What is Capital Punishment?
Capital Punishment is the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. Capital Punishment has been around since at least the Eighteenth Century B.C. And since then has gone through many changes. Back then people were put to death for a wide variety of crimes and the methods of capital punishment used varied a great deal also. Some of these practices were crucifixion, beating to death, drowning, burning alive, impalement, boiling, hanging, burning at the stake, beheading and drawing and quartering.
In colonial Virginia you could be put to death for some minor offenses such as killing chickens, trading with Indians and stealing grapes. In the New York colony denying the “true God”, or striking …show more content…
Then in 1622 Daniel Frank was the first legal execution of a criminal in the American colony in Virginia. His crime was stealing cattle and he was hanged. In this incident race was not a factor. The first recorded execution of a woman was that of Jane Champion in 1632 for an unknown offense. From 1608-1900 about 505 women have been executed for various offenses ranging from witchcraft, conspiracy to murder, and arson, adultery to concealing a birth to a burglary in a dwelling house. Most of the hangings took place in Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut, because they were the first colonized areas and were subjected to the rules and laws of the British. White women only represent a small portion of these executions as no one wanted to execute a woman or a white woman for that matter. There was little mind paid when a slave was executed and some states have pretty much no record of female executions such as Mississippi with maybe 8 hangings. The youngest person executed was a 12 year old Native American girl named Hannah Ocuish for beating a little girl out of revenge. Of the 505 women executed 306 of these can be verified. Here is the link to view them. …show more content…
Colorado (1897), Kansas (1907), Minnesota (1911), Washington (1913), Oregon (1914), South Dakota (1915), North Dakota (1915), Tennessee (1915), Arizona (1916), and Missouri (1917). Of these ten states, eight of them reinstated the use of capital punishment during to progressive era (1901-1939). Colorado (1901), Arizona (1918), Tennessee (1919), Missouri (1919), Washington (1919), Oregon (1920), Kansas (1935) and South Dakota (1939). Lynching became the most important or common trigger in reinstatement of the death penalty, more so in four of the states that had the shortest period of death penalty abolition. Law abiding citizens felt that since the death penalty didn’t exist as a deterrent, then lynching was the only method of deterring heinous crimes being committed by criminals. Officials were alerted that the public consistently did not support the abolition of the death penalty.
The end of the death penalty abolition movement came around the same time as the ending of WWI and the start of the economic depression. The economy played a role in the reinstatement of the death penalty. The threat of a large minority population was also an influence for the reinstatement and was probably exacerbated by the economic depression. North Dakota and Minnesota had the smallest non-white population, while Tennessee, Arizona and Missouri had the largest minority
Capital Punishment is the legally authorized killing of someone as punishment for a crime. Capital Punishment has been around since at least the Eighteenth Century B.C. And since then has gone through many changes. Back then people were put to death for a wide variety of crimes and the methods of capital punishment used varied a great deal also. Some of these practices were crucifixion, beating to death, drowning, burning alive, impalement, boiling, hanging, burning at the stake, beheading and drawing and quartering.
In colonial Virginia you could be put to death for some minor offenses such as killing chickens, trading with Indians and stealing grapes. In the New York colony denying the “true God”, or striking …show more content…
Then in 1622 Daniel Frank was the first legal execution of a criminal in the American colony in Virginia. His crime was stealing cattle and he was hanged. In this incident race was not a factor. The first recorded execution of a woman was that of Jane Champion in 1632 for an unknown offense. From 1608-1900 about 505 women have been executed for various offenses ranging from witchcraft, conspiracy to murder, and arson, adultery to concealing a birth to a burglary in a dwelling house. Most of the hangings took place in Virginia, Massachusetts and Connecticut, because they were the first colonized areas and were subjected to the rules and laws of the British. White women only represent a small portion of these executions as no one wanted to execute a woman or a white woman for that matter. There was little mind paid when a slave was executed and some states have pretty much no record of female executions such as Mississippi with maybe 8 hangings. The youngest person executed was a 12 year old Native American girl named Hannah Ocuish for beating a little girl out of revenge. Of the 505 women executed 306 of these can be verified. Here is the link to view them. …show more content…
Colorado (1897), Kansas (1907), Minnesota (1911), Washington (1913), Oregon (1914), South Dakota (1915), North Dakota (1915), Tennessee (1915), Arizona (1916), and Missouri (1917). Of these ten states, eight of them reinstated the use of capital punishment during to progressive era (1901-1939). Colorado (1901), Arizona (1918), Tennessee (1919), Missouri (1919), Washington (1919), Oregon (1920), Kansas (1935) and South Dakota (1939). Lynching became the most important or common trigger in reinstatement of the death penalty, more so in four of the states that had the shortest period of death penalty abolition. Law abiding citizens felt that since the death penalty didn’t exist as a deterrent, then lynching was the only method of deterring heinous crimes being committed by criminals. Officials were alerted that the public consistently did not support the abolition of the death penalty.
The end of the death penalty abolition movement came around the same time as the ending of WWI and the start of the economic depression. The economy played a role in the reinstatement of the death penalty. The threat of a large minority population was also an influence for the reinstatement and was probably exacerbated by the economic depression. North Dakota and Minnesota had the smallest non-white population, while Tennessee, Arizona and Missouri had the largest minority