government: Presidential-parliamentary democracy (federal)
state of civil and political rights: Free
constitution: 17 September 1787, in force since 4 March 1789
legal system: based on common law
legislative system: bicameral Congress (Senate and House of Representatives)
judicial system: Supreme Court
religion: 47% Protestant; 21% Catholic; 6% Christian; 3% Orthodox; 2% Jewish; 2% Muslim
death row: 3.350 (as of January 1, 2007)
year of last executions: 0-0-0
death sentences: 0
executions: 42
international treaties on human rights and the death penalty:International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Convention on the Rights of the Child (signed only)
Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
Statute of the International Criminal Court (which excludes the death penalty) (only signed)
situation:
Of the 50 states that make up the United States of America, 38 have the death penalty.
Federal law provides for 42 death-qualifiable offences, 38 of which relate to murder. Federal military law also provides for capital punishment.
Some states have laws that prescribe the death penalty for offences that do not involve the death of someone, including treason, espionage, kidnapping, hijacking and drug-trafficking.
California makes train sabotage, and perjury that has lead to a judicial execution, capital offences. A 1995 law in Louisiana allows death sentences for raping a child under 12. Florida and Montana have laws making rape a capital offence irrespective of the age of the victim. Examples of federal crimes include the murder of a member of the CIA, FBI, DEA (anti drug), agents of other federal anti-crime agencies, and murder committed in national parks or on main freeways. High treason and espionage are also federal crimes. However, of the 38 states that still employ capital punishment, four haven't held executions since 1976 (Kansas, New Hampshire, New Jersey and New York). There have been no executions resulting from military court martials since 1976. The 12 states that have outlawed capital punishment are: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Washington DC (that is, the federally autonomous district of the city of Washington) should be added to this list, as well as Puerto Rico, a protectorate of the USA. Some states have laws that allow capital punishment for non-fatal crimes, including treason, espionage, kidnapping, hijacking, and drug trafficking. Aggravated kidnapping is a capital crime in Idaho, Kentucky and South Dakota. California allows the death penalty for the sabotage of trains, high treason and for false testimony that led to an execution. A law in Louisiana enacted in 1995 allows the death penalty for the rape of a child under the age of twelve, even if it doesn't result in the death of the victim. Florida and Montana have laws that allow capital punishment for rape, whatever the age of the victim. However, the Florida Supreme Court held that this law was unconstitutional. The last execution for rape in the US was carried out in 1964, and no one has been put to death for crimes other than murder since the Supreme Court re-instated the death penalty in 1976.
US criminal procedure divides a trial for murder (or any other capital offence) in two separate stages. During the first stage a popular jury decides if the accused is guilty or innocent, and during the second the same jury, the judge or a group of 3 judges (depending on the state) weigh the mitigating and aggravating circumstances and decide on the punishment. Appeals are also divided into two phases: appeals concerning the guilt or innocence of the accused, and those that deal with the degree of punishment. The fact that the laws of an individual state provide life without parole, that is, without the possibility of the prisoner ever being freed, is considered a positive factor, because it makes the granting of clemency that commutes a death penalty to life without parole more probable.
The US Supreme Court has shaped the practice of the death penalty remarkably in recent years, issuing landmark judgments that have put more safeguards in place and take into account evolving standards of justice.
On January 9, 2002 the Supreme Court underscored its view that jurors choosing between a death sentence and a life term in prison should be told if the convicted killer has no chance of parole. The court ruled 5-4 that jurors at the 1996 trial of a convicted South Carolina killer, William Kelly, should have known that he could never be released if he was sentenced to life in prison. In this case the jury that passed a death sentence on Kelly, was not instructed with regard to the life without parole option.
Even more far-reaching was the effect of two 2002 rulings barring the execution of mentally retarded people and ruling as unconstitutional death sentences issued by judges rather than juries. Both decisions could lead to a number of death sentences being commuted to life in prison.
On June 20, 2002, in Atkins v Virginia, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that executions of mentally retarded criminals are “cruel and unusual punishment,” violating the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. In its decision, the majority cited a growing national consensus on the issue since the high court ruled in 1989 that such executions may be unacceptable. Between 1989 and 2002 the number of states that do not allow the execution of mentally retarded death row prisoners had grown from two to 18. This ruling led to the review of a number of individual cases and to legislative amendments.
On June 24, in Ring v Arizona, the Supreme Court issued the second landmark ruling of the year, with a 7-2 majority declaring it is a violation of the right to trial by jury for a judge to impose a death sentence unless the jury has determined that factors exist justifying such a sentence.
‘What today's decision says is that the jury must find the existence of the fact that an aggravating factor existed,’ Justice Antonin Scalia said in a concurring opinion. Aggravating factors are those related to a crime that legally justify the imposition of a more severe penalty.
‘Those states that leave the ultimate life-or-death decision to the judge may continue to do so - by requiring a prior jury finding of an aggravating factor in the sentencing phase or, more simply, by placing the aggravating factor determination (where it logically belongs anyway) in the guilt phase,’ Scalia said.
The case involved Timothy Ring, an Arizona death row inmate. His death sentence and those of at least 125 other condemned Arizona prisoners were put on hold.
Montana and Indiana had changed their laws in anticipation of the ruling, and Delaware, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Nebraska and Arizona revised their laws after the Ring decision. Alabama and Florida remained the only two states that used judge sentencing before Ring v. Arizona that did not make changes to their law. Therefore a judge can still override a jury and pronounce a death sentence.
The ruling, passed in Ring v. Arizona, invalidated death sentencing laws in those states that left it to judges to determine whether a killer should be executed. However the Supreme Court did not make clear if its ruling should apply retroactively to everyone on those states’ death rows.
On the two-year anniversary of this ruling, the Supreme Court determined that its 2002 decision was a procedural rule and thus was not retroactive.
In their decision on Schriro v. Summerlin, on June 24, 2004, the justices ruled 5-4 against Arizona prisoner Warren Wesley Summerlin, sentenced to die more than 20 years earlier by a judge who later lost his job because of a drug problem.
This decision affected at least another 100 death row inmates - 85 in Arizona alone - who argued their death sentences had been improperly determined by judges, not jurors.
Besides the changes made in line with the Supreme Court rulings, a few US states also modified their capital punishment laws in other areas.
Indiana raised the age of eligibility for execution from 16 to 18 years, Pennsylvania legislated to allow post-conviction DNA testing, and California and Washington imposed more stringent standards on trial attorneys in an attempt to improve death penalty representation.
In 2003 the Supreme Court continued to proceed in putting up safeguards, and with the case of Wiggins v. Smith asked that more thorough investigations take place for extenuating circumstances in capital trials.
More safeguards in US death penalty law were added by the United States Congress in 2004, with the approval of the Innocence Protection Act (IPA). The bill passed the US Senate by voice vote on October 9, 2004 and the US House of Representatives on October 6, 2004 in an overwhelming 393-14 vote. This omnibus legislation enhances the rights and protections for all persons involved in the criminal justice system through two different, but complementary, mechanisms: (1) a new set of statutory victims' rights that are both enforceable in a court of law and supported by fully-funded victims' assistance programs; and (2) a comprehensive DNA bill that seeks to ensure that the true offender is caught and convicted for the crime.
On October 30, 2004, President George W. Bush signed into law the Innocence Protection Act. However, a new battle ground was created when on June 12, 2006, the United States Supreme Court gave the right to those condemned to death to appeal the legitimacy of the lethal injection. The Court's decision regarded the case of Clarence Hill, 47, who was sentenced to death in 1983 in Florida for the murder of a police officer during a bank robbery.
The execution of Hill was blocked last January by the Supreme Court when the condemned man already had the needle inserted in his vein. The sentence was highly anticipated in America as a means of reigniting the debate on lethal injection. Most people felt it was a 'cruel and unusual' method of execution and was therefore unconstitutional.On June 25, 2003, the European Union and the United States signed an extradition treaty to boost cooperation in the fight against terrorism and in bringing suspects swiftly to trial. The agreement guaranteed for a suspect “the right to a fair trial” including the “right to adjudication by an impartial tribunal established pursuant to law.” The provisions underline the European Union’s categorical opposition to the trial of any of its nationals by special military tribunals such as those announced by Washington after the September 11, 2001 attacks. EU member states, that all oppose the death penalty, get assurance under the treaty that no EU citizen extradited to the United States, which enforces capital punishment, will be put to death.
The real battle over the death penalty is being fought at the level of the state legislatures, where continued debate over a moratorium on executions and the abolition of the death penalty has been particularly charged.
The methods of carrying out executions, racial prejudices and class prejudices, but, above all, continued discoveries of miscarriages of justice and wrongful executions have all contributed to invigorating the debate on the death penalty.
On May 11th 2007, Curtis Edward McCarty was released from death row, where he had served 21 years. His is the 124th case of exoneration concerning death row inmates since 1973 and the first of this year.
In 2006 and 2007, the doubts that plagued judges and politicians were greatly linked to the use of lethal injection. These doubts have led to the suspension of executions in California, Delaware, Florida, Maryland, Missouri and North Carolina.
The state of Illinois has adhered to a moratorium on executions for the seventh year in a row.
On January 12th 2006, New Jersey became the first state to introduce by law a moratorium on capital punishment.
In New Jersey, a debate on methods of execution brought about a suspension of the death penalty with Governor Richard J. Codey expressing himself in favour of a moratorium on executions.
In the state of New York, where the Court of Appeals declared aspects of the death penalty unconstitutional in 2004, the legislature has postponed once again, purposefully, revisions of law, resulting in a de facto moratorium.
Since February 21st 2006 in California, all executions have been suspended by a judge wanting a thorough review of lethal injection procedures. Between hearings and postponements, the suspensions have lasted all of 2006 and are expected to continue through 2007 and the first months of 2008.
On January 25th 2007, North Carolina blocked all executions on the orders of a judge, also for problems related to lethal injection.
On February 12th 2007, the House of Representatives of New Mexico approved a bill that abolishes the death penalty, replacing it with life imprisonment without parole.
On February 21st 2007, the Governor of Maryland, Martin O’Malley, called upon the state legislature to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole.
Going against the trend was South Dakota, which, on July 11th 2007, carried out its first execution in 60 years. The condemned did not ask for clemency and expressed his will to die.
In 2006, the use of the death penalty in the United States continued its decline. The number of executions was the lowest in ten years: 53, almost half that of the record number of executions, 98, in 1999. The southern part of the United States carried out 83% of the executions last year.
As usual, Texas alone was responsible for almost half of the executions nationwide, 24 to be exact. The number of death sentences issued also declined: 112 in 2006 as opposed to 128 in 2005 and 138 in 2004.
The total number of inmates on death row in 2006 (3,344) is up slightly from 2005 (3,254). The difference can be explained by the less-felt effects of civil rights rulings by the Supreme Court between 2002 and 2005 that excluded the mentally retarded and minors, respectively, from facing execution. Furthermore, for the first time a National Gallup Poll showed that life imprisonment surpassed the death penalty as a justifiable sentence for serious crimes.
A successive poll by the Death Penalty Information Center, made public on June 9th 2007, revealed that 58% of Americans were in favour of a moratorium on executions.