This study is an examination of the use of capital punishment in the State of Indiana, from 1897 to the date the last execution in 1961. The biographies of each of the seventy-two men executed during that period are given in detail and pertinent facts derived from them are summarize in a series of tables. The information was obtained from the Data Processing Office of the Indiana State Prison, Michigan City, Indiana.The historical section surveys the many types of capital punishment used throughout the world, from ancient times up to the present. Included are descriptions of crucifixion, live burial, drawing and quatering, the use o the axe and guillotine, and many others. The gradual lessening of the cruelty in the methods of execution is al Pointed out.Since the Indiana criminal law traces its origin to the English common law, an historical study of criminal law as practiced in England is presented. This describes the gradual evolution from the right of personal vengeance to the assumption of the responsibility of capital punishment by the state. When English common law reached its highest development in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, nine crimes were subject to the death penalty. In 1788, when Indiana was still part of the Northwest Territory, only three of these called for the death penalty, namely: treason, murder and arson resulting in death. After Indiana became state in 1816, the number of crimes punishable by death was changed several times, but only three have been in effect the past hundred years. These are, murder in the first degree, treason and dueling. All of the seventy-two men there were no women) executed by the State of Indiana from 1897 to 1961 were found guilty of murder in the first degree.The conclusions reached by this study of capital punishment as executed in the State of Indiana concur with many other studies of the death penalty, including the landmark United States Supreme Court decision of June 29, 1972.In Indiana, as elsewhere in the United States, the death sentence has been inflicted in an arbitrary and prejudicial manner to a mere handful of actual murderers characterized by ignorance, poverty and often belonging to a minority group. The present warden of the Indiana State Prison stated that he personally can discern no actual difference in the character or characteristics of the men are imprisoned on Death Row from those who were given a life sentence or a lesser term for murder.The reluctance to inflict the death penalty is reflected in the diminishing number executed yearly in Indiana, from 1930 to 1916, just as in the national statistics. From a high of thirty-two executed in the decade of the 1930's, the number has gradually decreased through the years to a total of only one for the decade of 1951 to 1961, when the last execution took place in Indiana.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/176589 |
| Date | January 1975 |
| Creators | Haney, George William |
| Contributors | Hamilton, Herbert H. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vi, 170 leaves : ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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