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1983 Cap. Punishment 1 (1983)

handle is hein.death/cpshm1983 and id is 1 raw text is: US. Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics Capital Punishment 1983 Five persons were executed during 1983, bringing to 11 the total executed since the reinstatement of~capital pun- ishment in 1972 (figure I This in- crease in the pace of executions came as many inmates on death row neared the end of a series of appeals and as the courts became increasingly reluctant to sanction a lengthy appeals process in capital punishment cases. The execations that took place during 1983 brought to 3,870 the total conducted under civil authority in the United States since natiiqnal reporting began in 1930 (figure 2)X' After 1967. an unofficial moratorium on executions prevailed as legal challenges to the death penalty were pressed at various court levels. There were no executions until 1977, when one occurred, Two more followed in 1979, one in 1981, and two in 1982. Two-fifths of all execui- tions since 1930 have taken place in five States, each with over 2010 execu- tions (figure 3). Capital punishment in the courts The number of success ful challenges to the constitutionality of capital pun- ishment laws has dropped off sharply in the past several years as guidelines set down in U. S. Supreme Court cases dur- ing the 1970's became incorporated into State capital punishment laws. hr the 1972 decision in Furman v. Georgia, the Supreme Court for the first tine struck down a State capital punishment law as unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment. Five justices, in as many opinions, found the Georgia capital punishment law objectionable for a number of reasons, most of which were IAs of June20, 1984,1 o mo pr'ons lbd ben ex euted, brrign bre newttito 0 n ce 1 977. 2Lr addition to those executed under civii autihority, 160 persons hawe been executed urder mitary authority since 1930. related to the arbitrary application of the death sentence. Many States re- sponded by adopting new laws designed to answer the Court's objections. In 1976, in five cases considered together, the Court addressed these new laws and attempted to clarify its decision in IFurman, In Woodson v, North Carolina and Roberts v, Louisi,- ana,a the Court struck down as unconsti- tutional State laws that eliminated all discretion from the sentencing process by imposing a mandatory death penalty for specific crimes, However, in 2xe v. Geri, Jurek! v, T1exas, and Proffitt v, .Florida, the Court upheld laws that provided guidelines to assist the sen- tencing authority in exercising the re- quired discretion as it considers aggra- Figure 1 July 1984 Data on persons under sentence of death are collected annually for the Bureau of Justice Statistics as part of the National Prisoner Statistics (NPS) program. Data are obtained from~ the departments of corrections in each of the 50 States and the District of Columbia. The Bureau of ,Justice Statistics gratefully acknow- ledges the cooperation of State officials whose generous assistance and unfailing patience make National Prisoner Statistics possible. Steven R, Schlesinger Director StatUs of death penalty as of 12/31/83 and 1983 executions

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