U N I T 6 Law & Crime 1

The History of the

Death Penalty

Pre-Reading Questions

Think about the following questions.

1. Is the death penalty still used in your country?
If not, when was it stopped?
2. In the past, which crimes could bring the death penalty in the
United States?
3. How were people usually put to death in the past?

Vocabulary Preview
Match each word or phrase with the correct definition.
1. firing squad a. regularly; usually

2. humane b. a person in jail

3. inmate c. with kindness and sympathy; not cruel

4. routinely d. to check to prove true; to show to be correct

5. verify e. a line of people with guns given the job of executing criminals

6. execute f. to kill by court order

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Track 21

The History of the Death Penalty

I
n the United States, the death penalty is sometimes given to people who
are guilty of committing very serious crimes. These crimes could include
first-degree murder and treason, or betraying one’s country. Capital
punishment was brought to America by early settlers from Europe. In early
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America, people who were found guilty of murder and rape were routinely
executed, either by hanging or by a firing squad. Convicted burglars, thieves,
and even counterfeiters often received the death penalty. This was thought to
be a deterrent to other criminals.
People began to feel that criminals were not evil. Instead, they were victims of
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poverty, poor education, and lack of opportunity. Society should help criminals,
rather than kill them, they thought. Another reason for the change in thinking was
economic. Prisons were very expensive. Early American states could not afford to
keep many people in prison. Rather than keep them in prison, convicted criminals
were executed. But as society became richer during the Industrial Revolution,
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prisons became more affordable for society. Because of this and other reasons,
keeping criminals in prison rather than executing them became a viable option.
By the mid-1800s, many states banned the death penalty except in the case of
convicted murderers. But those states were mostly the northern states. The
southern states kept the death penalty for many crimes. That trend continues in
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modern America. Even today, most
executions happen in the southern states.
The southern states are considered more
conservative than northern states. In the
southern states today, death by injection is
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the standard form of execution. It is
considered the most humane form of the
death penalty.

5
rape --- to use violence to force someone to have sex
6
burglar --- a person who enters a place to steal things
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counterfeiter --- a person who makes fake money
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deterrent --- something frightening or unpleasant that stops some
bad action
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conservative --- not wanting change; not liberal
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death-row --- the part of a prison where people sentenced to death are held
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halt --- to stop
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exhaust --- to use completely
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first-degree murder --- killing on purpose or with a plan
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in favor of --- for; supporting

In the last few years in America, the debate over the death penalty
has grown more widespread. A recent argument against the death
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penalty is that some of the people who are found guilty and
sentenced to die are not actually guilty. New methods of verifying
evidence, such as DNA testing, have helped free many death-row
inmates. Because in many cases, criminals cannot be proven 100
percent guilty, it is not right to sentence them to death,
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opponents say. There is a chance that they may be innocent. In
fact, the governor of Illinois recently halted all executions in his
state. In Illinois, some death-row inmates were shown later to be
innocent of the crime for which they were imprisoned. After that,
the governor was afraid that some people being executed were
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wrongly convicted.
Another argument against the death penalty is the high cost of executing a
prisoner. Someone sentenced to die has the right to appeal the sentence several
times. The state has to defend its case each time before a higher court. One study
found that it costs more than $1,000,000 in legal costs for a prisoner to
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exhaust all appeals against the death penalty. Despite the often-heated national
debate, the majority of Americans are still in favor of the death penalty.
According to a recent study, approximately 65 percent of Americans still believe
that the death penalty is appropriate for crimes such as first-degree murder. In
cases of mass murder, the percentage in favor of capital punishment is even
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higher. More than 80 percent of Americans wanted the death penalty given to
Timothy McVeigh, the man who killed hundreds in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Reading Time _______ minutes _______ seconds 555 words

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R eading Comprehension
A Mark each statement as either true (T) or false (F) according to the
reading.
1. ____ The death penalty is still used in the United States today.
2. ____ In the past, people could receive the death penalty for stealing.
3. ____ As the United States became wealthier, the use of the death penalty
increased.
4. ____ Most people said Timothy McVeigh should receive the death penalty.

B Choose the best answer.

1. Which was a reason for the use of the death penalty during the early 1700s?
a. Executions were a kind of entertainment.
b. People were very religious.
c. American states were poor.
d. The states could not control the criminals.

2. Which states stopped using the death penalty?

a. Eastern states
b. Northern states
c. Southern states
d. Western states

3. Why did the governor of Illinois stop the execution of prisoners?

a. To give DNA tests to all death-row inmates
b. To keep innocent people from dying
c. To save money for the state
d. To win support for his re-election

C For the next two questions, look for the answers in the passage and
write them on the lines provided.
1. Today, why do most executions happen in the southern states?
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________

2. Why is it expensive to sentence a person to death?

______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
S ummary
Fill in the blanks with the words or phrases from the list. Use each word
or phrase only once.

routinely firing squad execute

humane verified inmates

In the past, criminals in America were 1 ________________ put to death for

crimes. Executions were usually either by hanging or by a(n) 2 ________________.
It was not until after the Industrial Revolution that the prison system grew large
enough to hold many 3 ________________ at one time and became an alternative
to the death penalty. However, some southern states still 4 ________________
quite a few prisoners. Even though more 5 ________________ methods of
execution, such as lethal injection, have been found to execute prisoners, there are
other points opponents still debate about the death penalty. For example, the
innocence of some prisoners on death row has been 6 ________________
through DNA testing.

V ocabulary Extension
Here are six words that are related to the topic but are not in the reading.
Fill in each blank with the best word from the list. Use each word only
once.

charged defendant witness confessed chamber testimony

1. The police officer arrested the man and __________ him with murder.
2. The __________ told the police officer what she had seen.
3. The man __________ to the murder when the police arrested him.
4. The judge heard the __________ of the arresting officer.
5. The accused man is the __________ in court.
6. The murderer was sentenced to death and so went to the gas __________.

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S upplemental Reading

Daryl Atkins and the Death Penalty Track 22

M
entally challenged people have IQs of below seventy. Many mentally
challenged people with IQs of fifty-five and above can hold jobs,
have children, and do many things that “normal” people do. They
even commit murder and other crimes. When mentally challenged people
5
commit crimes and are convicted, is it fair to put them to death, as other
criminals are sentenced to death? This is a question that American people and
their courts have struggled with for many years. However, in recent years, it
seems that the majority of Americans have come closer to agreement on the
issue. Many people now think that putting mentally challenged people to death
0
10
is a “cruel and unusual” punishment.
Daryl Atkins had an IQ of fifty-nine. In the late 1990s,
Atkins was found guilty of killing a person and was given
the death penalty in Virginia. His case was appealed all the
way up to the Supreme Court. In 2002, the court ruled that
5
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Atkins and other mentally challenged persons may not be
executed. This decision opposed a 1989 Supreme Court
decision that said mentally challenged persons may be
executed. Since 1976, approximately thirty-five mentally
challenged people have been executed in the United States.
0
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In the 2002 decision, the court said that the nation had come to a
consensus against executing the mentally challenged. They said it is unfair to
execute someone who cannot fully understand how bad their actions were. It is a
violation of the US Constitution’s ban against “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Discussion
Discuss the following questions.
1. Do you agree with the death penalty? Why or why not?
2. In your opinion, what people should be exempt from the death penalty?