Capital punishment in Rhode Island
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Rhode Island is the one of the earliest U.S. States to abolish capital punishment. The death penalty was later reintroduced, but it never came into effect.
Rhode Island performed 52 executions from 1673 to February 13, 1845. Only seven of them took place after statehood. Half of the all the executions occurred on July 19, 1723 when 26 sailors were hanged for piracy. Rhode Island has never executed a female[1].
Hanging was a legal method and the most commonly used form of execution; however five executions were carried out by an unknown method[2].
Abolition was first proposed on January 1838 but it was not abolished until February 11, 1852[3].
However, the death penalty was reinstated in 1872 for a murder committed while under sentence of life imprisonment[4], but no one was executed.
On June 26, 1973 Rhode Island General Assembly provided for the penalty of death by lethal gas for murders committed by persons while under confinement in the state correctional institutions[5]. But the Rhode Island Supreme Court issued the opinion that the mandatory death sentence provisions of 1973 Chapter 280 (RI General Laws 11-23-2) violated the cruel and unusual punishment prohibitions of the 8th amendment to the U.S. Constitution[6].
Finally, on May 9, 1984, the General Assembly enacted Public Law Chapter 221, which removed the mandatory death sentence language from RI General Law section 11-23-2. There have been many pieces of legislation introduced since 1984 to reinstate the death penalty for specific crimes, but nothing has been passed into law[7].
[edit] Summary
| Date | Method | Name | Offense | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date capital punishment was legally abolished | 1852-02-11 | |||
| Date capital punishment was reinstated | 1872 | |||
| Date capital punishment was legally abolished (2d time) | 1984-05-09 | |||
| Legal methods of execution | 1673–1852; 1872–1984 | hanging (47) | ||
| 1973–1984 | gas chamber (0) | |||
| First legal execution | 1673 | unknown | Punnean | unknown |
| Most recent legal execution | 1845-02-13 | hanging | John Gordon | murder |
[edit] References
- ^ Regional Studies Northeast
- ^ Regional Studies Northeast
- ^ http://www.sec.state.ri.us/library/riinfo/abolishing-of-the-death-penalty-in-rhode-island
- ^ http://www.sec.state.ri.us/library/riinfo/abolishing-of-the-death-penalty-in-rhode-island
- ^ http://www.sec.state.ri.us/library/riinfo/abolishing-of-the-death-penalty-in-rhode-island
- ^ http://www.sec.state.ri.us/library/riinfo/abolishing-of-the-death-penalty-in-rhode-island
- ^ http://www.sec.state.ri.us/library/riinfo/abolishing-of-the-death-penalty-in-rhode-island
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