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AngelaProject 3 - 25 Nov 2009 - Main.AngelaChen
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-- AngelaChen - 08 Nov 2009 | | | Aims | |
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< | This project is intended to investigate the changing nature of the legal regulation of capital punishment in America between 1607 and 1846. More specifically, I would like to explore the following question: how and why did the death penalty evolve from its position as the favored sanction for a whole array of crimes (taking the year of the first permanent British settlement in America - 1607 - as our starting date) to its legal abolition for all common crimes for the first time (Michigan, 1846) ?
Notes
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> | This project is intended to investigate the changing nature of the legal regulation of capital punishment in America between 1607 and 1846. More specifically, I would like to explore the following question: how and why did the death penalty evolve from its position as the favored sanction for a whole array of crimes (taking the year of the first permanent British settlement in America - 1607 - as our starting date) to its legal abolition for all common crimes for the first time (Michigan, 1846) | | | | |
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< | One preliminary note: the bounds of my research will generally be restricted to the death penalty in the aforementioned period as it related to those other than slaves - although the position of slaves at the time is clearly an important topic, I believe that it may be better dealt with in a separate inquiry. | >
> | One preliminary note: the bounds of my research will generally be restricted to the death penalty in the aforementioned period as it related to those other than slaves (the majority of whom were Blacks) - although the position of slaves at the time is clearly an important topic, I believe that it may be better dealt with in a separate inquiry. | | | I have written below an outline of how the project may be shaped, and included some issues which I think may be worth further exploration. | | | Introduction | |
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- A brief outline of capital punishment in early America (different degrees of capital punishment, how it differed from modern times, some preliminary reasons for having the death penalty the way it was)
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> | Regulation of capital punishment in early America was, as one would expect, heavily influenced by its counterpart in England. However, even from the start one could note differences between the Northern and the Southern colonies in the type and range of crimes that were capitalized and later, the attitude towards abolition.
The 'death penalty' was carried out chiefly in the form of hanging both in England and America at the time (although there were, as Banner notes, other forms of execution 'worse than death' reserved for the most heinous crimes); it was the form of execution which required the least in terms of equipment and prowess. What hangings lacked in technical expertise, however, they more than made up for in ceremony.
The public nature of executions facilitated many of the purposes of the death penalty, such as deterrence and retribution (explored further in 'Utilitarianism and Philosophy', below). Shifts in attitude in these respects, together with wider social changes and key developments such as the advent of prisons, may help us answer the question which this paper poses.
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| | | Influences from England and the Continent | | |
- Clemency and benefit of clergy
- Development of 'fake punishments' and repercussions
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< | Wealth, Class and Public Opinion | >
> | Wealth, Class, and Public Opinion | | |
- More wealth led to ability to support institutions such as penitentiaries
- Diverging tastes between classes, upper classes began to view public executions as unseemly
- Changing role of sympathy
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