deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/). Laws about the death penalty varied from colony to colony. Little is known about the system of capital punishment in the colonial times due to the inadequate information kept at the time as well as lost documents. .
In the early part of the nineteenth century, many states lowered the number of executions they performed and built state penitentiaries to hold criminals. In 1834, Pennsylvania became the first state to stop public executions and move them into correctional facilities. In 1846, Michigan was the first state to put an end to the death penalty for all crimes except treason. (http://teacher.deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/). Later, Rhode Island and Wisconsin would get rid of the death penalty for all crimes. By the end of the century Venezuela, Portugal, Netherlands, Costa Rica, Brazil and Ecuador would also end the use of the capital punishment (http://www.amnestyusa.org/abolish). .
Although some U.S. states began abolishing the death penalty, most states continued to use the death penalty. During the Civil War, disagreement to the death penalty faded, because more attention was given to the anti-slavery movement and other war activities. After the war new ways of carrying out executions surfaced. The electric chair was instituted at the end of the century. New York built the first electric chair in 1888, and in 1890 executed William Kemmler. Soon after, other states implemented this way of execution (http://teacher.deathpenaltyinfo.msu.edu/).
From 1907 to 1917 six states completely banned the death penalty and three limited it to hardly ever committed crimes like treason and first degree murder of a law enforcement official. However, this change was brief. The United States had just entered World War I. As a result, five of the six states that banned the death penalty reinstated it by 1920 (Bedau, Pg.21). Cyanide gas was introduced in 1924 , as Nevada looked for a more humane way of executing the prisoners.
