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The Flow and Ebb of American Capital Punishment

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Handbook on Crime and Deviance

Part of the book series: Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research ((HSSR))

Capital punishment laws and practices have changed significantly since 1608, when the first recorded execution on American soil was carried out in colonial Jamestown (Harries & Cheatwood, 1997, p. 17). A dozen or more felonies were typically punished by death in the original 13 states, including counterfeiting, burglary, robbery, arson, and others (Bye, 1926, p. 234; Mackey, 1982, pp. 40–41). Death sentences followed automatically on conviction (Bedau, 1982, pp. 9–10). They were carried out publicly, with great fanfare and normally by hanging. Public executions were designed to impress citizens with the state’s power and authority and, accompanied by gallows sermons and often-repentant offenders, to reinforce civic values and the social order (Masur, 1989, pp. 25–49).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Within the category of “innocent” persons under sentence of death are those whose capital convictions were overturned and who later were acquitted at a retrial, or had all charges against them dropped, or who were pardoned based on new evidence of their innocence (Death Penalty Information Center, 2008d).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University at Albany, SUNY, Albany, NY, USA

    James R. Acker

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  1. James R. Acker
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, Washington Ave. 1400, Albany, 12222, USA

    Marvin D. Krohn

  2. School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, Washington Ave. 1400, Albany, 12222, U.S.A.

    Alan J. Lizotte

  3. School of Criminal Justice, University at Albany, Washington Ave. 1400, Albany, 12222, U.S.A.

    Gina Penly Hall

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Acker, J.R. (2009). The Flow and Ebb of American Capital Punishment. In: Krohn, M., Lizotte, A., Hall, G. (eds) Handbook on Crime and Deviance. Handbooks of Sociology and Social Research. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0245-0_16

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