Exam 6: Cruel and Unusual Punishment, Death Row, and Methods of Execution

Which of the following methods of execution has been used to execute the largest number of offenders under post-Furman statutes?

As late as the 1960s, at the state prison in Walla Walla, Washington, a hanging resulted in the inmate's head nearly being torn off and witnesses to the execution being spattered with blood.

During the twentieth century, more people have been executed by electrocution than any other method.

What was the last state to abandon electrocution as its primary method of execution?

The Supreme Court has never declared an execution method cruel and unusual punishment.

Which of the following states was the first to execute by lethal gas?

Who and when was the first person executed legally by lethal gas?

Who was the first American executed following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976?

A principal reason why the state legislature that first adopted electrocution chose it as a method of execution instead of lethal injection was that doctors feared that people would associate death with the hypodermic needle and the practice of medicine.

The first reference to a government's proscription of "cruel and unusual punishments" is the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

With the long drop, most of the botched hangings resulted in slow and painful strangulation.

In the case of Glossip v. Gross (2015) Justice Breyer (writing in the dissent) held that it is highly likely the death penalty violates the 8^th Amendment.

What appellate court in the United States was the first to rule that electrocution violated the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment?

Which of the following methods of execution currently is provided by the most jurisdictions?

Where and when was the first execution by lethal injection?

Under which of the following conditions is a punishment considered "cruel and unusual"?

Which of the following states was the first to authorize execution by lethal injection?

What percent of all executions performed in the United States since colonial days have been by hanging?

Some states use lethal injections machines in their execution method.

Except when executing spies, traitors, and deserters, what was the sole acceptable mode of execution in the United States for a century after the adoption of the Eighth Amendment?