Capital punishment, more commonly known as the death penalty, was a legal form of punishment from 1620 to 1984 in Massachusetts, United States. This practice dates back to the state's earliest European settlers. Those sentenced to death were hanged. Common crimes punishable by death included religious affiliations and murder. [1]
Federal crimes committed in Massachusetts may still be subject to the death penalty, for example, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was originally sentenced to death by a federal court on May 15, 2015, for his role in the Boston Marathon bombing. [2]
The first recorded execution in Massachusetts was John Billington. He was executed by hanging on September 30, 1630, in Plymouth for murder of John Newcomen. [3]
In the colonial era, Massachusetts' first settlers were Puritans. They came to Massachusetts from England aboard the Mayflower looking for religious freedom. As more people from England came to Massachusetts, they brought new religions and beliefs that conflicted with those of the Puritans. These first settlers created laws prohibiting the practice of other religions that disagreed with Puritan beliefs. Many of these people, specifically Quakers, were hanged for their beliefs. Mary Dyer was one of the Boston Martyrs hanged for being a Quaker. [1] During the Salem witch trials (1692–1693), 19 individuals (14 women and 5 men) were executed for witchcraft by the colonial government. [4]
On August 23, 1927, Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed by electric chair at Charlestown State Prison for their conviction in the murder of a Correctional Officer and a paymaster during an armed robbery at the Slater and Morrill Shoe Company in Braintree on April 15, 1920.
Between 1788 and 1951, anyone convicted of first degree murder received the death penalty. [4]
The last executions in Massachusetts were gangsters Philip Bellino and Edward Gertson for the murder of Robert Williams, a former U.S. Marine. Their executions took place on May 9, 1947. The two were executed via electric chair at Charlestown State Prison. Their deaths led to an investigation of the effectiveness of the death penalty in Massachusetts. [1]
In 1980, in a freewheeling opinion quoting from various figures of the Western literary, historical, and philosophical canon (including Bacon, Aristotle, Dostoevsky, Kant, Shakespeare, Milton, Sartre, and Camus) the Supreme Judicial Court ruled 6-1 in Suffolk County District Attorney v. Watson that the death penalty statute violated Article 26 of the Massachusetts Constitution [5] [6] In 1982, Massachusetts voters effectively overturned Suffolk County District Attorney v. Watson by approving a legislatively referred constitutional amendment providing that no constitutional provision shall be construed as prohibiting the death penalty, with 60% of voters in favor. [7]
Nevertheless, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled 5-2 that the state capital punishment statute was unconstitutional in 1984 in Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Abimael Colon-Cruz as a violation of due process (Article 12 of the Massachusetts Constitution), because it allowed a death sentence only when the defendant had pleaded not guilty. [1] The General Court passed a statute to reinstate capital punishment in 1986 but it was vetoed by then-governor Michael Dukakis. The Massachusetts Catholic Conference was key in gathering the Senate votes necessary to sustain the veto. From 1984 to 2014, when the General Court removed the death penalty statute from the General Laws, the General Court failed to amend the death penalty
Since its abolition in 1984, capital punishment in Massachusetts has continued to stir debate. [8] Most recently, the Boston Marathon bombing reignited the debate about capital punishment in the state, as the perpetrator Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death (but not executed) by the U.S. Federal government. [9] However, the Massachusetts General Court has continuously opposed the death penalty. [9]
In 1997, an attempt by Republican Governor Paul Celluci to reinstate the death penalty was defeated by one vote in the General Court. In 2014, the General Court repealed the death penalty statute by a vote of 131-18 in the House and 35-4 in the Senate. [6] [10]
Following the homicide of a police officer in Yarmouth in April 2018 and a police sergeant in Weymouth in July 2018, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker stated that he supported making murder of police officers a capital crime. [11] [12]
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned practice of killing a person as a punishment for a crime, usually following an authorised, rule-governed process to conclude that the person is responsible for violating norms that warrant said punishment. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term capital refers to execution by beheading, but executions are carried out by many methods, including hanging, shooting, lethal injection, stoning, electrocution, and gassing.
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty throughout the country at the federal level, in 27 states, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 states have the ability to execute death sentences, with the other seven, as well as the federal government, being subject to different types of moratoriums.
Capital punishment is a legal punishment under the criminal justice system of the United States federal government. It is the most serious punishment that could be imposed under federal law. The serious crimes that warrant this punishment include treason, espionage, murder, large-scale drug trafficking, or attempted murder of a witness, juror, or court officer in certain cases.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Indiana. The last man executed in the state, excluding federal executions at Terre Haute, was the murderer Matthew Wrinkles in 2009.
The U.S. state of Washington enforced capital punishment until the state's capital punishment statute was declared null and void and abolished in practice by a state Supreme Court ruling on October 11, 2018. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional as applied due to racial bias however it did not render the wider institution of capital punishment unconstitutional and rather required the statute to be amended to eliminate racial biases. From 1904 to 2010, 78 people were executed by the state; the last was Cal Coburn Brown on September 10, 2010. In April 2023, Governor Jay Inslee signed SB5087 which formally abolished capital punishment in Washington State and removed provisions for capital punishment from state law.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Nebraska. In 2015, the state legislature voted to repeal the death penalty, overriding governor Pete Ricketts' veto. However, a petition drive secured enough signatures to suspend the repeal until a public vote. In the November 2016 general election, voters rejected the repeal measure, preserving capital punishment in the state. Nebraska currently has 12 inmates on death row.
Capital punishment is one of two possible penalties for aggravated murder in the U.S. state of Oregon, with it being required by the Constitution of Oregon.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of New Hampshire for persons convicted of capital murder prior to 30 May 2019, when it was abolished prospectively for future crimes.
Capital punishment in Malaysia is a legal penalty in Malaysian law.
Capital punishment in the state of Vermont ended in 1972 for all crimes due to Furman v. Georgia and has not been reinstated since. Vermont still has pre-Furman capital statutes on the books but these have been left unenforceable due to Furman. Most states changed their capital punishment laws to conform with Furman and Gregg v. Georgia, but the Vermont legislature has yet to do so, effectively abolishing the death penalty in the state. The state last executed a prisoner, Donald DeMag, in 1954, after he received the sentence for a double robbery-murder he committed after escaping prison.
The debate over capital punishment in the United States existed as early as the colonial period. As of April 2022, it remains a legal penalty within 28 states, the federal government, and military criminal justice systems. The states of Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, Virginia, and Washington abolished the death penalty within the last decade alone.
Capital punishment was outlawed in New York after the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state, declared the practice as currently practiced unconstitutional under the state's constitution in 2004. However certain crimes occurring in the state that fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government are subject to the federal death penalty.
Judy Clare Clarke is an American criminal defense attorney who has represented several high-profile defendants such as Ted Kaczynski, Eric Rudolph, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Joseph Edward Duncan, Zacarias Moussaoui, Jared Lee Loughner, Robert Gregory Bowers, Burford Furrow, Lisa Montgomery and Susan Smith.
The Boston Marathon bombing was a domestic terrorist attack that took place during the annual Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev planted two homemade pressure cooker bombs that detonated near the finish line of the race 14 seconds and 210 yards (190 m) apart. Three people were killed and hundreds injured, including 17 who lost limbs.
Dzhokhar Anzorovich Tsarnaev is an American terrorist of Chechen-Avar descent who was convicted of perpetrating the Boston Marathon bombing. Dzhokhar and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, planted pressure cooker bombs near the finish line of the race, killing three people and injuring 264 others.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia reintroduced the death penalty in 1973 after Furman v. Georgia ruled all states' death penalty statutes unconstitutional. The first execution to take place afterwards occurred in 1983.
David Isaac Bruck is a Canadian-American criminal defense attorney, clinical professor of law at Washington and Lee University School of Law, and director of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse. Bruck was raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He attended Harvard College and University of South Carolina School of Law. He has co-represented high profile defendants, including Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Dylann Roof, and Susan Smith.
The trial of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013, began on March 4, 2015, in front of the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, nearly two years after the pre-trial hearings. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's attorney, Judy Clarke, opened by telling the jurors that her client and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, planted a bomb killing three and injuring hundreds, as well as murdering an MIT police officer days later. In her 20-minute opening statement, Clarke said: "There's little that occurred the week of April the 15th ... that we dispute." Tsarnaev was found guilty on all 30 counts and has been sentenced to death by lethal injection for his crimes.
Capital punishment in Delaware was abolished after being declared unconstitutional by the Delaware Supreme Court on August 2, 2016. The ruling retroactively applies to earlier death sentences, and remaining Delaware death row inmates had their sentences commuted to life imprisonment. Despite this, the capital statute for first-degree murder under Title 11, Chapter 42, Section 09, of the Delaware Code has yet to be repealed, though it is unenforceable.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Kentucky.
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