Table Of Content

A N A M E R I C A N H I S T O R Y STUART BANNER HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England INTRODUCTION Copyright © 2002 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America First Harvard University Press paperback edition, 2003 Third printing, 2003 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Banner, Stuart, 1963– The death penalty : an American history / Stuart Banner. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-674-00751-4 (cloth) ISBN 0-674-01083-3 (pbk.) 1. Capital punishment—United States—History. 2. Capital punishment—Moral and ethical aspects—United States. 3. United States—Social conditions. I. Title. HV8699.U5 B367 2002 364.66′0973—dc21 2001047047 For Tamara:donec gratus sum tibi, Persarum vivo rege laetior Abbreviations ix Introduction 1 1. Terror, Blood, and Repentance 5 2. Hanging Day 24 3. Degrees of Death 53 4. The Origins of Opposition 88 5. Northern Reform, Southern Retention 112 6. Into the Jail Yard 144 7. Technological Cures 169 8. Decline 208 9. To the Supreme Court 231 10. Resurrection 267 Epilogue 307 Appendix: Counting Executions 313 Notes 315 Acknowledgments 371 Index 373 AAS American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass. CHS Chicago Historical Society, Chicago, Ill. CTA Connecticut State Archives, Hartford, Conn. CTL Connecticut State Library, Hartford, Conn. FDR Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y. GAA Georgia Department of Archives and History, Atlanta, Ga. ILA Illinois State Archives, Springªeld, Ill. JC Jimmy Carter Library, Atlanta, Ga. LC Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. LFP Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Archives, Washington and Lee University School of Law, Lexington, Va. MAA Massachusetts Archives, Boston, Mass. MDA Maryland State Archives, Annapolis, Md. MOA Missouri State Archives, Jefferson City, Mo. NA National Archives, College Park, Md. NCA North Carolina State Archives, Raleigh, N.C. NYA New York State Archives, Albany, N.Y. NYDT New-York Daily Tribune NYHS New-York Historical Society, New York, N.Y. NYL New York State Library, Albany, N.Y. NYT New York Times PAA Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, Pa. PG Pennsylvania Gazette SCA South Carolina Archives & History Center, Columbia, S.C. TXA Texas State Archives, Austin, Tex. VAA Library of Virginia, Richmond, Va. VG Virginia Gazette

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The death penalty arouses our passions as does few other issues. Some view taking another person's life as just and reasonable punishment while others see it as an inhumane and barbaric act. But the intensity of feeling that capital punishment provokes often obscures its long and varied history in t