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

Question 1

Which of the following methods of execution was occasionally utilized in colonial America as late as the 18th century?

A) flaying and impaling
B) boiling in oil
C) drawing and quartering
D) crucifixion
E) all of the above were occasionally used

Answer 1

C

Question 2

What was the significance of the "gibbet" in colonial America?

A) it was the legal punishment for "petit treason"
B) it was an "enhancement" to an execution
C) it was an early form of clemency
D) it went particularly well with gravy
E) none of the above

Answer 2

B

Question 3

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

A) it involves torture
B) it involves lingering death
C) it is inhuman and barbarous
D) it involves something more than the mere extinguishment of life
E) all of the above are conditions that constitute cruel and unusual punishments

Answer 3

E

Question 4

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court abandon its fixed or historical meaning of the concept of "cruel and unusual punishment" and created a new one?

A) Weems v. United States
B) Loving v. United States
C) Trop v. Dulles
D) Furman v. Georgia
E) none of the above

Question 5

In which of the following cases did the Supreme Court emphasize that "the limits of civilized standards . . . draws its meaning from the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society."

A) Weems v. United States
B) Loving v. United States
C) Trop v. Dulles
D) Furman v. Georgia
E) none of the above

Question 6

Which of the following does the Supreme Court consider cruel and unusual punishment?

A) long stays on death row
B) the execution of elderly death row inmates
C) the execution of infirm death row inmates
D) not providing death row inmates adequate cleaning supplies and equipment so they may clean their cells at least weekly
E) all of the above are considered cruel and unusual punishment

Question 7

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?

A) firing squad
B) hanging
C) pressing
D) burning
E) none of the above

Question 8

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

A) 10
B) 25
C) 50
D) 70
E) 85

Question 9

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

A) Dennis McGautha
B) Gary Gilmore
C) John Spinkelink
D) Tony Barefoot
E) William Maxwell

Question 10

What method was employed to execute the first American following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976?

A) firing squad
B) hanging
C) electrocution
D) lethal gas
E) lethal injection

Question 11

What were the last words uttered by the first American executed following the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976?

A) "That hurts"
B) "God, forgive me"
C) "Woe Nellie"
D) "Let's do it"
E) He didn't say anything

Question 12

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

A) Nebraska
B) Florida
C) New York
D) Georgia
E) none of the above

Question 13

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?

A) the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
B) the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
C) the Georgia Supreme Court
D) the U.S. Supreme Court
E) no court has ruled that electrocution violates the Eighth Amendment

Question 14

Which of the following states uses electrocution as the sole method of execution?

A) Florida
B) Nebraska
C) Alabama
D) South Carolina
E) no state uses electrocution as the sole method of execution

Question 15

Between about 1930 and 1972, which of the following execution methods was employed by the majority of states that executed?

A) firing squad
B) hanging
C) electrocution
D) lethal gas
E) none of the above

Question 16

Who is generally considered the "father of electrocution"?

A) Thomas Edison
B) George Westinghouse
C) Alfred P. Southwick
D) Joseph P. Kennedy
E) none of the above

Question 17

Which of the following states was the first to execute by electrocution?

A) Massachusetts
B) New York
C) Georgia
D) Florida
E) none of the above

Question 18

Who was and when did the first person die in the electric chair?

A) Robert Elliott in 1894
B) Nikola Tesla in 1900
C) Bruno Hauptmann in 1895
D) William Kemmler in 1890
E) none of the above

Question 19

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

A) California
B) North Carolina
C) New York
D) Oklahoma
E) none of the above

Question 20

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

A) Gee Jon in 1924
B) Emmet Boyle in 1919
C) Tom Barker in 1931
D) Ma Barker in 1936
E) none of the above

Question 21

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

A) Oklahoma
B) Texas
C) Louisiana
D) Arkansas
E) Florida

Question 22

Where and when was the first execution by lethal injection?

A) Oklahoma, 1977
B) Texas, 1982
C) Louisiana, 1980
D) Arkansas, 1981
E) Florida, 1979

Question 23

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

A) hanging
B) electrocution
C) lethal gas
D) lethal injection
E) none of the above

Question 24

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

A) hanging
B) electrocution
C) lethal gas
D) lethal injection
E) none of the above

Question 25

Death penalty "enhancements," along with burning the body, were especially terrifying to most colonial Americans and, thus, presumably effective deterrents to crime, because, according to Christian theology, if the integrity of a person's corpse has been violated and the corpse has not been properly buried, that person will be denied resurrection at the final judgment.

Question 26

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

Question 27

For approximately 120 years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the Supreme Court employed a fixed or historical meaning for the concept of "cruel and unusual punishment."

Question 28

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

Question 29

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

Question 30

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.

Question 31

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

Question 32

The electric chair is an American invention.

Question 33

The electric chair is an unintended product of a corporate battle between the Westinghouse and Edison companies.

Question 34

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.

Question 35

Eyewitnesses reported that the first person executed by electrocution died "instantaneously."

Question 36

Following the first execution by electrocution, experts on electricity, such as Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, publicly debated whether electrocution was so horrible that it should never have been invented.

Question 37

The Supreme Court has held that a second electrocution, conducted after first has failed to kill defendant, is in violation of 8th Amendment cruel and unusual punishment clause.

Question 38

Some states provide for more than one method of execution.

Question 39

Medical doctors, and especially anesthesiologists, are frequently opposed to lethal injection as an execution method because, among other things, no assurances can be given that the barbiturates will not wear off before death occurs, causing the condemned inmate to wake up and slowly suffocate to death.

Question 40

The laws in all death penalty states stipulate that the medical techniques used in lethal injection executions are not medical techniques, and the medical personnel who participate in them are not medical personnel for the purpose of executing prison inmates.

Question 41

The Supreme Court has held that the Food and Drug Administration is required to exercise its enforcement power to ensure that states only use drugs in lethal injections that are "safe and effective" for human execution.

Question 42

The Supreme Court currently has adopted a fixed or historical meaning of the "cruel and unusual punishments" clause.

Question 43

The is no uniform policy for conducting lethal injections in all executing jurisdictions in the US.

Question 44

Some states use lethal injections machines in their execution method.

Question 45

Which of the following drugs are used in Ohio's 'Plan B' lethal injection protocol?

A) Hydromorphone
B) Potassium Chloride
C) Midazolam
D) a & b only
E) a & c only

Question 46

Which of the following occurred during the execution of Clayton Lockett?

A) The phlebotomist tried and failed several times to find a vein
B) The doctor stuck a needle into Lockett's neck
C) The doctor stuck a needle into Lockett's groin
D) Lockett's began writhing on the gurney and after he was pronounced unconscious
E) All of the above

Question 47

In the case of Glossip v. Gross (2015) Justice Alito (writing for the majority) held that executions did not have to be painless.

Question 48

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.