Deck 13: The Death Penalty

Question 1

Which key Supreme Court decision found in 1972 that executions were being applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner and directed states to develop procedures to reduce the discretion of judges and juries in recommending the death penalty?

A) Jones v. Texas
B) Gregg v. Georgia
C) Roper v. Simmons
D) Furman v. Georgia

Answer 1

D

Question 2

Which key Supreme Court decision in 1976 reinstated the death penalty?

A) Jones v. Texas
B) Gregg v. Georgia
C) Roper v. Simmons
D) Furman v. Georgia

Answer 2

B

Question 3

Why does it take so long to carry out the execution once an offender has been sentenced?

A) It takes time to set up an execution.
B) This is the time offenders are given time to reflect and express remorse.
C) Liberal organizations obstruct the process in various ways.
D) Appellate court reviews are typically lengthy processes.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

What is a key factor that influences the decision to impose the death penalty?

A) The race of the offender
B) The race of the victim
C) The offender's economic status
D) The victim's economic status

Question 5

What is the most common method of execution?

A) Electrocution
B) Lethal gas
C) Lethal injection
D) Hanging

Question 6

Which key Supreme Court decision in 2002 reduced the number of defendants at risk for being executed and made it unlawful to execute offenders with developmental disabilities?

A) Baze v. Rees
B) Roper v. Simmons
C) Kennedy v. Louisiana
D) Atkins v. Virginia

Question 7

Which key Supreme Court decision in 2005 made it unlawful to execute persons under the age of 18 at the time of the offense?

A) Baze v. Rees
B) Roper v. Simmons
C) Kennedy v. Louisiana
D) Atkins v. Virginia

Question 8

What is the idea behind the brutalization effect?

A) Incarceration make inmates brutal.
B) Increase in legal executions drives up homicide.
C) Society is becoming increasingly more punitive and brutal.
D) The death penalty deters.

Question 9

What factors can influence public support for the death penalty in the future?

A) Decrease in the murder rate
B) Outrageous crimes or terrorist acts
C) Foreign wars
D) Police killings of African Americans

Question 10

Wisconsin stopped using the death penalty in 1853, and Hawaii has never carried out an execution since it became a state in 1959.

Question 11

In most states where capital punishment is still authorized, it occurs regularly.

Question 12

Texas, Oklahoma, and Virginia accounted for 73 percent of the 1,452 executions carried out between 1976 and the end of 2016.

Question 13

Timothy McVeigh was the first federal prisoner to be executed.

Question 14

There were actually a greater number of legal and extralegal barriers to executing an offender in the 1800s than there are today.

Question 15

The length of time inmates spend on death row prior to their execution has decreased in the past few decades.

Question 16

The death penalty was more likely to be imposed when the victim was an African-American woman.

Question 17

The American Board of Anesthesiologists has voted to sanction members participating in executions.

Question 18

Despite some wrongful convictions, many citizens still have much confidence in the ability of justice systems to impose the death penalty on the correct person.

Question 19

Public support for capital punishment has remained more or less constant since the 1930s.