NCJ Number
217378
Journal
Criminal Justice Studies: A Critical Journal of Crime, Law and Society Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: December 2006 Pages: 353-396
Date Published
December 2006
Length
44 pages
Annotation
This article reviews the main points of Frank E. Hartung's 1952 publication of "Trends in the Use of Capital Punishment" and assesses the extent to which the trends he identified some 50 years ago have continued.
Abstract
This article argues that Hartung's observations remain pertinent to current death-penalty research. Unfortunately, the most significant aspect of capital punishment that remains unchanged in the United States is its continued selective imposition on the poor and persons of color. Hartung described seven major trends in the use of capital punishment in the United States that suggested a movement away from its use. These trends were identified as an international and domestic movement toward eliminating capital punishment, reducing the number of capital offenses, the use of permissive rather than mandatory death sentences, a reduction in the number of executions, the selective enforcement of capital punishment against marginalized groups, the exclusion of public executions, and the use of swift and painless execution methods. In noting the trend toward the selective enforcement of capital punishment against marginalized groups, Hartung identified secondary trends that were not supportive of a movement away from the use of capital punishment. He discussed "the racial penalty," which involved a consistent pattern of the disproportionate execution of Black men for the rape of White women. He also mentioned the practice of "gendered-racism" in some jurisdictions. This involves the execution of Black women at a rate greater than that of White women. Hartung also discussed racial disparity in juvenile executions and the disproportionate imposition of the death penalty on the poor and less educated. 184 references and a list of 28 court cases