Deck 1: The Death Penalty: Past and Present

Question 1

Which of the following were crimes punishable by death in Colonial America?

A) Murder
B) Adultery
C) Blasphemy
D) All of the above

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which of the following was NOT punishable by death in Colonial America?

A) Witchcraft
B) Adultery
C) Sodomy
D) Bestiality

Answer 2

C

Question 3

What did Cesare Becarria believe?

A) That punishment should be proportionate to the crime committed
B) That the government derived authority from the people
C) That humans were shaped by the spiritual world
D) None of the above

Answer 3

A

Question 4

Who articulated the notion of sensationalism?

A) Thomas Jefferson
B) John Locke
C) Benjamin Rush
D) Cesare Becarria

Question 5

Thomas Jefferson advocated abolishing the death penalty for all crimes except for what two crimes?

A) Murder and blasphemy
B) Manslaughter and treason
C) Murder and treason
D) Adultery and manslaughter

Question 6

What method of execution is the easiest and most inexpensive?

A) Lethal Injection
B) Hanging
C) Electric chair
D) Firing squad

Question 7

What Supreme Court case used the firing squad as the method of execution?

A) Ford v. Wainwright
B) Roper v. Simmons
C) In re Kemmler
D) Wilkerson v. Utah

Question 8

In In re Kemmler, what Amendment was used to uphold the constitutionality of using the electric chair as the method of execution?

A) 14^th Amendment
B) 8^th Amendment
C) 5^th Amendment
D) 4^th Amendment

Question 9

What three drugs are used in the method of execution by lethal injection?

A) Potassium chloride, Vicodin, and bromide
B) An anesthetic, pancuronium bromide, and potassium chloride
C) Bromide, chloride, and water
D) Anesthetic, chloride, and Vicodin

Question 10

What paralytic agent is used to prevent involuntary muscle movement when lethal injection is the method of execution?

A) An anesthetic
B) Potassium chloride
C) Pancuronium bromide
D) None of the above

Question 11

Justice Stevens voiced that _________served no "therapeutic purpose" and masked the actual pain suffered by inmates.

A) Potassium chloride
B) Pancuronium bromide
C) Both a and b
D) None of the above

Question 12

What Amendment states that cruel and unusual punishments may not be inflicted upon a person?

A) 8^th Amendment
B) 5^th Amendment
C) 14^th Amendment
D) None of the above

Question 13

The first true movement to abolish the death penalty was led by __________.

A) Cesare Becarria
B) John Locke
C) Thomas Jefferson
D) Benjamin Rush

Question 14

_______ argued in favor of creating a penal institution to incarcerate offenders and allow the offenders the opportunity to reform in penance.

A) John Jackson
B) Benjamin Franklin
C) John Locke
D) Benjamin Rush

Question 15

What four states were responsible for more than three-quarters of the executions in the United States?

A) Oklahoma, California, Illinois, and Texas
B) Mississippi, Texas, Virginia, and Massachusetts
C) Texas, Mississippi, Arizona, and Oklahoma
D) None of the above

Question 16

The first recorded execution in American occurred in 1608.

Question 17

During the Colonial Period, the death penalty was justified on religious grounds.

Question 18

Thomas Jefferson advocated abolishing the death penalty for all crimes except for murder and adultery.

Question 19

Tennessee was the first state to end mandatory death penalty sentences and was the first to allow a jury the option of the death penalty.

Question 20

According to the text, the third significant change in the death penalty was the introduction of statutes that distinguished first-degree murder from second-degree murder.

Question 21

According to the text, there were seven significant changes in the death penalty that impacted state decisions drastically.

Question 22

The 8^th Amendment was not applicable to the death penalty until 1962.

Question 23

Pancuronium bromide is the injection that stops the inmate's heart.

Question 24

Prior to 1972, the constitutionality of the death penalty was never an issue.

Question 25

The Court relies on the language of the 8^th Amendment to protect inmates from harmful actions.

Question 26

Due partly to growing awareness of errors and wrongful convictions in capital cases, the use of the death penalty is decreasing.

Question 27

The use of a firing squad remains as an acceptable form of execution.

Question 28

Due to Furman v. Georgia (1972), there was a period between 1972 and 1976 during which the Bill of Rights had not been found to prohibit the practice of offenders being found guilty in capital offenses.

Question 29

Thomas Jefferson and Cesare Becarria were philosophers who impacted the Enlightenment period.

Question 30

According to the text, there were four significant changes to the death penalty. For instance, the first change was distinguishing between first-degree and second-degree murder, and a second change of discontinuing public executions.