Death Penalty Pt 1
When was the military's last execution?
1961
Beginning in the 1950s, the number of executions in the United States began to increase dramatically.
False
The habeas corpus proceeding tests whether the prisoner is guilty or innocent.
False
In his 1961 University of Southern California Law Review article, what was the novel (new) reason Professor Gottlieb used in arguing that the death penalty was unconstitutional?
It violated contemporary moral standards
What was the significance of the "gibbet" in colonial America?
It was an "enhancement" to an execution.
Who and when was the first woman executed in America?
Jane Champion in 1632
With what issue do the following cases deal: Simmons v. South Carolina (1994), Weeks v. Angelone (2000), Shafer v. South Carolina (2001), and Kelly v. South Carolina (2002)?
Jury instructions
Cesare Beccaria, the eighteenth-century philosopher whose ideas are the basis of much of the criminal justice process in the United States today, claimed that capital punishment is probably a greater deterrent than life imprisonment.
False
When was the death penalty first shown by sophisticated statistical methods to be a deterrent to murder, and who was the researcher?
1975, Ehrlich
In which of the following years did Congress enact a death penalty statute for murder in the course of a drug-kingpin conspiracy and, in doing so, created new death penalty procedures that would meet the requirements of Furman?
1988
A recent survey of 67 current and past presidents of the top three criminology professional organizations-the American Society of Criminology, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, and the Law and Society Association-found that about 80 percent of them believe that the death penalty is a more effective deterrent to homicide than is long imprisonment.
False
According to a study by Sarah Dike, capital punishment proved an effective deterrent to gangland killings in Chicago during the period 1919-1968.
False
According to the Supreme Court, a prospective juror who would automatically vote for the death penalty upon conviction of a capital offense may not be challenged for cause.
False
The Supreme Court has held that state appellate courts must provide, upon request, proportionality review of death sentences.
False
In the case of Glossip v. Gross (2015), Justice Alito, writing for the majority, held that executions did not have to be painless.
True
Life without opportunity of parole (LWOP) statutes were enacted in response to the Furman decision.
True
In what year did the first English-speaking jurisdiction abolish the death penalty (except for treason)?
1846
What were the last words uttered by the first American executed following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976?
"Let's do it"
As a result of Supreme Court decisions, the death penalty, unlike any other punishment prescribed by law, requires special procedures that ensure its lawful application. What has Professor Margaret Jane Radin called those special procedures:
"super due process"
Which of the following cases did not deal with the issue of effective assistance of counsel?
- Hall v. Florida - DID: Bobby v. Van Hook, Smith v. Spisak, Cullen v. Pinholster
Which of the following cases deal with the issue of ex post facto laws?
- In re Medley - Rooney v. North Dakota - Malloy v. South Carolina
Which of the following cases dealt with exclusion of jurors based on race?
- Norris v. Alabama - Patton v. Mississippi
In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court rule that racial discrimination must be shown in individual cases.
-NOT: Harry Roberts v. Louisiana, Baze v. Rees, Maxwell v. Alabama, Boykin v. Alabama -Ch. 4
In which of the following decades did the fundamental legality of capital punishment itself become the subject of challenge?
1960s
In what year did the last state switch from mandatory death penalty statutes to discretionary death penalty statutes?
1963
Which of the following states was the first to execute by electrocution?
New York
In what year did the Supreme Court set aside death sentences for the first time in American history?
1972
Who was the intellectual leader and "front man" of the capital project of the organization that challenged the constitutionality of the death penalty in the 1960s?
Anthony Amsterdam
Which of the following states lists the most (12) mitigating circumstances in its death penalty statute?
Colorado
In 1830, what state was the first to hide executions from the public by requiring them to be conducted in jails or prisons?
Connecticut
From the American Revolution through the Civil War, for which of the following crimes were the most soldiers sentenced to death?
Desertion
With which of the following methods of execution did Wilkerson v. Utah deal?
Firing squad
Which English speaking jurisdiction was the first to abolish the death penalty (except for treason)?
Michigan
Which of the following states was the first to execute by lethal gas?
NOT: - CA - NC - NY - OK
Which of the following states uses electrocution as the sole method of execution?
No state
In Schlup v. Delo (1995), what standard of proof did the Supreme Court establish for demonstrating actual innocence?
Probably innocence
Which of the following "objective indicators" is not counted by the Supreme Court as evidence of "evolving standards of decency"?
Public Opinion
Which of the following was a primary purpose of executions in colonial American that is much less important today?
Saving Souls
In 1837, what state became the first to enact a discretionary death penalty statute for murder?
Tennessee
Which of the following is not true about the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996?
The following are TRUE: - It requires that second or subsequent habeas petitions be dismissed when the claim had already been made in a previous petition. - It requires that new claims be dismissed, unless the Supreme Court hands down a new rule of constitutional law and makes it retroactive to cases on collateral review. - Under the Act, the Supreme Court can hear a claim made for the first time only when the claim is based on new evidence not previously available. - The Act made the federal appellate courts "gatekeepers" for second or subsequent habeas corpus petitions.
Who was the first person to die in the electric chair and when did this occur?
William Kemmler in 1890
Who, when, and for what offense was the first juvenile in America executed?
Thomas Graunger in 1642 for bestiality
Who was the first person executed in the federal death chamber?
Timothy McVeigh
In the 1870s and 1890s, lynchings outnumbered executions in the South.
True
In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court abandon its fixed or historical meaning of the concept of "cruel and unusual punishment" and created a new one?
Weems v. United States
In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court reject "mandatory" death penalty statutes passed by some states following Furman?
Woodson v. North Carolina and Roberts v. Louisiana
Which of the following issues was addressed in the case of Miller-El v. Dretke (2005)?
racial bias during jury selection
According to Chief Justice Rehnquist, what is the proper procedure for making a claim of actual innocence after the judicial process has been exhausted?
requesting executive clemency
Which of the following Constitutional amendments presumably authorizes capital punishment?
the 5th
What appellate court in the United States was the first to rule that electrocution violated the 8th Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment?
the Georgia Supreme Court
Which of the following organizations' lawyers spearheaded the 1960s challenge to the constitutionality of the death penalty?
the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund
What was distinctive about the execution of Juan Raul Garza?
He was the first person executed under the 1988 federal "drug kingpin" statute, which allows the death penalty to be imposed on murders resulting from large-scale illegal drug operations.
Whenever a defendant's future dangerousness is raised by the prosecution, the defendant has the right to an accurate jury instruction that a life sentence means no possibility of parole.
True
Why were condemned offenders in colonial America typically not executed for at least a week or two after conviction?
to allow condemned offenders the opportunity to repent
Solesbee v. Balkcom (1950) was one of two cases that challenged the constitutionality of capital punishment prior to 1968. What was the issue addressed in this case?
whether a governor is allowed to determine an inmate's sanity where finding an inmate insane would prevent his or her execution
As late as the 1960s, at the state prison in Walla Walla, Washington, a hanging resulted in the inmate's head nearly being torn off and witnesses to the execution being spattered with blood.
True
At one time, general deterrence was the reason cited most often when people were asked why they supported the death penalty.
True
At the time the Rosenbergs were executed, death penalty support in the United States was at the highest (recorded) level in American history.
True
Before 1837, all states employed mandatory death penalty statutes that required anyone convicted of a designated capital crime to be sentenced to death.
True
Between 1918 and 1957, no state in the United States abolished the death penalty.
True
Between 1968 and 1977 no one was executed under state authority in the United States.
True
Brown v. Mississippi dealt with coerced confessions.
True
By the late 1840s, death penalty opposition became so prevalent in some northern states that it had become difficult to empanel juries in capital cases.
True
Death penalty "enhancements," along with burning the body, were especially terrifying to most colonial Americans and, thus, presumably effective deterrents to crime, because, according to Christian theology, if the integrity of a person's corpse has been violated and the corpse has not been properly buried, that person will be denied resurrection at the final judgment.
True
Death penalty states vary in the number of aggravating circumstances listed in their death penalty statutes.
True
During World War I, all of the U.S. soldiers executed were black.
True
During the 1960s, one-quarter of the prisoners executed had no appeals at all, and two-thirds of their cases were never reviewed by a federal court.
True
During the twentieth century, more people have been executed by electrocution than any other method.
True
Executions in colonial America were considered a particularly wholesome experience for children.
True
Following the first execution by electrocution, experts on electricity, such as Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, publicly debated whether electrocution was so horrible that it should never have been invented.
True
For 8th Amendment purposes, the Supreme Court has defined insanity as the condition under which people are unaware of the punishment they are about to suffer and why they are to suffer it.
True
For approximately 120 years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court employed a fixed or historical meaning for the concept of "cruel and unusual punishment."
True
General deterrence refers to the belief that people in general can be prevented from engaging in crime by punishing specific individuals and making examples of them.
True
Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, a death penalty opponent, wrote, "Of course, the death penalty deters some crimes. That's why you have to pay more for a hit man in a death penalty state, than a non-death penalty state."
True
If executions are to achieve deterrence, would-be killers must identify with criminals who are executed. On the other hand, if executions brutalize, would-be killers must identify their victims with executed criminals and themselves with state-sanctioned executioners.
True
In 1989, following a comprehensive review of death penalty research by a panel of distinguished scholars, the American Society of Criminology, the largest association of criminologists in the nation, passed a resolution condemning capital punishment and calling for its abolition. Among the reasons for the society's position was the absence of consistent evidence of crime deterrence through execution.
True
In England during the eighteenth century, jury nullification was a major problem in the administration of justice.
True
In Ex parte Milligan (71 U.S. 2), in 1866, the issue before the Court in this case was the problem of military power over civilians.
True
In Ring v. Arizona (2002), the Supreme Court ruled that the 6th Amendment right to a jury trial requires that juries and not judges determine whether or not death is the appropriate penalty in a capital case.
True
In Witherspoon v. Illinois (1968), the Supreme Court held that prospective jurors could not be excused simply because they were opposed to capital punishment.
True
In the case of Glossip v. Gross (2015), Justice Breyer, writing in the dissent, held that it is highly likely the death penalty violates the 8th Amendment.
True
In the death penalty law of the Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, each capital crime, except conspiracy and rebellion, was accompanied by an appropriate biblical quotation as justification.
True
Medical doctors, and especially anesthesiologists, are frequently opposed to lethal injection as an execution method because, among other things, no assurances can be given that the barbiturates will not wear off before death occurs, causing the condemned inmate to wake up and slowly suffocate to death.
True
More capital offenders were executed during the 1930s than in any other decade in American history.
True
Most jurisdictions use prison employees to insert the needles in the execution procedure.
True
Most of juveniles executed in the United States (nearly 70%) have been black, and nearly 90 percent of their victims have been white.
True
No other public event in colonial America drew larger crowds than executions.
True
Powell v. Alabama (287 U.S. 45, 1932) involved the so-called "Scottsboro Boys."
True
Research reveals a short-term decrease in murder rates following a highly publicized execution.
True
Research shows that "death-qualified" juries are more conviction-prone.
True
Research shows that virtually all persons sentenced to death in Georgia before Furman would have been deemed death-eligible under Georgia's post-Furman statute.
True
Simon and Spaulding contend that aggravating factors have symbolic capital as "tokens of our esteem" as they validate the worth of potential victims.
True
Some states currently have death penalty statutes that list capital crimes that do not necessarily involve murder.
True
Some states provide for more than one method of execution.
True
Some states use lethal injections machines in their execution method.
True
Studies of changes in murder rates before and after abolition and/or reinstatement of the death penalty show that abolition and/or reintroduction of the death penalty was sometimes followed by an increase in the murder rate and sometimes not.
True
Testifying before Congress in 2003, economics professor Joanna Shepherd remarked that there is a "strong consensus among economists that capital punishment deters crime" and that "the studies are unanimous."
True
The British colonies may have had even fewer capital crimes if long-term confinement facilities had been available.
True
The LDF attorneys hoped that the arguments set forth in the Boykin v. Alabama brief would eventually become the basis for the death penalty's complete abolition on 8th Amendment grounds.
True
The President of the United States must approve all military executions.
True
The Supreme Court approved the "guided discretion" statutes on faith.
True
The Supreme Court has established the principle that the 8th Amendment requires at least a rough correspondence between the punishment imposed, the harm done, and the blameworthiness of the defendant.
True
The Supreme Court has held that a conviction-minded jury must be allowed to consider a verdict of guilt of a lesser-included (non-capital) offense.
True
The Supreme Court has held that appointed counsel representing capital defendant before U.S. Supreme Court is limited to $5,000 in fees.
True
The Supreme Court has held that death penalty opponents can be excluded from juries deciding guilt or innocence in cases in which capital punishment is a possible sentence if they are opposed to the death penalty under any circumstances.
True
What method was employed to execute the first American following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976?
Firing Squad
Which of the following states was the first jurisdiction to reinstate the death penalty following the Court's decision in the case in which the death penalty was held to be unconstitutional?
Florida
In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court hold the death penalty, as administered, to be unconstitutional?
Furman v. Georgia
Who was the first American executed following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976?
Gary Gilmore
Who and when was the first person executed legally by lethal gas?
Gee Jon in 1924
Who and when was the first person executed in America?
George Kendall in 1608
What state was the first jurisdiction to impose a post-Furman death sentence?
Georgia
In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court hold that "guided discretion" death penalty statutes are constitutional?
Gregg v. Georgia
Except when executing spies, traitors, and deserters, what was the sole acceptable mode of execution in the United States for a century after the adoption of the Eighth Amendment?
Hanging
Which of the following descriptions best describes what happened to 29-year-old pencil factory manager Leo Frank, who, in 1913, was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death in Atlanta, Georgia, for the murder of his 13-year-old employee Mary Phagan?
He was lynched
The primary justification for the unique procedural safeguards approved by the Supreme Court was the "death is different" principle.
True
Throughout its history, the Court has rejected as unworthy of review the vast majority of cases appealed to it.
True
Two purposes of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 were to speed up the process and reduce costs.
True
Under its appellate jurisdiction, the U.S. Supreme Court hears death penalty cases appealed from U.S. circuit courts of appeals or from the high court of a state.
True
When the Supreme Court in Furman invalidated existing death penalty statutes, it also invalidated the federal death penalty law.
True
Rapes and kidnappings in which no death occurs are punishable by death.
False
Research shows conclusively that the death penalty has a marginal deterrent effect.
False
Research shows that a majority of death penalty supporters would change their opinion if it were proven to them that their belief in general deterrence was wrong.
False
Research shows that capital punishment deters some non-capital crimes.
False
Research shows that prison staff members and inmates are safer in prisons in death penalty states than in prisons in abolition states.
False
Research shows that states with few executions tend to have increased homicide rates and those with more executions tend to have reduced homicide rates.
False
Research shows that victim-impact evidence has a profound influence on sentencing outcomes.
False
The British colonies listed many more capital crimes in their death penalty statutes than Great Britain did in its death penalty statute.
False
The Supreme Court currently has adopted a fixed or historical meaning of the "cruel and unusual punishments" clause.
False
The Supreme Court has ruled that a juvenile offender may be sentenced to life imprisonment without opportunity of parole for a non-homicide crime.
False
The federal death penalty law prohibits victim impact evidence.
False
The federal death penalty law requires that all jurors find a mitigating circumstance before it can be weighed.
False
The first person executed in colonial America was hanged for murder.
False
The first reference to a government's proscription of "cruel and unusual punishments" is the 8th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
False
The five justices of the Furman majority maintained that capital punishment, itself, violated the 8th and 14th Amendments.
False
The military has used the death penalty mostly for crimes committed during peacetime.
False
The military's death penalty law allows the accused to elect to be tried by a military judge alone.
False
The military's death penalty law requires court members to hold a particular rank.
False
The trend is toward a decrease in the number of statutory aggravating circumstances in death penalty statutes.
False
Today, all executions are imposed under state authority.
False
With the long drop, most of the botched hangings resulted in slow and painful strangulation.
False
The laws in all death penalty states stipulate that the medical techniques used in lethal injection executions are not medical techniques, and the medical personnel who participate in them are not medical personnel for the purpose of executing prison inmates.
False (at least 8 - not all)
The Racial Justice Act and the Fairness in Death Sentencing Act allow a black defendant, or a defendant whose victim is white, the opportunity to present evidence showing a pattern of racially discriminatory charging or sentencing.
False - neither were ever implemented
In which of the following courts are violations of federal capital punishment statutes first adjudicated?
Federal district courts
What is the average number of aggravating circumstances listed in the statutes of death penalty states?
13
In which of the following centuries was the last legal execution for adultery and witchcraft conducted in America?
1600s
Approximately how many legally authorized executions in the United States have been confirmed by M. Watt Espy?
19,000
What is the minimum number of attorneys that must be appointed to represent federal capital defendants?
2
California and Delaware have the most aggravating circumstances listed in their death penalty statutes. How many aggravating circumstances are listed in the death penalty statutes of those states?
22
Approximately what percent of executions in America have been women?
3
According to a 2011 national opinion poll, what percent of respondents thought that the death penalty could deter crime?
32
How many jurisdictions in the United States currently have death penalty statutes?
33
How many justices must vote to hear a case before the Supreme Court hears the case?
4
Approximately what percent of capital indictments are for felony murder?
40
As of November 2010, approximately what percent of the 60 people under a federal death sentence were black?
45
How many U.S. Supreme Court justices does it take to stay, or stop, an execution?
5
How many federal prison officials were murdered during the 1980s when the federal death penalty was suspended?
5
Below what age did American law prohibit the execution of children at the time the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1791?
7
What percent of all executions performed in the United States since colonial days have been by hanging?
70
What is the average number of mitigating circumstances among states that list them in their death penalty statutes?
8
According to a Justice Department study, what percent of federal defendants charged with capital offenses between 1995 and 2000 were minorities?
80
Which amendments were violated in the case in which the Supreme Court held the death penalty, as administered, to be unconstitutional?
8th & 14th
The Supreme Court is willing to allow mandatory death penalty statutes as long as they are confined to a special category of victim, such as the killing of a police officer.
False
The Supreme Court has held that a capital sentencing instruction to juries not to be swayed by "mere sympathy, passion, prejudice or public opinion" undermines the defendant's ability to present mitigating evidence and violates the 8th and 14th Amendments.
False
The Supreme Court has held that a mandatory death sentence for murder committed by an inmate serving a life sentence without possibility of parole is constitutional.
False
The U.S. Supreme Court must hear all death penalty appeals.
False
The Supreme Court has held that a second electrocution, conducted after first has failed to kill the defendant, is in violation of 8th Amendment cruel and unusual punishment clause.
False
The Supreme Court has held that appointment of counsel to indigent death row inmates seeking state post-conviction relief is required.
False
Which of the following was a problem with or criticism of the first study that purportedly showed a statistically significant deterrent effect?
- the failure to compare the effectiveness of capital punishment with that of particular prison terms - the finding that the deterrent effect does not hold if the years between 1965 and 1969 are omitted from the statistical model - the use of aggregate United States data which ignores important regional differences - the failure to consider the possible influences of racial discord, the Vietnam conflict, the sexual revolution, and increased handgun ownership
The youngest non-slave executed in the United States was Ocuish Hannah. How old was she when she committed the murder for which she was hanged?
12
In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court tacitly approve (1) unfettered jury discretion in death sentencing, and (2) capital trials in which guilt and sentence were determined in one set of deliberations (instead of bifurcated proceedings)?
- McGautha v. California - Crampton v. Ohio
Which of the following occurred during the execution of Clayton Lockett?
- The phlebotomist tried and failed several times to find a vein. - The doctor stuck a needle into Lockett's neck. - The doctor stuck a needle into Lockett's groin. - Lockett's began writhing on the gurney and after he was pronounced unconscious.
Which of the following is not a counterargument to studies that show no deterrent effect of the death penalty?
- The value of the deterrence studies is seriously diminished by the unreliability of the statistical evidence used because those who are, in fact, deterred by the threat of the death penalty and do not commit murder are not included in the statistical data. - Most law enforcement officials continue to favor capital punishment because they believe it is an effective deterrent to violent crime. - Because the homicide rate increased as the number of executions decreased from the mid-1960s through the 1970s, there must be a general deterrent effect. - The death penalty's deterrent effect has been reduced to nothing in recent years and, thus, does not show up in the research because it has not been imposed often or quickly enough to have the desired effect.
Which of the following was not a finding of Professor Land and his colleagues' death penalty deterrence study of homicides in Texas from January 1994 through December 2005?
- There is a modest, short-term deterrent effect on homicides in Texas in the months of or after executions. - For executions to have any deterrent effect a large number of executions must be conducted-more executions than any other executing state but Texas. - Most of any deterrent effect of executions on homicides occurs soon after the execution is announced. - Based on ten to twenty executions a year and using the .5 homicides per month deterred, five to ten homicides would be deterred per year.
What does research show about death-qualified jurors?
- They are less concerned with due process and more inclined to believe the prosecution than are excludable jurors. - They are significantly less knowledgeable and have more misconceptions about the death penalty and the death-sentencing process than do excludable jurors. - They are more likely to believe that the focus of the penalty phase of a bifurcated trial should be only on the nature of the crime rather than mitigation, and that the death penalty deters murder. - They are less likely to believe that innocent people are convicted of capital crimes, that the death penalty is unfair to minorities, and that life without parole really means that a prisoner will not be released from prison.
Which of the following is not a criticism of the use of victim-impact statements in capital trials?
- Victim-impact statements about pain and suffering cannot be refuted. - Victims may pretend to suffer more than they actually do. - Some victims may not be able to express their pain and suffering as well as other victims. - Victim-impact statements improperly refocus the death decision from the defendant and his or her crime to the character and reputation of the victim and the effect on his family.
Which of the following assumptions about deterrence theory is questionable or debatable, especially with regard to the death penalty?
- that more severe penalties are more deterrent than less severe penalties - that potential offenders exercise rational judgment in deciding whether to kill - that potential offenders are predictably sensitive to the actual range of variation in certainty of legal punishment for murder at the time of the decision to act - that potential offenders are predictably sensitive to the actual range of variation in severity of legal punishment for murder at the time of the decision to act
Which of the following developments in the practice of capital punishment has been the direct result of abolitionist efforts?
- the creation of degrees of murder, which distinguish between those murders heinous enough to warrant death and those murders that do not - the number of offenses warranting the death penalty has been reduced (until recently with the federal government) - executions have been hidden from public view - the annual number of executions has decreased (though that trend may be changing)
According to a 2002 Gallup Poll, what percent of respondents favored the death penalty for the mentally retarded who are convicted of capital crimes?
13
As of November 2010, approximately what percent of the 60 people under a federal death sentence were male?
97
The U.S. Supreme Court was the first federal court to declare the death penalty unconstitutional in violation of the 8th Amendment's prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
False
Which of the following groups is not exempted from the federal death penalty?
ALL are exempted: - pregnant women - persons less than 18 years of age at the time of the offense - mentally retarded persons - insane persons
Which of the following is not a part of the military's death penalty process?
ALL are part: - Members of the military court must unanimously find, beyond a reasonable doubt, at least one statutorily enumerated aggravating circumstance before it may consider a death sentence. - If at least one aggravating circumstance is found, then that aggravating circumstance (as well as any additional aggravating circumstances that are found) must be weighed against any mitigating circumstances that are presented at trial. - The presentation of any mitigating factor that is supported by evidence must be allowed. - If the members of the military court unanimously find that the aggravating circumstance or circumstances substantially outweigh any mitigating circumstances, then a death sentence may be imposed; however, if the mitigating circumstances are found to outweigh the aggravating circumstance or circumstances, then a death sentence may not be imposed.
According to a 2014 national opinion poll, what percent of respondents chose deterrence as a reason for supporting the death penalty?
About 6
Who is generally considered the "father of electrocution"?
Alfred P. Southwick
Which of the following states lists the fewest (5) mitigating circumstances in its death penalty statute?
Arizona
The U.S. government did not execute a woman between 1927 and 1963.
False
Who was the founder of the movement to abolish the death penalty in America?
Benjamin Rush
What standard of proof is generally required to establish an aggravating circumstance?
Beyond a reasonable doubt
In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court, for the first time, consider the constitutionality of the death penalty itself and not simply the procedures used to impose it?
Boykin v. Alabama
What was the subject of Winston v. United States, Strather v. United States, and Smith v. United States (1899), Aldridge v. United States (1931), Norris v. Alabama (1935), and Patton v. Mississippi (1948)?
Capital juries
What was the subject of United States v. Wilson (1833), Ex parte Wells (1855) and Biddle v. Perovich (1927)?
Clemency
The Supreme Court has held that the Food and Drug Administration is required to exercise its enforcement power to ensure that states only use drugs in lethal injections that are "safe and effective" for human execution.
False
Between about 1930 and 1972, which of the following execution methods was employed by the majority of states had the death penalty?
Electrocution
Which case dealt with the issue of the constitutionally military commissions?
Ex parte Milligan
What was the subject of In re Medley (1890), Rooney v. North Dakota (1905), and Malloy v. South Carolina (1915)?
Ex post facto
All federal capital crimes involve murder.
False
All of the United States' major allies have abolished the death penalty.
False
Appellate relief in death penalty cases may be provided for any error even when the government is able to prove that it is harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.
False
At the end of 2009, all states with capital punishment statutes provided for an automatic review of all death sentences, regardless of the defendant's wishes.
False
Currently, there are no people under a federal death sentence.
False
Eyewitnesses reported that the first person executed by electrocution died "instantaneously."
False
Founding Fathers Alexander Hamilton and James Madison strongly objected to the Supreme Court exercising judicial review.
False
Garland believes that a "positive symmetry" exists between lynching and the death penalty.
False
If a jury in a "weighing state" finds aggravating and mitigating factors of equal weight, it may not impose a death sentence.
False
In Payne v. Tennessee, the Supreme Court held that victim-impact statements are required in capital trials.
False
In Schriro v. Summerlin (2004), the Court ruled that Ring v. Arizona (2002) applied retroactively to cases already final on direct review.
False
In U.S. v. Jackson (1968), the Supreme Court upheld the provision in the federal kidnapping statute that required a jury recommendation to impose the death penalty.
False
In approving guided-discretion death penalty statutes, the Court apparently opted (if it ever considered the dilemma) for consistency in application over the consideration of individual circumstances.
False
Killings inside prisons are most often committed by convicted murderers.
False
Most police chiefs believe that the death penalty is an effective deterrent to violent crime.
False
Nearly 90% of the women executed in the United States were executed after 1866.
False
Professor Sellin found that the availability of capital punishment reduced the rate of police killings.
False
Solesbee v. Balkcom (1950) was one of two cases that challenged the constitutionality of capital punishment prior to 1968. What was the other case?
Louisiana ex rel. Francis v. Resweber
Approximately what percent of all executions conducted in the United States were carried out during this country's first two centuries?
Less than 10
Which of the following methods of execution currently is provided by the most jurisdictions?
Lethal Injection
Which of the following methods of execution has been used to execute the largest number of offenders under post-Furman statutes?
Lethal injection
Which of the following methods of execution is currently used by the federal government?
Lethal injection
With which of the following methods of execution did Baze v. Rees deal?
Lethal injection
Which of the following cases dealt with a botched electrocution?
Louisiana ex rel Francis v. Resweber
In what case and in what year was the U.S. Supreme Court's power of judicial review confirmed?
Marbury v. Madison (1803)
In which of the following Supreme Court cases did Justice Harlan write, "Those who have come to grips with the hard task of actually attempting to draft means of channeling capital sentencing discretion have confirmed the lesson taught by . . . history . . . . To identify before the fact those characteristics of criminal homicides and their perpetrators which call for the death penalty, and to express these characteristics in language which can be fairly understood and applied by the sentencing authority, appear to be tasks which are beyond present human ability"?
McGautha v. California
How many death row inmates since 1976 have voluntarily given up their appeals because they preferred death to LWOP?
More than 100
What was the last state to abandon electrocution as its primary method of execution?
Nebraska
Which of the following cases involved the so-called "Scottsboro boys"?
Powell v. Alabama
Which of the following was the first case to apply the 14th Amendment's due process clause to capital cases in state courts?
Powell v. Alabama
Aggravating circumstances differ widely in their significance; therefore, their content is more important than how many there are in determining the number of death-eligible offenses.
True
As a result of retrial or resentencing following appeal, the death sentence may be reimposed.
True
In which of the following years were there no legal executions for the first time in American history?
Not 1972 (Ch. 3) [1968?]
Which of the following is not a ground for appeal of a federal death sentence?
ONE of these: - The death sentence was imposed under the influence of passion, prejudice or any other arbitrary factor. - The admissible evidence and information adduced does not support the special finding of the existence of the required aggravating factor. - The proceedings involved a legal error requiring reversal, which was properly preserved for appeal under the rules of criminal procedure. - Finding two or more mitigating circumstances. (?)
Which of the following states was the first to authorize execution by lethal injection?
Oklahoma
In which of the following cases did the states absorb fundamental due process rights?
Palko v. Connecticut
Which of the following cities may be considered the birthplace of the American death penalty abolitionist effort?
Philadelphia
The case of Maxwell v. Bishop, among other things, contributed to the unofficial moratorium on executions. For which of the following offenses was Maxwell convicted?
Rape
In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court emphasize that "the limits of civilized standards . . . draws its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society."
Trop v. Dulles
Where and when was the first execution by lethal injection?
Texas, 1982
"Death qualification" refers to the common practice of excusing prospective jurors simply because they are opposed to capital punishment.
True
A federal court can save a prisoner from execution only if the state court decision against the prisoner was not only wrong but unreasonably wrong.
True
A principal reason why the state legislature that first adopted electrocution chose it as a method of execution instead of lethal injection was that doctors feared that people would associate death with the hypodermic needle and the practice of medicine.
True
A reason for using lethal injection as a method of execution is that persons executed by this method can donate all of their bodily organs for medical transplants.
True
A recent study suggests that states with the largest black populations and the most substantial inclinations to use lynching in the past now are more likely to impose the death penalty.
True
Abolitionists maintain that the important question is not whether capital punishment is the severest punishment, but rather what punishment should be the severest allowed by law.
True
According to Professor Bowers, executions may stimulate homicides by the psychology of suggestion or imitation.
True
According to philosopher Ernest Van den Haag, "Our penal system rests on the proposition that more severe penalties are more deterrent than less severe penalties." Therefore, argues Van den Haag, "The most severe penalty-the death penalty-would have the greatest deterrent effect."
True
According to the author of your textbook, the real issue about deterrence is not whether the death penalty deters potential murderers, but rather whether the death penalty deters potential murderers to a greater degree than alternative non-capital punishments such as life imprisonment.
True
The Supreme Court has held that even where a potential juror offers no objection to the death penalty and states clearly that he or she will follow the applicable law, it is not contrary to clearly established federal law to exclude the juror for cause under the Witherspoon-Witt "substantially impaired" standard.
True
The Supreme Court has held that failure to provide counsel in a capital case violates "due process" as required under the 14th Amendment.
True
The Supreme Court has held that failure to voir dire jury about racial bias in an interracial murder case creates an intolerable risk of discrimination.
True
The Supreme Court has held that judges and juries may find murderous intent in someone who participated in a crime that resulted in a death but who did not actually kill or plan to kill anyone.
True
The Supreme Court has held that state death penalty laws are constitutional even when statistics indicate that they have been applied in racially biased ways.
True
The Supreme Court has held that suggestion to sentencing jury that appellate court would correct an inappropriate death sentence creates an intolerable risk of unreliable sentencing.
True
The Supreme Court has held that the double jeopardy clause prevents imposition of a death sentence upon retrial when a jury had imposed life imprisonment at the first trial.
True
The Supreme Court has held that the freedom of prosecutors to use peremptory challenges to exclude minority jurors is limited.
True
The Supreme Court has held that the sentencer (judge or jury) may not refuse to consider any relevant mitigating circumstance in a capital trial, as long as it is supported by evidence.
True
The Supreme Court has never declared an execution method cruel and unusual punishment.
True
The Supreme Court is willing to allow psychiatric evidence predicting future dangerousness.
True
The Supreme Court opined that the "guided discretion" statutes would respect the defendant's basic human dignity, as required by the 8th Amendment, and prevent jury nullification-the practice of a jury's refusal to convict guilty defendants to avoid imposing unjust death sentences.
True
The U.S. Supreme Court only hears death penalty appeals from the high court of a state when claims under federal law or the Constitution are involved.
True
The U.S. Supreme Court only rules on cases in which the constitutionality of a state or federal death penalty statute is challenged, or a capital defendant claims that his or her constitutional rights were violated.
True
The United States has taken reservations to the death penalty abolition provisions of treaties that it has ratified or signed.
True
The crimes for which the death penalty was legally imposed varied among American colonies.
True
The electric chair is an American invention.
True
The electric chair is an unintended product of a corporate battle between the Westinghouse and Edison companies.
True
The federal death penalty law provides the right to appeal both the conviction and the death sentence.
True
The federal death penalty law requires a jury that recommends death to furnish the court with a certificate signed by each juror swearing that discrimination played no part in the decision and that the same sentencing recommendation would have been made regardless of the race, color, religious beliefs, national origin, or sex of the defendant or any victim.
True
The federal death penalty law requires authorization from the U.S. Attorney General before federal prosecutors can file capital charges.
True
The federal death penalty law requires federal judges in capital sentencing proceedings to instruct the jury that "in considering whether a sentence of death is justified, it shall not consider the race, color, religious beliefs, national origin, or sex of the defendant or of any victim."
True
The federal death penalty law requires the government to inform the defendant of its intention to seek death within a reasonable time before trial or before the court accepts a defendant's guilty plea.
True
The federal death penalty law requires the government, before trial or plea, to list the aggravating circumstances that it proposes to prove to justify a death sentence.
True
The federal death penalty law requires unanimity on the part of jurors in the finding of an aggravating circumstance.
True
The federal death penalty law restricts the federal government's ability to impose the death penalty on Native Americans.
True
The first woman executed in America was hanged for murdering and concealing the death of her child, who allegedly was fathered by a man who was not her husband.
True
The is no uniform policy for conducting lethal injections in all executing jurisdictions in the U.S.
True
The military's death penalty law does not allow a guilty plea to an offense for which the death penalty may be adjudged.
True
The military's death penalty law entitles capital defendants individual military counsel, preferably one with experience defending capital cases, or civilian counsel.
True
The military's death penalty law provides that convictions and death sentences may be appealed first to the particular branches' court of criminal appeals (e.g. the Army Court of Criminal Appeals); next to the United States Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; and, finally, to the United States Supreme Court.
True
The military's death penalty law requires that before arraignment, the prosecution must provide written notice to the defense of aggravating factors that the prosecution intends to prove.
True
Which of the following types of guided discretion statute is employed by Florida?
aggravating v. mitigating
Why did the Supreme Court declare the death penalty to be unconstitutional, as administered?
because juries were given complete discretion to decide whether to impose the death penalty or a lesser punishment in capital cases
Of what common practice was Professor Oberer critical in his 1961 University of Texas Law Review article?
death-qualifying jurors
Which of the following methods of execution was occasionally utilized in colonial America as late as the eighteenth century?
drawing and quartering
With which of the following methods of execution did In Re Kemmler deal?
electrocution
Why did southern states, at least at first, replace mandatory death penalty statutes with discretionary death penalty statutes?
to allow all-white juries to take race into account
From which of the following did the U.S. Supreme Court derive its appellate jurisdiction in death penalty cases?
its power of judicial review
Which of the following drugs are used in Ohio's 'Plan B' lethal injection protocol?
midazolam and hydromorphone
Which of the following is not a type of guided discretion statute?
mitigating v. structured
Which of the following does the Supreme Court consider cruel and unusual punishment?
not providing death row inmates adequate cleaning supplies and equipment so they may clean their cells at least weekly
What was the subject of Craemer v. Washington (1897), Robinson v. United States (1945), and Williams v. New York (1949)?
sentencing
