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Death Penalty
Dr. Robert Bohm, Test Number 2
95
Criminology
Undergraduate 4
11/10/2009
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Term
The method used to execute the first American following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.
 Definition
Firing Squad, Gary Gillmore
Term
The first state to execute by lethal gas.
 Definition
Nevada
Term
What was distinctive about the execution of Juan Raul Garza?
 Definition
first person executed under the 1988 Federal "drug kingpin" statute
Term
Which state conducted the first execution by lethal injection, and the year in which it occurred.
 Definition
Texas, 1982
Term
The sole accepted method of execution in the US for a century after the adoption of the 8th amendment, (except
when executing spies, traitors and deserters)
 Definition
hanging
Term
The first person to die in the electric chair, and the year in which he was executed.
 Definition
William Kemmler, 1890
Term
Which aggravating factors should be eliminated to narrow death-eligibility dased on interviews with more than
100 imprisoned street criminals in a Virginia prison from 1986-1999.
 Definition
Term
What a writ of certiorari is.
 Definition
appeal made to the US Supreme Court, Supreme Court requests all the files and such
Term
Problems or criticisms of the first study that showed a statistically significant deterrent effect.
 Definition
1. failure to compare effectiveness of capital punishment with that of prison terms
2. if 1965-1969 are omitted, then the detterent findings are void
3. ignores important regional differences
4. fails to consider other possible influences
Term
The year in which Congress enacted a death-penalty statute for murder in the course of a drug kingpin conspiracy
(it created new death-penalty procedures for the federal government)
 Definition
1988
Term
Where the Federal Bureau of Prisons constructed the first national execution chamber in American History.
 Definition
Terre Haute, Indiana
Term
The name of the first American executed following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.
 Definition
Gary Gillmore
Term
The percentage of convicted capital offenders who will probably not kill again.
 Definition
90 percent
Term
The state that first authorized exection by lethal injection.
 Definition
Oklahoma
Term
The percentage of respondents to a recent Gallup Poll who chose "it is a deterrent" as a reason for supporting
the death penalty.
 Definition
11%
Term
How many US Supreme Court Justices it takes to stay or stop an execution.
 Definition
5
Term
The percentage of respondents to a recent Gallup Poll who chose incapacitation as their reason for supporting
the death penalty.
 Definition
7%
Term
The Supreme Court case in which the court abandoned its fixed or historical meaning of cruel and unusual
punishment and created a new one.
 Definition
Weems vs. United States in 1910
Term
What a writ of habeus corpus is.
 Definition
The defendant is being held illegally due to rights infringements
Term
The percentage of the 1500 organized crime figures convicted between 1996 and 2000 who faced a death sentence,
including those that committed multiple murders. (according to a recent Federal Death Penalty Resource Council
study)
 Definition
0%
Term
Who the first person executed by the US government was, and when this person was executed?
 Definition
Thomas Bird, June 25th, 1790
Term
the first state to execute by elecrocution.
 Definition
New York
Term
The last words uttered by the first American executed following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976.
 Definition
"Lets do it"
Term
The name of the court in which violations of the federal capital punishment statutues are first adjudicated.
 Definition
Federal District Court
Term
The method of execution currently provided by the most jurisdictions.
 Definition
lethal injection
Term
The percentage of all executions performed by hanging in the US since colonial days.
 Definition
at least 70%
Term
The year in which the death penalty was first shown by sophisticated statistical methods to be a deterrent to
murder, and the name of the researcher.
 Definition
1975, Ehrlich
Term
The minimum number of attorneys who must be appointed to represent federal capital defendants.
 Definition
2
Term
The approximate percentage of life-sentenced Texas capital murder defendants who are likely to commit a repeat
murder over 40-year period (according to a recent study)
 Definition
0.2%
Term
The percentage of criminal homicides per year that have resulted in execution since 1930.
 Definition
no more than 2%
Term
The percentage of supporters of capital punishment who selected cost as a reason for their supports in a
recent Gallup Poll.
 Definition
20%
Term
The method of execution that was employed by the majority of states that executed between 1930 and 1972.
 Definition
electrocution
Term
The method of execution that has been used to execute the most offenders under post-furmann statutes
 Definition
lethal injection
Term
The percentage of capital offenders between 1995 and 2000 who were minorities.
 Definition
more than80%
Term
The first person executed in the federal death penalty chamber
 Definition
Timothy McVeigh
Term
First person exectued by lethal gas and when
 Definition
Gee Jon, 1924
Term
The approimate percentage of murders and non-negligent manslaughters that are currently believed to be capital
crimes or death eligible.
 Definition
10-25%
Term
The most influential predictor of prison violence, according to a recent study of life-sentenced Texas capital
murder defendants.
 Definition
the age factor, younger = higher chance
Term
The average cost per execution (the entire process)
 Definition
2.5 - 5 million dollars
Term
Why the death penalty was not expensive in relation to LWOP prior to the furman decision.
 Definition
capital cases were disposed of quickly
Term
The number of justices who must vote to hear a case before it will be heard by the Supreme Court
 Definition
4
Term
Why voir dire in capital cases takes longer and is more expensive than in non-captial cases.
 Definition
jury members must not only be questioned individually, but they also have to be sequestered from the others
until the jury has been assembled
Term
Cesare Beccaria believed greater deterrent was: capital or life???
 Definition
life
Term
The reasons for using lethal inection as a method of execution.
 Definition
cheap, more humane,
Term
Eyewitness reports about the first person electrocuted as execution.
 Definition
second jolt, horrible stench, blood and burning,
Term
Uniform policy for conducting lethal injections?
 Definition
no
Term
What may be appealed according to federal death penalty law.
 Definition
only when claims under federal law or the consitution are involved.
Term
What most police chiefs believe about the death penalty and deterrence.
 Definition
dont think it is a good deterrent
Term
Type of offender most likely to kill inside prison.
 Definition
robbery
Term
What federal death penalty law requires when appointing counsel.
 Definition
minimum of two attorneys, one must have capital background
Term
The purposes of the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.
 Definition
speed up the process and reduce costs.
Term
What the FDA's role is in lethal injections, according to the Supreme Court.
 Definition
nothing, their discretionary authority is not subject to judicial review.
Term
The number of death penalty jurisdictions thathave statutory provisions for identifying the wrongfully
convicted.
 Definition
22, 20 states, DC and federal
Term
What would happen to the opinions of death penalty supporters if their belief in deterrence was proven wrong
 Definition
they wouldn't change their opinion.
Term
What research shows about the marginal deterrent effect of the death penalty.
 Definition
it doesnt exist.
Term
Whether the Supreme Court must hear all death penalty appeals.
 Definition
no
Term
What a recent study found about capital murderers sentenced to LWOP adn the threat they pose to other
prisoners and correction staff.
 Definition
they pose less of a threat than the others
Term
Illinois study found what about county spending for capital trials.
 Definition
could increase county sending by as much as 1.8% per trial, taken out of taxpayers and and police
and highway appropriations
Term
What is general deterrence.
 Definition
Term
How much the State of Florida spent to execute Ted Bundy.
 Definition
$10 million
Term
Why electrocution was chosen over lethal injection by the state that first adopted electrocution.
 Definition
protests from the medical profession about "needles" being associated with death
Term
The amount spent by the federal government to execute Timothy McVeigh.
 Definition
over $100 million.
Term
What is unique or interesting about Stanley "Tookie" Williams?
 Definition
niminated for nobel peace prize, given a shitload of awards, basically was rehabilitated, then executed :)
Term
number of countries who abolished death penalty by beginning of 20th century.
 Definition
3 countries
Term
Studies in changes of murder rates before and after abolition and or reinstatement show what?
 Definition
not a whole lot
Term
The role of the US Attorney General in the federal death penalty.
 Definition
death penalty cannot be reccommended without the consent of the Attorney General.
Term
Doctors participation in executions.
 Definition
41 percent surveyed had no problem doing one out of the ten tasks... 25% would do five or more.
Term
Do long stays on death row constitute cruel and unusual punishment???
 Definition
no.
Term
Whether victim impact evidence is prohibited by federal death penalty law.
 Definition
it is not prohibited, it is allowed.
Term
The country in which the electric chair was invented.
 Definition
USA
Term
The effect of the costs of capital trials on the decisions of prosecutors to seek them.
 Definition
VERY few capital prosecutions
Term
The number of countries that had abolished the death penalty in law or practice as of March 2007.
 Definition
128
Term
Protocol Number 6 to the European Convention on Human Rights
 Definition
abolishes death penalties in time of peace
Term
How many death penalty jurisdictions have LWOP?
 Definition
38 out of 39 (36states, plus feds, plus military)
Term
Position of the American Society of Criminology on capital punishment and its reasons.
 Definition
80 percent believe it is not a better deterrent than life in prison
Term
What the federal death penalty laws say about the death penalty and Native Americans.
 Definition
feds cant impose death penalty on Native Americans unless the tribe gives up their sovereign immunity.
Term
What Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla believed about electrocution.
 Definition
so horrible it never should have been invented.
Term
The number of death row inmated who have escaped from prison.
 Definition
12
Term
Why official witnesses are required at executions.
 Definition
to ensure that the execution is carried out, and done so in a humane and dignified manner.
Term
Number of Furman-commuted death row inmates who returned to death row after killing again.
 Definition
1
Term
What Congress has done since 1990 about the number of federal capital crimes.
 Definition
Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, increased number to around 50.
Term
Whether all federal capital crimes involve murder.
 Definition
no... all but four involve murder, but four of them do not.
Term
What LWOP inmates have to lose if they kill or commit other infractions in prison.
 Definition
privileges, such as visitation, mail and phone, commissary access, classes, recreation
Term
What research shows about prison staff members, inmates, and their safety in the prisons in which they work.
 Definition
they are no safer
Term
The practices the Supreme Court considers cruel and unusual punishment, and those that it does not.
 Definition
excessive punishments, death row conditions, elderly and infirm executions, as well as long death row
stays are NOT cruel and unusual.
Term
What federal death penalty law requires of jurors when it comes to finding a mitigating circumstance.
 Definition
only one juror required to find it, then weighing can begin
Term
The kinds of cases on which the Supreme Court will rule.
 Definition
heard at courts discretion, when constitutionality is in question, defendant claims rights were violated.
Term
What Professor Sellin found about capital punishment and police killings.
 Definition
capital punishment had no effect.
Term
The most expensive part of the entire death penalty process.
 Definition
Post Trial Stage
Term
What federal death penalty law requires of jurors in the finding of an aggravating circumstance.
 Definition
must be unanimous
Term
How important the Supreme Court considers incapacitation.
 Definition
only a secondary consideration.
Term
What federal death penalty law requires of a jury that recommends death.
 Definition
must furnish the court with signed certificates saying discrimination had nothing to do with the
proceedings
Term
What research shows about murder rates following a highly publicized execution.
 Definition
they go down a bit, but not for long... there are actually more brutalizing than deterring efeects in many
cases.
Term
Why the cost of a death sentence will probably always be more expensive than an LWOP sentence.
 Definition
super due process is required.
Term
What research shows about homicide rates in death penalty and non-death penalty states.
 Definition
fails to show a marginal deterrent effect.
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