Spring 1997, Volume XII, Number 2 The Death Penalty Death Penalty Policy, Statistics, and Public Opinion by Brian Doan The death penalty continues to be a contentious topic among politicians, scholars, lawyers and the general public. It is an area that inspires passionate, partisan feelings on every side. What are the actual numbers behind the debates? Today, 94 countries and territories use the death penalty for ordinary crimes, including the United States. Fully 57 nations have abolished all uses of capital punishment, including France, Austria, Croatia, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Haiti, Angola, Nicaragua, and the Netherlands. In 15 other nations, the use of the death penalty has been abolished for ordinary crimes retaining only for military crimes or crimes committed in exceptional circumstances such as wartime. Currently, 34 U.S. states have capital punishment statutes with sentences imposed, and 4 states have capital punishment statutes without sentences imposed. By contrast, 12 states (Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin) and the District of Columbia do not have capital punishment statutes (NAACP 949). Iowa (1965) and Massachusetts (1984) have most recently abolished capital punishment, while Kansas (1994) and New York (1995) are the latest to reinstate it (Bedau, 9). Between 1977 and 1994, Texas had administered the death penalty more than any other state, executing 85 prisoners. This is followed by Florida with 33, and Virginia with 24. Maryland, Nebraska, Wyoming and Idaho have all used it only once since 1976. By contrast, California has sentenced many convicts to death row but executed very few. As of 1996, there were 3,122 inmates on death row (NAACP, 949). From 1930-1994, 4,116 people were executed under civil authority (Stephen & Snell, 10). In all, 328 people have been executed since 1976, when the Supreme Court declared the death penalty to be constitutional in Gregg v. Georgia (1976) (NAACP, 949). Since its reinstatement, usage of the death penalty has, for the most part, steadily risen, hitting a peak of 56 executions (and 200 sentences) in 1995, and averaging thirty executions per year between 1990 and 1995 (Bedau, 3). One complaint leveled against the death penalty is that it is racially biased. Of the 3,122 inmates on death row, 1,493 (or 48%) are white; 1,272 (or 41%) are black; 236 (or 8%) are Latino; 50 (or 2%) are Native American; and 22 (or 1%) are Asian. Of the 328 prisoners executed since 1976, 182 (or 56%) were white; 127 (or 39%) were black; 17 (or 5%) were Latino; one (or 1%) was Native American; and one (or 1%) was Asian(NAACP, 949). The issue of race also arises when one examines defendant-victim combinations. White defendants and white victims made up 58% of the pairings, followed by black defendants and white victims (23%), black defendants and black victims (12%), and Latino defendants and white victims (2%) (NAACP, 951). The overwhelming number of death row inmates are men: forty-nine women are on death row, and one has been executed since 1976 (NAACP, 951). Public support for the death penalty fluctuated between 1953 and 1972, falling from a high of 68% favorable in 1953 to a low of 42% favorable in 1966 (Maguire 183). Since the Supreme Court's 1972 decision in Furman, however, public support has remained strong, never falling below 57%, climbing to 66% in 1981, and reaching a high of 80% in 1994. Gallup polls have phrased the question in several different ways through the decades, and a majority have still favored the death penalty, with men (80%) being more in favor than women (74%) in a 1995 poll, and whites (81%) favoring the death penalty more than blacks (53%) in a 1995 poll. One intriguing difference is if respondents are given several options to choose from in response: When asked by Gallup in 1994, "In your view, what should be the penalty for murder-- the death penalty or life imprisonment with absolutely no possiblity of parole," support for the death penalty dropped to 50%, with 32% favoring imprisonment without parole (Maguire & Pastore, 183). Brian Doan was Staff Assistant for the American Bar Association's Commission on College and University Legal Studies. References Bedau, Hugo Adam ed. (1997) The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies. New York: Oxford University Press. Maguire, Kathleen and Ann L. Pastore eds. (1995) Bureau of Justice Statistics Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics- 1995. Albany, NY: The Hindelang Criminal Justice Research Center, SUNY Albany. NAACP Legal Defense Fund (1996) Death Row U.S.A. Reporter Current Service. Buffalo, NY: Williams Hein & Co., Inc. Stephen, James J. and Tracy L. Snell (1996) Bureau of Justice Statistics: Capital Punishment 1994. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Spring 1997 Issue Home | The Death Penalty: A Scholarly Forum Arbitrariness and the Death Penalty | Race and the Death Penalty Victims and the Death Penalty | Purposes of the Death Penalty Teaching about the Death Penalty | Conclusion and Participants List Unedited Death Penalty Forum ABA Calls for Moratorium | Policy, Statistics, and Public Opinion Multidisciplinary Teaching about the Death Penalty Links Focus on Law Studies Home | Subscribe to Focus | Questions/Ordering Back Issues