Capital_punishment_in_the_United_States

context: If a defendant is sentenced to death at the trial level, the case then goes into a direct review. The direct review process is a typical legal appeal. An appellate court examines the record of evidence presented in the trial court and the law that the lower court applied and decides whether the decision was legally sound or not. Direct review of a capital sentencing hearing will result in one of three outcomes. If the appellate court finds that no significant legal errors occurred in the capital sentencing hearing, the appellate court will affirm the judgment, or let the sentence stand. If the appellate court finds that significant legal errors did occur, then it will reverse the judgment, or nullify the sentence and order a new capital sentencing hearing. Lastly, if the appellate court finds that no reasonable juror could find the defendant eligible for the death penalty, a rarity, then it will order the defendant acquitted, or not guilty, of the crime for which he/she was given the death penalty, and order him sentenced to the next most severe punishment for which the offense is eligible. About 60 percent survive the process of direct review intact.
qas: answers: direct review
question: What process begins after a death sentence is handed down at trial?

answers: appellate
question: In a direct review, what type of court looks at the record?

answers: three
question: How many possible outcomes are there of a capital sentencing direct review?

answers: trial
question: In a direct review, what court has its record reviewed by the appellate court?

answers: 60
question: What percentage of convictions survive direct review?

context: Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, a state prisoner is ordinarily only allowed one suit for habeas corpus in federal court. If the federal courts refuse to issue a writ of habeas corpus, an execution date may be set. In recent times, however, prisoners have postponed execution through a final round of federal litigation using the Civil Rights Act of 1871 — codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1983 — which allows people to bring lawsuits against state actors to protect their federal constitutional and statutory rights.
qas: answers: 1996
question: In what year was the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act passed?

answers: one
question: How many habeas corpus suits does the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act normally allow in federal court?

answers: 42 U.S.C. § 1983
question: What is the US Code citation for the Civil Rights Act of 1871?

answers: to protect their federal constitutional and statutory rights
question: Why does a litigant initiate a lawsuit under the Civil Rights Act of 1871?

context: The moratorium ended on January 17, 1977 with the shooting of Gary Gilmore by firing squad in Utah. The first use of the electric chair after the moratorium was the electrocution of John Spenkelink in Florida on May 25, 1979. The first use of the gas chamber after the moratorium was the gassing of Jesse Bishop in Nevada on October 22, 1979. The first use of the gallows after the moratorium was the hanging of Westley Allan Dodd in Washington on January 5, 1993. The first use of lethal injection was on December 7, 1982, when Charles Brooks, Jr., was executed in Texas.
qas: answers: Gary Gilmore
question: Who was executed by firing squad on January 17, 1977?

answers: Utah
question: In what state was Gary Gilmore executed?

answers: May 25, 1979
question: On what date was John Spenkelink executed?

answers: Nevada
question: In what state did Jesse Bishop's execution occur?

answers: lethal injection
question: How was Charles Brooks, Jr. executed?

context: Electrocution was the preferred method of execution during the 20th century. Electric chairs have commonly been nicknamed Old Sparky; however, Alabama's electric chair became known as the "Yellow Mama" due to its unique color. Some, particularly in Florida, were noted for malfunctions, which caused discussion of their cruelty and resulted in a shift to lethal injection as the preferred method of execution. Although lethal injection dominates as a method of execution, some states allow prisoners on death row to choose the method used to execute them.
qas: answers: Old Sparky
question: What was a common nickname for the electric chair?

answers: Yellow
question: What color was Alabama's electric chair?

answers: Florida
question: What state notably had electric chair malfunctions?

answers: lethal injection
question: Due to electric chair malfunctions, what method of execution became preferred?

answers: Electrocution
question: Prior to the popularity of lethal injection, what was the preferred method of executing criminals in America?

context: Other states with long histories of no death penalty include Wisconsin (the only state with only one execution), Rhode Island (although later reintroduced, it was unused and abolished again), Maine, North Dakota, Minnesota, West Virginia, Iowa, and Vermont. The District of Columbia has also abolished the death penalty; it was last used in 1957. Oregon abolished the death penalty through an overwhelming majority in a 1964 public referendum but reinstated it in a 1984 joint death penalty/life imprisonment referendum by an even higher margin after a similar 1978 referendum succeeded but was not implemented due to judicial rulings.
qas: answers: Wisconsin
question: What state has had only a single execution?

answers: 1957
question: When was the last person executed in the District of Columbia?

answers: 1984
question: When did Oregon reinstate the death penalty?

answers: 1978
question: In what year did an Oregon referendum succeed in restoring the death penalty, only to be shot down due to a court ruling?

answers: Rhode Island
question: What state notably abolished the death penalty and then reintroduced it, but didn't use it again?

context: Within the context of the overall murder rate, the death penalty cannot be said to be widely or routinely used in the United States; in recent years the average has been about one execution for about every 700 murders committed, or 1 execution for about every 325 murder convictions. However, 32 of the 50 states still execute people. Among them, Alabama has the highest per capita rate of death sentences. This is due to judges overriding life imprisonment sentences and imposing the death penalty. No other states allow this.
qas: answers: 700
question: In the United States, how many murders are there for each execution?

answers: 325
question: How many murder convictions occur in the US per execution?

answers: 32
question: How many states in the US have the death penalty?

answers: Alabama
question: What state has the highest rate of death sentences per person?

answers: overriding life imprisonment sentences and imposing the death penalty
question: What does Alabama law allow judges to do that isn't allowed in other states?

context: Puerto Rico's constitution expressly forbids capital punishment, stating "The death penalty shall not exist", setting it apart from all U.S. states and territories other than Michigan, which also has a constitutional prohibition (eleven other states and the District of Columbia have abolished capital punishment through statutory law). However, capital punishment is still applicable to offenses committed in Puerto Rico, if they fall under the jurisdiction of the federal government, though federal death penalty prosecutions there have generated significant controversy.
qas: answers: Puerto Rico's
question: What territory's constitution says "The death penalty shall not exist"?

answers: Michigan
question: What US state prohibits the death penalty in its constitution?

answers: eleven
question: How many US states have passed laws outlawing the death penalty?

answers: federal
question: Under what jurisdiction can capital offenses still be committed in Puerto Rico?

context: Capital punishment was suspended in the United States from 1972 through 1976 primarily as a result of the Supreme Court's decision in Furman v. Georgia. The last pre-Furman execution was that of Luis Monge on June 2, 1967. In this case, the court found that the death penalty was being imposed in an unconstitutional manner, on the grounds of cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court has never ruled the death penalty to be per se unconstitutional.
qas: answers: 1972
question: In what year was the death penalty suspended in the US?

answers: Furman v. Georgia
question: What Supreme Court case resulted in capital punishment being suspended?

answers: Luis Monge
question: Who was executed on June 2, 1967?

answers: Eighth
question: What amendment to the United States Constitution forbids cruel and unusual punishment?

answers: 1976
question: In what year was the suspension of the death penalty in the United States ended?

context: Present-day statutes from across the nation use the same words and phrases, requiring modern executions to take place within a wall or enclosure to exclude public view. Connecticut General Statute § 54–100 requires death sentences to be conducted in an "enclosure" which "shall be so constructed as to exclude public view." Kentucky Revised Statute 431.220 and Missouri Revised Statute § 546.730 contain substantially identical language. New Mexico's former death penalty, since repealed, see N.M. Stat. § 31-14-12, required executions be conducted in a "room or place enclosed from public view." Similarly, a dormant Massachusetts law, see Mass. Gen. Law ch. 279 § 60, required executions to take place "within an enclosure or building." North Carolina General Statute § 15-188 requires death sentences to be executed "within the walls" of the penitentiary, as do Oklahoma Statute Title 22 § 1015 and Montana Code § 46-19-103. Ohio Revised Code § 2949.22 requires that "[t]he enclosure shall exclude public view." Similarly, Tennessee Code § 40-23-116 requires "an enclosure" for "strict seclusion and privacy." United States Code Title 18 § 3596 and the Code of Federal Regulations 28 CFR 26.4 limit the witnesses permitted at federal executions.
qas: answers: Connecticut
question: What state's law says that death sentences must take place in an "enclosure"?

answers: North Carolina
question: What state's law requires that capital punishment occur "within the walls" of a penitentiary?

answers: Kentucky Revised Statute 431.220
question: What law has similar language to Missouri Revised Statute § 546.730?

answers: Code of Federal Regulations 28 CFR 26.4
question: Along with United States Code Title 18 § 3596, what federal law limits the people who can witness a federal execution?

answers: New Mexico's
question: What state's law mandated that executions occur in ""room or place enclosed from public view"?

context: In 1976, contemporaneously with Woodson and Roberts, the Court decided Gregg v. Georgia and upheld a procedure in which the trial of capital crimes was bifurcated into guilt-innocence and sentencing phases. At the first proceeding, the jury decides the defendant's guilt; if the defendant is innocent or otherwise not convicted of first-degree murder, the death penalty will not be imposed. At the second hearing, the jury determines whether certain statutory aggravating factors exist, whether any mitigating factors exist, and, in many jurisdictions, weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors in assessing the ultimate penalty – either death or life in prison, either with or without parole.
qas: answers: 1976
question: In what year was Gregg v. Georgia decided?

answers: sentencing
question: Along with the guilt-innocence phase, what is the other phase of a death penalty trial under Gregg v. Georgia?

answers: first-degree murder
question: What is the only conviction that can lead to the death penalty?

answers: mitigating
question: Along with aggravating factors, what other factors are considered at the second hearing?

answers: the defendant's guilt
question: What is decided at the first proceeding?

context: Possibly in part due to expedited federal habeas corpus procedures embodied in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, the pace of executions picked up, reaching a peak of 98 in 1999 and then they declined gradually to 28 in 2015. Since the death penalty was reauthorized in 1976, 1,411 people have been executed, almost exclusively by the states, with most occurring after 1990. Texas has accounted for over one-third of modern executions (although only two death sentences were imposed in Texas during 2015, with the courts preferring to issue sentences of life without parole instead) and over four times as many as Oklahoma, the state with the second-highest number. California has the greatest number of prisoners on death row, has issued the highest number of death sentences but has held relatively few executions.
qas: answers: 98
question: How many executions occurred in 1999?

answers: 28
question: What was the number of people executed in 2015?

answers: 1976
question: In what year did the reauthorization of capital punishment occur?

answers: 1,411
question: How many people have been executed in the United States since 1976?

answers: California
question: Which state has the largest number of people awaiting execution?

context: As of November 2008, there is only one person on death row facing capital punishment who has not been convicted of murder. Demarcus Sears remains under a death sentence in Georgia for the crime of "kidnapping with bodily injury." Sears was convicted in 1986 for the kidnapping and bodily injury of victim Gloria Ann Wilbur. Wilbur was kidnapped and beaten in Georgia, raped in Tennessee, and murdered in Kentucky. Sears was never charged with the murder of Wilbur in Kentucky, but was sentenced to death by a jury in Georgia for "kidnapping with bodily injury."
qas: answers: Demarcus Sears
question: In November 2008, who was on death penalty without a murder conviction?

answers: Gloria Ann Wilbur
question: Who did Demarcus Sears kidnap?

answers: Kentucky
question: In what state was Gloria Ann Wilbur murdered?

answers: 1986
question: In what year was Demarcus Sears convicted of kidnapping?

answers: Georgia
question: A jury in what state sentenced Demarcus Sears to death?

context: At times when a death sentence is affirmed on direct review, it is considered final. Yet, supplemental methods to attack the judgment, though less familiar than a typical appeal, do remain. These supplemental remedies are considered collateral review, that is, an avenue for upsetting judgments that have become otherwise final. Where the prisoner received his death sentence in a state-level trial, as is usually the case, the first step in collateral review is state collateral review. (If the case is a federal death penalty case, it proceeds immediately from direct review to federal habeas corpus.) Although all states have some type of collateral review, the process varies widely from state to state. Generally, the purpose of these collateral proceedings is to permit the prisoner to challenge his sentence on grounds that could not have been raised reasonably at trial or on direct review. Most often these are claims, such as ineffective assistance of counsel, which requires the court to consider new evidence outside the original trial record, something courts may not do in an ordinary appeal. State collateral review, though an important step in that it helps define the scope of subsequent review through federal habeas corpus, is rarely successful in and of itself. Only around 6 percent of death sentences are overturned on state collateral review. In 2010, the death sentences of 53 inmates were overturned as a result of legal appeals or high court reversals.
qas: answers: state collateral review
question: When a prisoner is given a death sentence in a state, what is the first step of collateral review?

answers: 6
question: About what percentage of capital convictions are overturned due to state collateral review?

answers: 53
question: In 2010, how many death sentences were overturned due to reversals from courts or appeals?

answers: ineffective assistance of counsel
question: What is an example of an issue that is raised in collateral review?

context: Traditionally, Section 1983 was of limited use for a state prisoner under sentence of death because the Supreme Court has held that habeas corpus, not Section 1983, is the only vehicle by which a state prisoner can challenge his judgment of death. In the 2006 Hill v. McDonough case, however, the United States Supreme Court approved the use of Section 1983 as a vehicle for challenging a state's method of execution as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The theory is that a prisoner bringing such a challenge is not attacking directly his judgment of death, but rather the means by which that the judgment will be carried out. Therefore, the Supreme Court held in the Hill case that a prisoner can use Section 1983 rather than habeas corpus to bring the lawsuit. Yet, as Clarence Hill's own case shows, lower federal courts have often refused to hear suits challenging methods of execution on the ground that the prisoner brought the claim too late and only for the purposes of delay. Further, the Court's decision in Baze v. Rees, upholding a lethal injection method used by many states, has drastically narrowed the opportunity for relief through Section 1983.
qas: answers: Hill v. McDonough
question: In what case did the Supreme Court allow Section 1983 to be used to challenge a method of execution?

answers: 2006
question: In what year was Hill v. McDonough decided?

answers: Eighth
question: What amendment of the Constitution does cruel and unusual punishment violate?

answers: Baze v. Rees
question: What case notably upheld the use of a method of lethal injection?

answers: habeas corpus
question: Along with Section 1983, through what means can a convict on death row challenge his execution?

context: The largest single execution in United States history was the hanging of 38 American Indians convicted of murder and rape during the Dakota War of 1862. They were executed simultaneously on December 26, 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota. A single blow from an axe cut the rope that held the large four-sided platform, and the prisoners (except for one whose rope had broken and who had to be re-hanged) fell to their deaths. The second-largest mass execution was also a hanging: the execution of 13 African-American soldiers for taking part in the Houston Riot of 1917. The largest non-military mass execution occurred in one of the original thirteen colonies in 1723, when 26 convicted pirates were hanged in Newport, Rhode Island by order of the Admiralty Court.
qas: answers: 38
question: How many people were killed in the largest mass execution in US history?

answers: December 26, 1862
question: On what date did the largest mass execution in American history take place?

answers: Minnesota
question: In what state did the largest American mass execution occur?

answers: African-American
question: What was the ethnicity of the people executed in the second-largest mass execution in US history?

answers: 1723
question: In what year did the Admiralty Court hang 26 pirates in Newport, Rhode Island?

context: After a death sentence is affirmed in state collateral review, the prisoner may file for federal habeas corpus, which is a unique type of lawsuit that can be brought in federal courts. Federal habeas corpus is a species of collateral review, and it is the only way that state prisoners may attack a death sentence in federal court (other than petitions for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court after both direct review and state collateral review). The scope of federal habeas corpus is governed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which restricted significantly its previous scope. The purpose of federal habeas corpus is to ensure that state courts, through the process of direct review and state collateral review, have done at least a reasonable job in protecting the prisoner's federal constitutional rights. Prisoners may also use federal habeas corpus suits to bring forth new evidence that they are innocent of the crime, though to be a valid defense at this late stage in the process, evidence of innocence must be truly compelling.
qas: answers: the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996
question: What act restricted the scope of federal habeas corpus?

answers: Federal habeas corpus
question: How may state prisoners seek to have a death sentence overturned in federal court?

answers: federal
question: In what courts can federal habeas corpus suits be brought?

answers: truly compelling
question: If prisoners use federal habeas corpus to present evidence that they're innocent, what must the evidence be?

context: In New Jersey and Illinois, all death row inmates had their sentences commuted to life in prison without parole when the death penalty repeal bills were signed into law. In Maryland, Governor Martin O'Malley commuted the state's four remaining death sentences to life in prison without parole in January 2015. While the bill repealing capital punishment in Connecticut was not retroactive, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in 2015 in State v. Santiago that the legislature's decision to prospectively abolish capital punishment rendered it an offense to "evolving standards of decency," thus commuting the sentences of the 11 men remaining on death row to life in prison without parole. New Mexico may yet execute two condemned inmates sentenced prior to abolition, and Nebraska has ten death row inmates who may still be executed despite abolition.
qas: answers: Illinois
question: Along with New Jersey, what state commuted all life sentences when bills to repeal the death penalty were passed?

answers: Maryland
question: The governor of what state commuted four death sentences in January 2015?

answers: Martin O'Malley
question: Who was governor of Maryland in January 2015?

answers: Connecticut
question: In what state's supreme court was State v. Santiago decided?

answers: 11
question: How many people had their sentences commuted by State v. Santiago?

context: The United States Supreme Court in Penry v. Lynaugh and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Bigby v. Dretke have been clear in their decisions that jury instructions in death penalty cases that do not ask about mitigating factors regarding the defendant's mental health violate the defendant's Eighth Amendment rights, saying that the jury is to be instructed to consider mitigating factors when answering unrelated questions. This ruling suggests that specific explanations to the jury are necessary to weigh mitigating factors.
qas: answers: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
question: In what court was Bigby v. Dretke decided?

answers: United States Supreme Court
question: What court heard the case Penry v. Lynaugh?

answers: Eighth
question: What amendment to the Constitution did Penry v. Lynaugh address?

answers: mitigating
question: What sentencing factors did Bigby v. Dretke consider?

context: Several states have never had capital punishment, the first being Michigan, which abolished it shortly after entering the Union. (However, the United States government executed Tony Chebatoris at the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan, Michigan in 1938.) Article 4, Section 46 of Michigan's fourth Constitution (ratified in 1963; effective in 1964) prohibits any law providing for the penalty of death. Attempts to change the provision have failed. In 2004, a constitutional amendment proposed to allow capital punishment in some circumstances failed to make it on the November ballot after a resolution failed in the legislature and a public initiative failed to gather enough signatures.
qas: answers: 1938
question: In what year was Tony Chebatoris killed?

answers: 1963
question: When was Michigan's fourth Constitution ratified?

answers: Milan
question: In what city was Tony Chebatoris executed?

answers: 2004
question: In what year was there a failed Michigan constitutional amendment to allow the death penalty?

answers: 4
question: What article of the fourth Michigan Constitution forbids laws allowing capital punishment?

context: The method of execution of federal prisoners for offenses under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 is that of the state in which the conviction took place. If the state has no death penalty, the judge must choose a state with the death penalty for carrying out the execution. For offenses under the Drug Kingpin Act of 1988, the method of execution is lethal injection. The Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana is currently the home of the only death chamber for federal death penalty recipients in the United States, where inmates are put to death by lethal injection. The complex has so far been the only location used for federal executions post-Gregg. Timothy McVeigh and Juan Garza were put to death in June 2001, and Louis Jones, Jr. was put to death on March 18, 2003.
qas: answers: Drug Kingpin Act of 1988
question: Under what federal statute are offenses punished by lethal injection?

answers: Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994
question: According to what law are federal prisoners executed according to the procedures in place in the state in which they were convicted?

answers: June 2001
question: In what month and year was Juan Garza executed?

answers: Louis Jones, Jr.
question: Who was executed by the federal government on March 18, 2003?

answers: Indiana
question: In what state is the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute?

context: In October 2009, the American Law Institute voted to disavow the framework for capital punishment that it had created in 1962, as part of the Model Penal Code, "in light of the current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment." A study commissioned by the institute had said that experience had proved that the goal of individualized decisions about who should be executed and the goal of systemic fairness for minorities and others could not be reconciled.
qas: answers: 1962
question: In what year did the American Law Institute create a death penalty framework for the Model Penal Code?

answers: 2009
question: In what year did the American Law Institute change their mind about their contribution on the death penalty to the Model Penal Code?

answers: systemic fairness for minorities
question: What goal did the ALI's study say could not be reconciled with the goal of individualized execution decisions?

context: In 1977, the Supreme Court's Coker v. Georgia decision barred the death penalty for rape of an adult woman, and implied that the death penalty was inappropriate for any offense against another person other than murder. Prior to the decision, the death penalty for rape of an adult had been gradually phased out in the United States, and at the time of the decision, the State of Georgia and the U.S. Federal government were the only two jurisdictions to still retain the death penalty for that offense. However, three states maintained the death penalty for child rape, as the Coker decision only imposed a ban on executions for the rape of an adult woman. In 2008, the Kennedy v. Louisiana decision barred the death penalty for child rape. The result of these two decisions means that the death penalty in the United States is largely restricted to cases where the defendant took the life of another human being. The current federal kidnapping statute, however, may be exempt because the death penalty applies if the victim dies in the perpetrator's custody, not necessarily by his hand, thus stipulating a resulting death, which was the wording of the objection. In addition, the Federal government retains the death penalty for non-murder offenses that are considered crimes against the state, including treason, espionage, and crimes under military jurisdiction.
qas: answers: 1977
question: In what year was Coker v. Georgia decided?

answers: rape of an adult woman
question: For what offense did Coker v. Georgia forbid the death penalty?

answers: U.S. Federal government
question: Along with Georgia, what American jurisdiction allowed people to be executed for the rape of an adult prior to Coker?

answers: Kennedy v. Louisiana
question: What ruling forbid the government from executing child rapists?

answers: three
question: Prior to Kennedy v. Louisiana, how many states criminalized child rape?

context: Four states in the modern era, Nebraska in 2008, New York and Kansas in 2004, and Massachusetts in 1984, had their statutes ruled unconstitutional by state courts. The death rows of New York and Massachusetts were disestablished, and attempts to restore the death penalty were unsuccessful. Kansas successfully appealed State v. Kleypas, the Kansas Supreme Court decision that declared the state's death penalty statute unconstitutional, to the United States Supreme Court. Nebraska's death penalty statute was rendered ineffective on February 8, 2008 when the required method, electrocution, was ruled unconstitutional by the Nebraska Supreme Court. In 2009, Nebraska enacted a bill that changed its method of execution to lethal injection.
qas: answers: 2008
question: In what year was Nebraska's death penalty statute ruled unconstitutional by a state court?

answers: Massachusetts
question: What state's court ruled capital punishment unconstitutional in 1984?

answers: State v. Kleypas
question: In what case did the Kansas Supreme Court rule that the death penalty is unconstitutional in Kansas?

answers: electrocution
question: What method of execution did the Nebraska Supreme Court rule unconstitutional?

answers: lethal injection
question: After electrocution was outlawed, how were Nebraska death row inmates executed?

context: In the 2010s, American jurisdictions have experienced a shortage of lethal injection drugs, due to anti-death penalty advocacy and low production volume. Hospira, the only U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental, stopped making the drug in 2011. The European Union has outlawed the export of any product that could be used in an execution; this has prevented executioners from using EU-manufactured anesthetics like propofol which are needed for general medical purposes. Another alternative, pentobarbital, is also only manufactured in the European Union, which has caused the Danish producer to restrict distribution to U.S. government customers.
qas: answers: sodium thiopental
question: What death penalty drug ceased to be manufactured in 2011?

answers: Hospira
question: Up until 2011, who manufactured sodium thiopental?

answers: Danish
question: What is the nationality of the company that makes pentobarbital?

answers: low production volume
question: Along with anti-death penalty advocacy, why has there been a shortage in drugs for lethal injections in the United States?

answers: execution
question: The EU outlawed the export of products that could be used in what activity?

context: As noted in the introduction to this article, the American public has maintained its position of support for capital punishment for murder. However, when given a choice between the death penalty and life imprisonment without parole, support has traditionally been significantly lower than polling which has only mentioned the death penalty as a punishment. In 2010, for instance, one poll showed 49 percent favoring the death penalty and 46 percent favoring life imprisonment while in another 61% said they preferred another punishment to the death penalty. The highest level of support for the death penalty recorded overall was 80 percent in 1994 (16 percent opposed), and the lowest recorded was 42 percent in 1966 (47 percent opposed). On the question of the death penalty vs. life without parole, the strongest preference for the death penalty was 61 percent in 1997 (29 percent favoring life), and the lowest preference for the death penalty was 47 percent in 2006 (48 percent favoring life).
qas: answers: 1994
question: In what year did the most polled American support capital punishment?

answers: 47
question: What percentage of polled Americans opposed the death penalty in 1966?

answers: 29
question: In a 1977 poll, what percentage of respondents preferred life imprisonment to the death penalty?

answers: 47
question: In a 2006 poll, what percentage of polled Americans preferred the death penalty to life without parole?

context: Other capital crimes include: the use of a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death, espionage, terrorism, certain violations of the Geneva Conventions that result in the death of one or more persons, and treason at the federal level; aggravated rape in Louisiana, Florida, and Oklahoma; extortionate kidnapping in Oklahoma; aggravated kidnapping in Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky and South Carolina; aircraft hijacking in Alabama and Mississippi; assault by an escaping capital felon in Colorado; armed robbery in Georgia; drug trafficking resulting in a person's death in Florida; train wrecking which leads to a person's death, and perjury which leads to a person's death in California, Colorado, Idaho and Nebraska.
qas: answers: aggravated rape
question: What is a notable capital crime in Louisiana?

answers: Oklahoma
question: In what state is extortionate kidnapping a capital offense?

answers: Mississippi
question: Along with Alabama, where is hijacking an aircraft a death penalty offense?

answers: Georgia
question: In what state is armed robbery a capital crime?

answers: California, Colorado, Idaho and Nebraska
question: In what states is perjury leading to death a capital offense?

context: In a five-to-four decision, the Supreme Court struck down the impositions of the death penalty in each of the consolidated cases as unconstitutional. The five justices in the majority did not produce a common opinion or rationale for their decision, however, and agreed only on a short statement announcing the result. The narrowest opinions, those of Byron White and Potter Stewart, expressed generalized concerns about the inconsistent application of the death penalty across a variety of cases but did not exclude the possibility of a constitutional death penalty law. Stewart and William O. Douglas worried explicitly about racial discrimination in enforcement of the death penalty. Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan, Jr. expressed the opinion that the death penalty was proscribed absolutely by the Eighth Amendment as "cruel and unusual" punishment.
qas: answers: William J. Brennan, Jr.
question: Along with Marshall, who believed that the Eighth Amendment forbade the death penalty?

answers: William O. Douglas
question: Along with Stewart, what Supreme Court justice was concerned about racial disparity in death penalty enforcement?

answers: Byron White
question: Aside from Stewart, what justice believed that the death penalty could be constitutional?

context: In total, 156 prisoners have been either acquitted, or received pardons or commutations on the basis of possible innocence, between 1973 to 2015. Death penalty opponents often argue that this statistic shows how perilously close states have come to undertaking wrongful executions; proponents point out that the statistic refers only to those exonerated in law, and that the truly innocent may be a smaller number. Statistics likely understate the actual problem of wrongful convictions because once an execution has occurred there is often insufficient motivation and finance to keep a case open, and it becomes unlikely at that point that the miscarriage of justice will ever be exposed.
qas: answers: 156
question: Between 1973 and 2015, how amny prisoners were acquitted or received pardons or commutations of their death sentences due to possible innocence?

context: The death penalty is sought and applied more often in some jurisdictions, not only between states but within states. A 2004 Cornell University study showed that while 2.5 percent of murderers convicted nationwide were sentenced to the death penalty, in Nevada 6 percent were given the death penalty. Texas gave 2 percent of murderers a death sentence, less than the national average. Texas, however, executed 40 percent of those sentenced, which was about four times higher than the national average. California had executed only 1 percent of those sentenced.
qas: answers: 2.5
question: What percentage of murderers in the United States are given a death sentence?

answers: 6
question: How many murderers in Nevada were given a capital sentence?

answers: Texas
question: What state notably executes 40% of those given the death penalty?

answers: four times
question: How much higher is the rate of execution in Texas versus the national average?

answers: 1
question: What percentage of murderers in California are given the death penalty and subsequently executed?

context: Congress acted defiantly toward the Supreme Court by passing the Drug Kingpin Act of 1988 and the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994 that made roughly fifty crimes punishable by death, including crimes that do not always involve the death of someone. Such non-death capital offenses include treason, espionage (spying for another country), and high-level drug trafficking. Since no one has yet been sentenced to death for such non-death capital offenses, the Supreme Court has not ruled on their constitutionality.
qas: answers: fifty
question: Under the Drug Kingpin Act of 1988 and Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, about how many crimes were punishable by death?

answers: Congress
question: What body passed the Drug Kingpin Act of 1988?

answers: espionage
question: What is another term for the act of spying for another country?

answers: high-level drug trafficking
question: Along with treason and espionage, what non-death offense is still a federal capital crime?

context: Executions resumed on January 17, 1977, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah. But the pace was quite slow due to the use of litigation tactics which involved filing repeated writs of habeas corpus, which succeeded for many in delaying their actual execution for many years. Although hundreds of individuals were sentenced to death in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s, only ten people besides Gilmore (who had waived all of his appeal rights) were actually executed prior to 1984.
qas: answers: Gary Gilmore
question: Who was executed on January 17, 1977?

answers: firing squad
question: By what method was Gary Gilmore executed?

answers: ten
question: Aside from Gary Gilmore, how many people were executed in the United States between January 17, 1977 and 1984?

answers: filing repeated writs of habeas corpus
question: What tactic did inmates on death row use to delay their executions?

context: After the September 2011 execution of Troy Davis, believed by many to be innocent, Richard Dieter, the director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said this case was a clear wake-up call to politicians across the United States. He said: "They weren't expecting such passion from people in opposition to the death penalty. There's a widely held perception that all Americans are united in favor of executions, but this message came across loud and clear that many people are not happy with it." Brian Evans of Amnesty International, which led the campaign to spare Davis's life, said that there was a groundswell in America of people "who are tired of a justice system that is inhumane and inflexible and allows executions where there is clear doubts about guilt". He predicted the debate would now be conducted with renewed energy.
qas: answers: September 2011
question: In what month and year was Troy Davis executed?

answers: Richard Dieter
question: Who was the Death Penalty Information Center director?

answers: Amnesty International
question: What organization did Brian Evans work for?

context: Various methods have been used in the history of the American colonies and the United States but only five methods are currently used. Historically, burning, crushing, breaking on wheel, and bludgeoning were used for a small number of executions, while hanging was the most common method. The last person burned at the stake was a black slave in South Carolina in August 1825. The last person to be hanged in chains was a murderer named John Marshall in West Virginia on April 4, 1913. Although beheading was a legal method in Utah from 1851 to 1888, it was never used.
qas: answers: five
question: How many execution methods are currently used in the United States?

answers: hanging
question: What was the most common historical method of execution in the United States?

answers: South Carolina
question: In what state did the last burning at the stake take place in the US?

answers: John Marshall
question: Who was the last person hanged in chains in the Untied States?

answers: 1888
question: When was execution by beheading ended in Utah?

context: African Americans made up 41 percent of death row inmates while making up only 12.6 percent of the general population. (They have made up 34 percent of those actually executed since 1976.) However, that number is lower than that of prison inmates, which is 47 percent. According to the US Department of Justice, African Americans accounted for 52.5% of homicide offenders from 1980 to 2008, with whites 45.3% and Native Americans and Asians 2.2%. This means African Americans are less likely to be executed on a per capita basis. However, according to a 2003 Amnesty International report, blacks and whites were the victims of murder in almost equal numbers, yet 80 percent of the people executed since 1977 were convicted of murders involving white victims. 13.5% of death row inmates are of Hispanic or Latino descent, while they make up 17.4% of the general population.
qas: answers: 41
question: What percentage of American death row prisoners are African American?

answers: 34
question: What percentage of people executed in the United States since 1976 have been African American?

answers: 47
question: What percentage of American prison inmates are African American?

answers: 2.2%
question: What percentage of homicides were committed by Asians between 1980 and 2008?

answers: 17.4%
question: What percentage of the American population is Hispanic?

context: The legal administration of the death penalty in the United States is complex. Typically, it involves four critical steps: (1) sentencing, (2) direct review, (3) state collateral review, and (4) federal habeas corpus. Recently, a narrow and final fifth level of process – (5) the Section 1983 challenge – has become increasingly important. (Clemency or pardon, through which the Governor or President of the jurisdiction can unilaterally reduce or abrogate a death sentence, is an executive rather than judicial process.) The number of new death sentences handed down peaked in 1995–1996 (309). There were 73 new death sentences handed down in 2014, the lowest number since 1973 (44).
qas: answers: four
question: In the United States, how many important steps are usually present in the administration of capital punishment?

answers: Governor
question: Along with the President, what officeholder can issue pardons?

answers: 309
question: How many death sentences were issued in the period 1995-1996?

answers: 44
question: How many capital sentences were given in 1973?

answers: 2014
question: In what year were there 73 death penalty convictions?

context: All of the executions which have taken place since the 1936 hanging of Bethea in Owensboro have been conducted within a wall or enclosure. For example, Fred Adams was legally hanged in Kennett, Missouri, on April 2, 1937, within a 10-foot (3 m) wooden stockade. Roscoe "Red" Jackson was hanged within a stockade in Galena, Missouri, on May 26, 1937. Two Kentucky hangings were conducted after Galena in which numerous persons were present within a wooden stockade, that of John "Peter" Montjoy in Covington, Kentucky on December 17, 1937, and that of Harold Van Venison in Covington on June 3, 1938. An estimated 400 witnesses were present for the hanging of Lee Simpson in Ryegate, Montana, on December 30, 1939. The execution of Timothy McVeigh on June 11, 2001 was witnessed by some 300 people, some by closed-circuit television.
qas: answers: April 2, 1937
question: On what date was Fred Adams hanged?

answers: Owensboro
question: Where was Bethea hanged?

answers: Red
question: What was Roscoe Jackson's nickname?

answers: Missouri
question: In what state did the hanging of Adams take place?

answers: 300
question: How many people witnessed Timothy McVeigh's execution?

context: James Liebman, a professor of law at Columbia Law School, stated in 1996 that his study found that when habeas corpus petitions in death penalty cases were traced from conviction to completion of the case that there was "a 40 percent success rate in all capital cases from 1978 to 1995." Similarly, a study by Ronald Tabak in a law review article puts the success rate in habeas corpus cases involving death row inmates even higher, finding that between "1976 and 1991, approximately 47 percent of the habeas petitions filed by death row inmates were granted." The different numbers are largely definitional, rather than substantive. Freedam's statistics looks at the percentage of all death penalty cases reversed, while the others look only at cases not reversed prior to habeas corpus review.
qas: answers: Columbia Law School
question: What institution does James Liebman work for?

answers: law
question: What does James Liebman teach?

answers: 40
question: According to Liebman, about what percentage of death penalty habeas corpus petitions were successful between 1978 and 1995?

answers: 47
question: According to Tabak, what percentage of habeas corpus petitions were granted to death row inmates between 1976 and 1991?

answers: 1996
question: In what year did Liebman announce his findings?

context: The last use of the firing squad between 1608 and the moratorium on judicial executions between 1967 and 1977 was when Utah shot James W. Rodgers on March 30, 1960. The last use of the gallows between 1608 and the moratorium was when Kansas hanged George York on June 22, 1965. The last use of the electric chair between the first electrocution on August 6, 1890 and the moratorium was when Oklahoma electrocuted James French on August 10, 1966. The last use of the gas chamber between the first gassing on February 8, 1924 and the moratorium was when Colorado gassed Luis Monge on June 2, 1967.
qas: answers: James W. Rodgers
question: Who was executed on March 30, 1960?

answers: firing squad
question: What method of execution was used on James W. Rodgers?

answers: Utah
question: In what state was Rodgers executed?

answers: June 22, 1965
question: On what date was George York executed?

answers: Oklahoma
question: Which state executed James French?

context: Since 1642 (in the 13 colonies, the United States under the Articles of Confederation, and the current United States) an estimated 364 juvenile offenders have been put to death by the states and the federal government. The earliest known execution of a prisoner for crimes committed as a juvenile was Thomas Graunger in 1642. Twenty-two of the executions occurred after 1976, in seven states. Due to the slow process of appeals, it was highly unusual for a condemned person to be under 18 at the time of execution. The youngest person to be executed in the 20th century was George Stinney, who was electrocuted in South Carolina at the age of 14 on June 16, 1944. The last execution of a juvenile may have been Leonard Shockley, who died in the Maryland gas chamber on April 10, 1959, at the age of 17. No one has been under age 19 at time of execution since at least 1964. Since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976, 22 people have been executed for crimes committed under the age of 18. Twenty-one were 17 at the time of the crime. The last person to be executed for a crime committed as a juvenile was Scott Hain on April 3, 2003 in Oklahoma.
qas: answers: 364
question: About how many American juveniles have been executed since 1642?

answers: 1642
question: In what year was Thomas Graunger executed?

answers: Twenty-two
question: Since 1976, how many Americans have been executed for crimes committed as juveniles?

answers: 14
question: How old was George Stinney when he was executed?

answers: gas chamber
question: What method was used to execute Leonard Shockley?

context: In May 2014, Oklahoma Director of Corrections, Robert Patton, recommended an indefinite hold on executions in the state after the botched execution of African-American Clayton Lockett. The prisoner had to be tasered to restrain him prior to the execution, and the lethal injection missed a vein in his groin, resulting in Lockett regaining consciousness, trying to get up, and to speak, before dying of a heart attack 43 minutes later, after the attempted execution had been called off. In 2015, the state approved nitrogen asphyxiation as a method of execution.
qas: answers: Oklahoma
question: What state employed Robert Patton in May 2014?

answers: Director of Corrections
question: As of May 2014, what was Robert Patton's job title?

answers: African-American
question: What race was Clayton Lockett?

answers: nitrogen
question: What gas did Oklahoma decide to use for executions in 2015?

answers: heart attack
question: What was Clayton Lockett's cause of death?

context: Opponents argue that the death penalty is not an effective means of deterring crime, risks the execution of the innocent, is unnecessarily barbaric in nature, cheapens human life, and puts a government on the same base moral level as those criminals involved in murder. Furthermore, some opponents argue that the arbitrariness with which it is administered and the systemic influence of racial, socio-economic, geographic, and gender bias on determinations of desert make the current practice of capital punishment immoral and illegitimate.
qas: answers: socio-economic
question: Along with gender, geography and race, what bias do some opponents of the death penalty see in its administration?

answers: human life
question: According to opponents of the death penalty, what does the death penalty cheapen?

answers: criminals involved in murder
question: According to death penalty opponents, on whose moral level does execution place the government?

answers: deterring crime
question: What do death penalty opponents argue that capital punishment isn't effective at doing?

answers: the innocent
question: Who do death penalty opponents believe may sometimes be executed?

context: Sixteen was held to be the minimum permissible age in the 1988 Supreme Court decision of Thompson v. Oklahoma. The Court, considering the case Roper v. Simmons in March 2005, found the execution of juvenile offenders unconstitutional by a 5–4 margin, effectively raising the minimum permissible age to 18. State laws have not been updated to conform with this decision. In the American legal system, unconstitutional laws do not need to be repealed; instead, they are held to be unenforceable. (See also List of juvenile offenders executed in the United States)
qas: answers: Sixteen
question: According to Thompson v. Oklahoma, what was the youngest age at which a person might be executed?

answers: 1988
question: In what year was Thompson v. Oklahoma decided?

answers: March 2005
question: In what month and year was Roper v. Simmons decided?

answers: 5
question: In Roper v. Simmons, how many Supreme Court justices believed juvenile execution to be unconstitutional?

answers: 18
question: Based on Roper v. Simmons, what is now the minimum age to be executed in the United States?

context: Around 1890, a political movement developed in the United States to mandate private executions. Several states enacted laws which required executions to be conducted within a "wall" or "enclosure" to "exclude public view." For example, in 1919, the Missouri legislature adopted a statute (L.1919, p. 781) which required, "the sentence of death should be executed within the county jail, if convenient, and otherwise within an enclosure near the jail." The Missouri law permitted the local sheriff to distribute passes to individuals (usually local citizens) whom he believed should witness the hanging, but the sheriffs – for various reasons – sometimes denied passes to individuals who wanted to watch. Missouri executions conducted after 1919 were not "public" because they were conducted behind closed walls, and the general public was not permitted to attend.
qas: answers: 1919
question: In what year did Missouri pass a law stating that executions should be inside of or near a jail?

answers: hanging
question: What procedure did Missouri use to execute prisoners in 1919?

answers: the local sheriff
question: In the Missouri of 1919, who handed out passes to witness executions?

answers: 1890
question: In approximately what year did a movement in favor of private executions begin in the US?

context: Previous post-Furman mass clemencies took place in 1986 in New Mexico, when Governor Toney Anaya commuted all death sentences because of his personal opposition to the death penalty. In 1991, outgoing Ohio Governor Dick Celeste commuted the sentences of eight prisoners, among them all four women on the state's death row. And during his two terms (1979–1987) as Florida's Governor, Bob Graham, although a strong death penalty supporter who had overseen the first post-Furman involuntary execution as well as 15 others, agreed to commute the sentences of six people on the grounds of "possible innocence" or "disproportionality."
qas: answers: Toney Anaya
question: Who commuted all state capital sentences in 1986?

answers: New Mexico
question: Of what state was Toney Anaya governor?

answers: Dick Celeste
question: Who was Governor of Ohio in 1991?

answers: four
question: How many women were on Ohio's death row in 1991?

answers: 1979
question: In what year did Bob Graham become Governor of Florida?

context: In 2010, bills to abolish the death penalty in Kansas and in South Dakota (which had a de facto moratorium at the time) were rejected. Idaho ended its de facto moratorium, during which only one volunteer had been executed, on November 18, 2011 by executing Paul Ezra Rhoades; South Dakota executed Donald Moeller on October 30, 2012, ending a de facto moratorium during which only two volunteers had been executed. Of the 12 prisoners whom Nevada has executed since 1976, 11 waived their rights to appeal. Kentucky and Montana have executed two prisoners against their will (KY: 1997 and 1999, MT: 1995 and 1998) and one volunteer, respectively (KY: 2008, MT: 2006). Colorado (in 1997) and Wyoming (in 1992) have executed only one prisoner, respectively.
qas: answers: Kansas
question: Along with South Dakota, what state rejected a death penalty abolition bill in 2010?

answers: Paul Ezra Rhoades
question: Who did Idaho execute in 2011?

answers: Donald Moeller
question: Who was executed on October 30, 2012?

answers: 12
question: Since 1976, how many prisoners has Nevada executed?

answers: 1992
question: Since 1976, in what year was a prisoner executed in Wyoming?

context: Pharmaceutical companies whose products are used in the three-drug cocktails for lethal injections are predominantly European, and they have strenuously objected to the use of their drugs for executions and taken steps to prevent their use. For example, Hospira, the sole American manufacturer of sodium thiopental, the critical anesthetic in the three-drug cocktail, announced in 2011 that it would no longer manufacture the drug for the American market, in part for ethical reasons and in part because its transfer of sodium thiopental manufacturing to Italy would subject it to the European Union's Torture Regulation, which forbids the use of any product manufactured within the Union for torture (as execution by lethal injection is considered by the Regulation). Since the drug manufacturers began taking these steps and the EU regulation ended the importation of drugs produced in Europe, the resulting shortage of execution drugs has led to or influenced decisions to impose moratoria in Arkansas, California, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, and Tennessee.
qas: answers: three
question: How many drugs are used to administer lethal injection?

answers: sodium thiopental
question: What lethal injection drug is manufactured by Hospira?

answers: 2011
question: When did Hospira cease to manufacture its lethal injection drug for the United States?

answers: Italy
question: In what country does Hospira manufacture sodium thiopental today?

answers: Torture Regulation
question: What EU law forbids products used in torture to be manufactured in the European Union?