From the beginning of the American colonial experience, the New World has been no stranger to death penalty and reflected variation from colony to colony. A prime example of enthusiastic execution is found in the killing of those suspected of witchcraft in the Massachusetts Bay Colony during the 1600s. On the other hand, in colonial Maine the death penalty was never very popular.

The United States is unique it that it allows its member states choice in use of this most extreme punishment. At this writing, 9 of the 50 states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Alaska, Hawaii, West Virginia, and Iowa) have abolished laws allowing capital punishment, 5 have had their death penalty laws declared unconstitutional (Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Kansas, and Massachusetts), and 2 have a moratorium on executions (Illinois and New Jersey).

Michigan and Wisconsin were the first states to abolish capital punishment, in 1847 and 1853 respectively. In 1876, Maine abolished its death penalty, reinstated it in 1883, and finally abolished capital punishment in 1887. In all three states there existed great concern about racial and ethnic discrimination in the application of the death penalty.

The Progressive Era is generally defined as the first 2 decades of the 20th century and was a time when many legislative reforms were initiated. Two states abolished their death penalty laws and have made no changes since that time. Minnesota abolished its death penalty in 1911; North Dakota followed suit in 1915 and, with one of the lowest crime rates in the nation, it has had little motivation to resume executions. In some other states that abolished the death penalty during this era (Colorado, Arizona, Missouri, and Tennessee), post-abolition lynching typically went unpunished until reinstatement of capital punishment as the better of two "bad" alternatives. Political radicals and economic depressions were responsible for reinstatement in Washington, Oregon, Kansas, and South Dakota.

When Alaska and Hawaii joined the union in 1957, both exercised their option to abandon capital punishment. Legislators in both states worried that, if a death penalty were established in law, local ethnic minorities would bear the brunt of such executions, as this had been the pattern prior to statehood. Iowa abolished the death penalty in 1872, reinstated it in 1878, and then abolished it again in 1965.

Iowa has both a low crime rate and a homogeneous population. Like Iowa, West Virginia abolished its death penalty law in 1965 and, with its similarly low crime rates and largely white population, reinstatement is seldom an issue.

Several urban states with large, heterogeneous populations have high homicide rates and many death row prisoners, yet drag their feet when it comes to actual executions. This profile applies to California, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. All three states have hundreds of prisoners awaiting execution, but each state has executed only a few since the Supreme Court found a constitutional formula for capital punishment statutes.

In many Deep South states of the former Confederacy, there has recently emerged some respectability for those opposing capital punishment. In many of these states, calls have recently been made for a moratorium on executions until research can determine if the state's death penalty laws are being fairly administered. This is significant because the death penalty has been more frequently used in this region than in other parts of the nation. In these regions the Roman Catholic Church and others have become increasingly vocal critics of executions.

In the "Lone Star State," there is a sizable death row population, but that state has also executed more than a third of all prisoners in the United States since 1977. While other states have been slowing the execution process, Texas moves forward, ever increasing the percentage of American prisoners put to death there. Over the past 30 years, a Hispanic member of the state legislature has regularly introduced death penalty abolition bills that have been routinely ignored. An African American member of the legislature who sponsored such abolition fared worse, getting condemned by the press, the state Bar Association, and the Internal Revenue Service.

Many social observers predict that the death penalty will be abolished in a few years. There are several grounds for this prediction rather than simple wishful thinking.

1. All other Western nations have abolished this practice, putting pressure on the United States to rise to the same standard.

2. Numerous states in all sections of the nation have passed or are seriously considering moratorium bills.

3. In some states many prisoners are being released from death rows because of serious legal questions about the quality of their trials.

Bibliography:

1) Amnesty International. 2006. "Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty."

2) Bedau, Hugo Adam, ed. 1964. The Death Penalty in America: An Anthology. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.

3) Bedau, Hugo Adam, ed. 1997. The Death Penalty in America: Current Controversies. New York: Oxford University Press.

4) Death Penalty Information Center. (http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org).

5) Galliher, John F., Larry W. Koch, David Patrick Keys, and Teresa J. Guess. 2005. America without the Death Penalty: States Leading the Way. Boston: Northeastern University Press.

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