Capital punishment history

By lexielamping

  • Pennsylvania Limits Crimes Punishable by Death to Treason and Murder

    William Penn made a large assembly consider the "Great Law or Body of Laws" which contained the limited crimes punishable by death to premeditated murder and treason

  • Death Penalty Used in All 13 US Colonies

    arson, piracy, treason, murder, sodomy, burglary, robbery, rape, horse-stealing, slave rebellion, and often counterfeiting were all crimes punishable by hanging

  • Allow for Death Penalty in the Constitution

    founding fathers make it possible for death penalties when they are writing the Constitution

  • first person to be executed Under US Federal Death Penalty

    Thomas Bird was executed by hanging

  • Death Penalty Abolition

    the first group apposed to capital punishment is formed

  • 14th amendment ratified

    the 14th amendment is ratified after the Civil War ended

  • States Switch to Private Hangings

    states see public hangings as cruel. Watchers would also try to tear down the gallows and or the ropes for keepsakes of watching the hangings
  • Period: to

    Thomas Edison shows powers of electricity

    Thomas Edison Demonstrates Power of Electricity by Electrocuting Animals showing that electrocution was a quick and painless form of execution

  • New York Performs the First Electrocution

    with the help of Thomas Edison's Engineers they preform the first execution with Electrocution, murderer William Kemmler was burned to death, by the electricity
  • Period: to

    states abolish punishment

    Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Arizona, Missouri and Tennessee abolish capital punishment

  • Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Unconstitutional

    the US supreme court overturned 600 death sentences

  • First Person to Be Executed in 10 years

    Gary Gilmore was convicted of murder in Utah, and was executed by firing squad, by his request

  • First Lethal Injection

    Texas injects the first lethal dose, in Charles Brooks for murdering a mechanic

  • Supreme Court Rules Executions rules some executions unconstitutional

    it is considered unlawful to execute individuals under the age 16