More than 13,000 people have been legally executed since colonial times, most of them in the early 20th Century. By the 1930s, as many as 150 people were executed each year. However, public outrage and legal challenges caused the practice to come to a halt. By 1967, capital punishment had virtually halted in the United States, pending the outcome of several court challenges. Since our nation's founding, the government, colonial, federal and state, has punished murder and, until recent years,.
Rape with the ultimate sanction: death.
On Thur April 8th 2004 I got a change to witness a play called "The Exonerated" at the State Theater down town Minneapolis. The Play is about 6 monologues from different actors that place true stories together in different intervals. Honestly to hear the word Play it wasn't what I expected. It wasn't much action or many scenes to see. It was like the author left it up to you to draw a picture. Maybe it was because he didn't want six different stages or it may have take to much time. Either I"m not sure I did enjoy myself only I did wish it was more theater than imagination.
The stage places together the stories of six "convicted" death row inmates who did time for what seemed to be someone else's crime. What I seen was crime that was blamed purely on hatred and ignorance. The term capital does not represent or signify any ideas in the Negative aspect. Capital is defined as first or foremost; first rate or Excellent. Punishment, on the other hand, is defined as the rough handling or penalization for a wrong doing. Neither of these terms, when mentioned individually signifies anything in the negative aspect. Although, when these terms are combined we forget that there are lot more meaning to them than just excellent or penalization. These now strictly signify death. More than 2,000 people are on "death row" today. Virtually all are poor, a significant number are mentally retarded or otherwise mentally disabled, more than 40 percent are African American, and an inappropriate number are Native American, Latino and Asian.