Alabama Death Penalty Case Study

persecuted falsely, only that they lack the proper capacity to defend themselves. Some of the juries do not apply their professional sense but are guided by complicit biases that make them accuse some suspects just from their looks. The topic is worth studying to help in fighting the practice in the United States and other parts of the world.

Research methodology

This study employs qualitative approach and relies greatly on the available scholarly materials to ventilate the subject matter (Hood & Hoyle, 2015). The data presented are properly analyzed and well referenced according to the intellectual property standards. Just as pointed out herein, Alabama is used as a case study to represent the extent of the death penalty in the United States

Some of them include Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, Virginia South Carolina, and Tennessee among others. Alabama is leading with the highest per capita death penalty cases in the United States of America. Studies show that at times, Alabama imposes more death penalties compared to Texas, which has a five times more population than Alabama. According to the existing data, the first death penalty in Alabama was in 1812 where Eli Norman was charged with murder. From 1812 up to 1927, the method of execution was hanging. Between 1927 and 1972, the “Yellow Mama” (electric chair) was used as the primary execution method. However, in 1972, the Supreme Court stopped the death penalty in the United States in the case of Furman v. Georgia, but before long, in 1976, the law was passed by the majority states to reinstate the death penalty in the state in Gregg v. Georgia case. In 2002, Alabama electrocuted Lynda Lyon Block, who is considered the last person to be subjected to such kind of punishment involuntarily. Today, Alabama uses lethal injection as the execution

For instance, nine black boys were tried in Scottsboro for raping two white girls. Today, they are referred to as Scottsboro boys. All the eight juries who were involved in the matter sentenced the nine boys to capital penalty. However, the case was later heard I the U.S Supreme court in the case of Powell v. Alabama in 1932, which guaranteed the right counsel during a capital trial. Numerous retrials then followed that reduced the number from nine to one boy whose death sentence was far ahead reduced to life imprisonment. Another case involved Cornelius Singleton who was executed in November 1992. In 2007, a panel of white judges for murdering a white woman sentenced Darrel B. Grayson a black African American. Requests for DNA tests were denied, even if it would be effective to prove his innocence (Aronson & Cole, 2009). Another famous case was that of Holly Wood who was executed in September 2010, even if it was apparent that he had a mental disability. The law that an individual with a mental disability should be exempted from such capital punishment was not observed in his