Like Jesus Christ) beheadings in France, (Chop off a persons head usually with an axe) or the tar and feather method.( This is when boiling tar was poured on the convict and feathers that were thrown at him would stick. This was an extremely painful death needless to say) In America, we used such methods as Electrocution, the gas chamber, hangings, lethal injection, and firing squads. .
In the United States, beginning in 1967, executions were suspended to allow the Federal Courts to decide weather the death penalty was unconstitutional or not. In 1972 the Supreme Court ruled in Furman vs. Georgia the death penalty violated the rites of the person due to the "cruel and unusual punishment" law(the eighth amendment). But in 1976 the Supreme Court ruled in the case of Gregg vs. Georgia the ruled that it was not unconstitutional and resumed the death penalty in 1977. This also stated that the death penalty could only be issued after the conviction and a post conviction hearing. Even then it was up to the court to decide weather they should use the death penalty or sentence the convict to life in prison. After the conviction hearing and the death penalty has been chosen, the case automatically goes to the state appeals court. Also in 1977 the Supreme court stated that the death penalty in rape cases was excessive and inappropriate. Nowadays besides certain crimes such as treason, espionage, and sabotage(which the Supreme Court has yet to decide) murder is the only capital crime and therefore the only crime where you can be put to death.
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In the year 2000 eighty-five people were executed. Of them forty-nine were white, thirty-five were black, and one was an American Indian. Of these eighty-five people, eighty-three were men and two were women. Eighty of these executions were carried out by lethal injection, and five were done by electrocution. In the same year, thirty-seven states held 3,593 inmates that were sentenced to death.
