Purposes of Prison

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Purposes of Prison

• Mission statement of Federal Bureau of Prison
• to protect society by confining offenders in the
  controlled environments of prisons and
  community-based facilities that are safe, humane,
  cost-efficient, and appropriately secure, and
  that provide work and other self-improvement
  opportunities to assist offenders in becoming
  law-abiding citizens.
• Implies rehabilitation

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Goals of Incarceration

• Retribution taking out societys vengeance
  against a defendant
• Rehabilitation help defendant mend his/her
  criminal ways and encourage to adopt a lawful
  lifestyle

• Deterrence threat of prison is in place to deter
  people from committing crimes
• Punishment lock up bad people to punish and get
  off our streets
• Politics tough on crime campaigning gets votes

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History of Prison Systems in the United States

• Can be traced to 2 systems in the 19th century
• New Yorks Auburn Prison (1817)
• Eastern State Penitentiary _at_ Cherry Hill (1829)
• Judge Morris Lasker
• How should society deal w/ people who violate its
  rules and customs?
• Punishment and sequestration of the offender in
  the hope of deterring him and others from
  committing futher offenses, or
• Redeeming the prodigal son so that, w/ a new set
  of values, he will internalize conformity w/
  societys rules.

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History of Executions in the U.S.

• Prior to 19th Century, hanging was the most
  common method.
• Inexpensive and easily carried out
• Painful, often taking 20 minutes for death to
  occur, and often resulted in decapitation
• Long-drop introduced in late 19th century.
• Hanging later fell out of favor in most
  jurisdictions.
• Illegal Lynching-hanging that took place w/out
  authority permission
• Delaware, New Hampshire, and Washington still
  offer hanging as a method of execution.

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History of Executions in the U.S.

• Electrocution
• New York 1888
• William Kemmler
• 1st man executed via electrocution (1890)
• Firing Squad
• Utah 1854
• Nevada 1911
• Lethal Gas
• Nevada 1921
• Seen as an improved method of execution because
  did not disfigure or mutilate the body.

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Abolishment of Execution

• After WWII, many factors contributed to a
  movement against the death penalty.
• Atrocities witnessed during the war
• Civil Rights movement
• ACLU and NAACP attempts to appeal death penalty
  cases
• Abolition of death penalty in a number of Western
  countries
• Weakening in public support for the death penalty.

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Abolishment of Execution

• Prior to 1920
• Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota abolish
  death penalty.
• 1950s and 1960s
• 10 states abolish death penalty
• Alaska, Hawaii, Delaware, Oregon, Iowa, Michigan,
  West Virginia, Vermont, New York, and New Mexico
• By 1968, executions have ceased.

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Cruel and Unusual Punishment

• 1969 Boykin v. Alabama
• 1970 Maxwell v. Bishop
• 1971 People v. Anderson
• 1972 Furman v. Georgia

• Reinstatement
• After Furman v. Georgia
• 1976 35 states enacted new death penalty
  statutes
• July 2, 1976, Gregg v. Georgia
• Not Cruel and Unusual

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Some Federal Capital Crimes

• Homicide related crimes
• 1st degree murder
• Genocide
• Retaliatory murder of a member of the immediate
  family of law enforcement
• Murder
• Of a Federal judge or law enforcement official
• During a kidnapping or hostage-taking
• Of a court officer or juror
• Related to rape or child molestation
• Non-homicide crimes
• Espionage
• Treason
• Drug trafficking in large quantities

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Capital Punishment 2001 Stats

• 15 states and the Federal Government executed 66
  prisoners during 2001.
• Under sentence an average of 11yrs and 5 months.
• 63 men and 3 women
• 48 whites, 17 blacks, and 1 American Indian
• Youngest death row inmate was 19 and oldest was
  86.
• All lethal injection
• 3,581 prisoners were on death row
• California (603), Texas (453), Flordia (372), and
  Pennsylvania (241).
• 19 prisoners were on Federal death row

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Capital Punishment 2002 Stats

• 71 persons executed in 13 states
• 53 white and 18 black
• 69 men and 2 women
• Lethal injection accounted for 70 of the
  executions and 1 was carried out by
  electrocution.
• 3,557 prisoners on death row
• All had committed murder.

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Capital Punishment 2003 Stats

• 65 inmates were executed in 11 states and the
  Federal system
• 41 were white, 20 black, 3 Hispanic, and 1
  American Indian
• All 65 were men
• 47 women were on death row, but none executed
•  Lethal injection accounted for 64 of the
  executions
• 1 execution was carried out by electrocution.
• James Neil Tucker chose electrocution in South
  Carolina and was executed on May 28, 2004.

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More Execution Info

• Last state execution
• November 4, 2004
• Robert Morrow, white male, age 47
• Crime
• On April 3, 1996, Morrow abducted and murdered a
  21-year old white female.
• Texas by Lethal Injection
• Robert Morrow
• Last federal execution
• March 18,2003
• Louis Jones, black male, decorated Gulf War
  veteran
• Crime
• Kidnap/Murder of young white female soldier, Pvt.
  Tracie Joy McBride
• Links
• Federal Death Row Prisoners 2004
• United States Executions 2004

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State Methods of Execution

• Lethal Injection
• Used my almost all states and also most
  frequently used method
• Electrocution
• Still offered by 9 states as an option
• Lethal Gas
• Still offered by Arizona, California, Missouri,
  and Wyoming as an option
• Hanging
• Still offered by Delaware, New Hampshire, and
  Washington as an option
• Firing Squad
• Still offered by Idaho, Oklahoma, and Utah as an
  option

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Since 1977

• Three inmates have been executed by hanging.
• 2 in Washington and 1 in Delaware
• The last hanging was in 1996 in Delaware.
• Two inmates have been executed by firing squad.
• Both took place in Utah, and the last was in
  1996.
• Nine inmates have been executed by lethal gas
• The last taking place in North Carolina in 1994.

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Why is it an Issue?

• Cost
• Executions as Entertainment
• Violence on Television
• Botched Executions
• We are Killing in Our Name
• Deterrence
• First Amendment Rights

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Both Sides Confused

• Supporters of death penalty oppose public
  executions for fear of arousing sympathy, make
  public forget the crimes commited
• Opponents believe the quick TV death would convey
  that execution is quick ,in reality long years of
  mental anguish spent on death row

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Arguments Against

• Cost
• Both a financial and emotional cost involved
• Financial Executing an individual costs twice
  what incarcerating an inmate would, even more if
  made a media event
• Emotional victims families not only now dragged
  through court systems, but now must be made to
  endure increased public exposure

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Executions as Entertainment

• Last U.S. public execution in 1920, people
  crowded watched
• An event which people came to watch for fun
• Another example Roman Gladiators

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Violence on Television

• Many studies have been conducted to show the
  affects of violence on television
• Huesmann (1982)
• Children create and store in their memories
  problem-solving algorithms that are based in part
  on observation of others behavior.

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Bobo Doll Study

• Bandura conducted study, 72 children participated
• Children placed in room with adult who both
  physically and verbally abused an inflated Bobo
  dolls
• When placed in a room alone, after being
  frustrated by not being allowed to play with
  toys, children who observed adults showing
  violence were much more likely to imitate their
  actions
• Both physical and verbal abuse on the dolls

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Teaching Violence

• Our culture tries to teach our youth that
  violence is not an answer
• Public executions would show that we approve of
  meeting violence with violence
• Numerous experimental studies, many static
  observational studies, and a few longitudinal
  studies all indicate that exposure to dramatic
  violence on TV is related to violent behavior
• Exposure to violence in mass media could cause
  both short and long term increases in a childs
  aggressive and violent behavior (Berkowitz, Eron)

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Botched Executions

• Some believe that executions should not be
  televised because something may go wrong.
• April 22, 1983. Alabama. John Evans. After the
  first jolt of electricity, sparks and flames
  erupted from the electrode attached to his leg.
  The electrode then burst from the strap holding
  it in place and caught on fire. Smoke and sparks
  came out from under the hood. Two physicians
  entered the chamber and found a heartbeat. The
  electrode was reattached to his leg. More smoke
  and burning flesh. Again doctors found a
  heartbeat. Ignoring the pleas of Evan's lawyer,
  Russ Canan (202-292-7676), a third jolt was
  applied. The execution took 14 minutes and left
  Evan's body charred and smoldering.

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Botched Executions

• Sept. 2, 1983. Mississippi. Jimmy Lee Gray.
  Officials had to clear the room eight minutes
  after the gas was released when Gray's desperate
  gasps for air repulsed witnesses. His attorney,
  Dennis Balske of Montgomery, Alabama, criticized
  state officials for clearing the room when the
  inmate was still alive. Says David Bruck, "Jimmy
  Lee Gray died banging his head against a steel
  pole in the gas chamber while reporters counted
  his moans (eleven, according to the Associated
  Press)"

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Botched Executions

• December 12, 1984. Georgia. Alpha Otis Stephens.
  After the first jolt of electricity failed to
  kill him , Stephens struggled for eight minutes
  before a second charge finished the job. The
  first jolt took two minutes, and there was a six
  minute pause so his body could cool before
  physicians could examine him (and declare that
  another jolt was needed.) During that six-minute
  interval, Stephens took 23 breaths.
• March 13, 1985. Texas. Stephen Peter Morin. Had
  to probe both arms and legs with needles for 45
  minutes before they found the vein.

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Not What You Expect

• Many family members who watch executions leave
  feeling let down.
• Executions are now clean, sterile, quick
• As quoted from a grandmother who watched Timothy
  McVeigh die
• It was so quick and so sterile and so serene, it
  left me feeling angry
• Many dont find the closure which they expect

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Well-Publicized Executions

• Most studies have found no effect in decline of
  homicides after well publicized executions, while
  some discover homicides increase after the
  execution.
• Known as brutalization effect.
• Effect of desensitizing people to the immorality
  of killing, increasing likelihood that some
  individuals will make decision to kill.

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Arguments For..

• Capital punishment is by nature public.
• It is killing by the state. Executions are done
  in our name.
• Public executions allow society to take
  responsibility and acknowledge this.
• Capital punishment is now an easily ignored act
  and just a matter of administration.
• Lets us off the hook.

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Out of sight, out of mind?

• If the death penalty is legal then why hide it?
  Why be ashamed?
• It is the legal and just way society responds to
  murder.
• Albert Camus author of Reflections on the
  Guillotine
• One must kill publicly or confess that one does
  not feel authorized to kill.

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How is it different?

• It is no worse than what has already been aired
• Film of JFK assassination
• Tape of Jack Kevorkian injection Thomas Youk
  airing on 60 minutes in 1998
• Live murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by Jack Ruby on
  live TV Nov. 24th, 1963

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Deterrence

• The most effective way to promote these are to
  make the execution public.
• Maximize the level of deterrence
• Deterrence is only as good as the degree to which
  it is publicized.

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Why the other side advocates publicity

• Opponents of the death penalty support public
  executions and believe that if it were made
  public it would not survive.
• It would force the system to justify each
  execution if done publicly.
• Must weigh out and evaluate every aspect
• Done both by the public and administration

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• It would raise questions regarding the merit and
  terms of the death penalty
• Why is a black man who kills a white man executed
  more often?
• Before America decided to abolish it, the death
  penalty would become more humane.
• Authorities could not afford a botched execution.

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First Amendment Issues

• It is the publics right to know governmental
  proceedings, especially executions.
• Capital punishment is the most severe form of
  punishment in our laws.
• Americans can make up their mind on the capital
  punishment if given real knowledge and evidence.
  (Understand true workings of capital punishment)
• This freedom of information keeps democracies
  healthy.
• This is why the First Amendment is so important.
• Media discrimination pen/paper vs. camera

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U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2002)

• The court struck down a Californian
  administrative rule which forbids the public
  viewing of the initial process of an execution.
  (California First Amendment Coalition v.
  Woodford)
• The court ruled that the First Amendment right
  which allows access to governmental proceedings
  outweighs the states concern for the security of
  the execution staff.

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Two Rationales

• First Rational
• Eighth Amendment (Cruel Unusual Punishment)
  interpretation
• The constitutionality for the death penalty
  depends on whether or not it is in accordance
  with
• the evolving standards of decency which mark
  the progress of a maturing society
• Therefore, citizens must evaluate whether or not
  lethal injection (for example) is a standard of
  decency.

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• In order to do this, the court stated that
  citizens must have full access to the process and
  method of the death penalty.
• Allows citizens to make a meaningful assessment
  which in turn the courts can rely on to interpret
  the Eighth Amendment.
• Second Rationale
• Public viewing promotes a communal expression of
  moral outrage.

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Our Position

• We believe that executions should be televised
  based on the fact that if we, as America,
  continue to use the death penalty we should not
  feel ashamed and hide the act from the public eye.

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Resources

• www.ojp.usjoj.gov
• www.fcc.state.fl.us./fcc/reports/methods/emushist.
  html
• www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
• http//usgovinfo.about.com
• www.nolo.com/lawcenter.com
• www.penalrehab.org
• http//people.howstuffworks.com/lethal-injection5.
  htm
• Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletin - Capital
  Punishment 2001, 2002, and 2003