The Death Penalty
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American Civil Liberties Union Briefing Paper Number 8
Since our nation's founding, the government -- colonial, federal and state --
has punished murder and, until recent years, rape with the ultimate sanction:
death. More than 13,000 people have been legally executed since colon ....
Middle of paper
.... in 1976, in _
Gregg v. Georgia_, the Court resuscitated the death penalty: It ruled that the
penalty "does not invariably violate the Constitution" if administered in a
manner designed to guard against arbitrariness and discrimination. Several
states promptly passed or reenacted capital punishment laws.
Thirty-seven states now have laws authorizing the death penalty, as does the
military. A dozen states in the Middle West and Northeast have abolished
capital punishment, two in the last ce ....
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Word count: 1980
Page count: 8 (approximately 250 words per page)
