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The Massachusetts Bay Colony lists 13 crimes punishable by death, including idolatry and witchcraft.
I don't know when the exact dat is but it says 1636 -
Under William Penn's Great Act, the death penalty is prescribed only for murder and treason in Pennsylvania. I don't know when the xact date is but it says 1682.
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England prescribes death for 14 offenses, but the American colonies impose the death sentence for fewer crimes.
I don't know the exact date but, I know it was in the 17th century. -
Abolitionist John Brown is hanged for treason, conspiracy and murder at Charles Town, Virginia.
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Murderer William Kemmler is the first person executed in the electric chair, at New York's Auburn Prison.
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Politics and advances in technology influence use of the death penalty. I don't know when the exact date is but it's in the 19 century.
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1900s
A short-lived abolition movement leads to the repeat of numerous state death penalty statutes. I don't know when the exact date is but I know it was in the 1900's. -
I know it was in 1990s
Death Penalty provisions in anti-crime bills stir sharp debate in Congress. -
1920s
Two sensational murder cases spark renewed debate over the death penalty. -
Defense attorney Clarence Darrow wins life sentences for Chicago "thrill killers" Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold Jr.Sept 10, 1924
Defense attorney Clarence Darrow w -
Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, Italian immigrants with anarchist sympathies, are electrocuted in Massachusetts for two murders.
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I know it was in the 1930's.
U.S. executions reach an all-time peak, averaging 167 a year. -
I know it was in the 1960's
Growing doubts about the death penalty lead to a decline in executions. -
After Luis Jose Monge dies in the gas chamber at Colorado State Penitentiary, an unofficial moratorium on executions begins.
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Kansas abolishes capital punishment. Eight more states follow suit over the next 10 years.
I know it was in 1907 -
I know it was in the 1970s
An eventful decade for capital punishment sees the death penalty invalidated and then reinstated -
Supreme Court rules in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because juries impose sentences arbitrarily. The decision overturns all existing death penalty laws and death sentences
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The Supreme Court holds in Gregg v. Georgia that under the state's new two-stage trial system, the death penalty no longer violates the Eighth Amendment.
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I don't know the exact date but I know it was in 1977
Oklahoma becomes the first state to adopt lethal injection -
A Utah firing squad makes Gary Gilmore the first person executed in the U.S. in almost 10 years
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I know it was in the 1980s
The Supreme Court further clarifies its views on the death penalty. -
I know it was in 1986
Supreme Court bars executing insane persons in Ford v. Wainwright. -
I know it was in 1989
In Perry v. Lynaugh, the Supreme court holds that executing mentally retarded persons does not violate the Eighth Amendment. -
President Clinton signs crime bill making dozens of federal crimes subject to death penalty.
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New York Governor George E. Pataki signs new death penalty law.
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The House votes 297-132 to limit inmate appeals of death sentences to one year in state cases.
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Life without this right, could mean smaller population, more people sentenced to life, since the officers thought it was so much much being able to kill someone. Then by now with all the, new things we have compared to back then, there would be ALOT more cruel punishment.
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It means everything to me. Nobody in my family has ever gone to prison that I know of but I never know something bad could happend tomorrow. I think it's very fair now. When you get in trouble for doing something bad, you have already comited your crime why get punished even more in prison?
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8th amendment: "A person can not be tortured in prison."