“CAPITAL PUNISHMENT”

The death penalty is the harshest form of punishment enforced in the United States of America today.
a. Each year there are about 250 people added to death row and 35 executed.
b. In January 2000, the Florida Legislature passed legislation that allows lethal injection as an alternative method of execution in Florida. Florida administers executions by lethal injection or electric chair at the execution chamber located at Florida State Prison.
c. The three-legged electric chair was constructed from oak by Department of Corrections personnel in 1998 and was installed at Florida State Prison (FSP) in Starke in 1999. The previous chair was made by inmates from oak in 1923 after the Florida Legislature designated electrocution as the official mode of execution. (Prior to that, executions were carried out by counties, usually by hanging).

Frank Johnson was the first inmate executed in Florida’s electric chair on October 7, 1924. In 1929 and from May 1964 to May 1979 there were no executions in Florida.
a. The executioner is a private citizen who is paid $150 per execution. State law allows for his or her identity to remain anonymous.
b. A death row cell is 6x9x9.5 feet high. Florida State Prison also has Death Watch cells to incarcerate inmates awaiting execution after the Governor signs a death warrant for them. A Death Watch Cell is 12x7x8.5 feet high.
c. Men on death row are housed at Florida State Prison in Starke, Florida and Union Correctional Institution in Raiford, Florida. Women on death row are housed at Lowell Correctional Institution Annex in Lowell, Florida.
d. The inmates may shower every other day.
e. It costs approximately $72.39 per day to incarcerate a Death Row inmate.

There are no Juveniles on Death Row. Death Row inmates younger than 16 at the time of their offense were adjudicated as adults in court proceedings.
a. Two oldest Death Row inmates are John Vining- d.o.b.: 3/13/31, sentenced from Orange County in 1990. William Cruse, Jr.- d.o.b.: 11/21/27, sentenced from Brevard County in 1989.
b. Two youngest male Death Row inmates: Randy Schoenwetter- d.o.b.: 10/27/81, sentenced from Brevard County in 2004. Thomas E. Bevel- d.o.b.: 6/20/81, sentenced from Duval County in 2005.
c. Oldest inmate executed: Charlie Grifford- age 72, executed on 2/21/51.
d. Youngest inmates executed (both 16 years old): Willie Clay-sentenced from Duval County, executed 12/29/41. James Davis-sentenced from Alachua County, executed 10/9/44.
e. John Spenkelink was the first inmate to be executed in Florida after reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. He was executed on 5/25/79.
f. Inmate who has been on Death Row the longest: Gary E. Alvord- received on Death Row 4/1174; date of offense: 6/17/73. Alvord was sentenced from Hillsborough County.

Capital punishment is a difficult issue and there are as many different opinions as there are people. My opinion is that it’s “just plain wrong”.

REFERENCES

· www.cwrl.utexas.edu
· www.soci.niu.edu
· www.dc,state.fl.us;
· www.prodeathpenalty.com
· www.crimemagazine.com