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During various periods from the 1600s onward, New York law prescribed the death penalty for crimes such as sodomy, adultery, counterfeiting, perjury, and attempted rape or murder by slaves. [8] In 1796, New York abolished the death penalty for crimes other than murder and treason, but arson was made a capital crime in 1808. [8]
In an 1898 op-ed in The New York Times, prominent physician Austin Flint called for the abolition of the death penalty and suggested more criminology-based methods should be used to reduce crime. [8] Anti-death penalty activism of this period was largely state and locally based.
Other states which abolished the death penalty for murder before Gregg v. Georgia include Minnesota in 1911, Vermont in 1964, Iowa and West Virginia in 1965, and North Dakota in 1973. Hawaii abolished the death penalty in 1948 and Alaska in 1957, both before their statehood. Puerto Rico repealed it in 1929 and the District of Columbia in 1981.
The medical profession can never be an arm of punishment — or state power.
Former Mongolian President Elbegdorj Tsakhia offers some advice to new Singaporean President Tharman Shanmugaratnam: abolish the death penalty, and your country will be better off.
Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2003 H.R. 2574: June 24, 2003 Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) 46 Died in Committee. Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2003 S. 402: February 13, 2003 Russell Feingold (D-WI) 0 Died in Committee. 109th Congress: Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act H.R. 4923: March 9, 2006 Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) 45 Died in Committee.
When the French parliament overwhelmingly outlawed the death penalty in 1981, he put his hand on the plaque commemorating Victor Hugo’s seat, also a strident abolitionist, and said “It is done.”
The United States is a notable exception: some states have had bans on capital punishment for decades, the earliest being Michigan, where it was abolished in 1846, while other states still actively use it today. The death penalty in the United States remains a contentious issue which is hotly debated.