States began increasing their abolishment ideals in the mid-nineteenth century. Michigan was the first state to stop the death penalty except when it came to treason. Around the 1840’s, Rhode Island and Wisconsin, began abolishing the death penalty all together while others made it even harsher, especially to slaves and people of color. States really began the abolishment of the death penalty in the early 1900’s. By 1917, six states had gotten rid of it completely and three states decided to only use it after the act of treason or murder to a law enforcement official. Shortly after all of these states abolished the death penalty in 1917, World War I began for America and citizens were having trouble with class conflicts, so five of the six states that had just recently gotten rid of it, brought the death penalty back during the next three years. During this time, new methods of death had been created. Back in 1888, the electric chair was invented in New York and when 1924 came around, the idea of cyanide gas was introduced and used. The first attempt at using the gas was by putting it into a prison cell while an inmate was sleeping which was not successful so gas chambers were created. Between the 1920’s and 1940’s, the death penalty was being used and enforced more than ever. The largest number of executions in American history was during the 1930’s, averaging about 167 deaths per year. During 1972, the death penalty was actually suspended by the Supreme Court after a case was brought up about the arbitrariness of the death penalty which led to the fact that existing statutes, a written law passed by a legislative body, were no longer valid. The Court then allowed states to rewrite their own death penalty statutes to eliminate problems which led to the reinstating of the death penalty in 1976.
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