murder rate; Texas is far and away the leader in executions, but its murder rate was 5.0 in 2010, while Maryland, a non-death-penalty state, had a 7.4 murder rate in 2010 (Death Penalty Information Center, Murder Rates).