Things You'll Need:
- Computer with Internet access
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Step 1
The Eighth Amendment of the Bill of Rights, introduced in 1791, prohibits cruel and unusual punishments. This, however, was not intended to curb capital punishment.
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Step 2
Private hangings were introduced in 1833 to avoid violent crowds.
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Step 3
Many changes to the death penalty occurred in the 1800s, from some states abolishing it altogether to the adoption of electrocution as the method of execution.
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Step 4
The early 1900s brought about more changes such as execution by lethal gas. Executions reached a peak for the era in 1935.
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Step 5
In the 1950s and 1960s, many states abolished the death penalty. This was in part a result of the effects of World War II.
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Step 6
Support for capital punishment began to return in the late 1960s. During the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s, many cases ended up in the Supreme Court for rulings regarding capital punishment.
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Step 7
Note a major change in the history of death penalty cases occurred when Congress passed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (see Resources below). This made a capital punishment sentence possible for many federal crimes.
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Step 8
Remember that the accused has the right to exhaust all appeals before execution is carried out.
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Step 1
DNA testing entered the picture in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Many persons on death row have been found innocent. This knowledge has caused some states to put the death penalty on hold until confirming guilt or innocence.
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Step 2
Some states ban the execution of mentally disturbed inmates.
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Step 3
Some states mandate lethal injection over electrocution as a more humane method of execution.
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Step 4
The ACLU (see Resources below) is an advocacy group that challenges capital punishment.
