The death penalty is an American institution although it today remains a very controversial and very important issue. The first legal American execution took place in Virginia, in 1662, when Daniel Frank was punished for theft. In 1971, the Bill of Rights was passed and included in it the ban of �cruel and unusual� punishment. Death penalties were internationally accepted and the 8th Amendment did not intend to stop the death penalty. With the exception of treason, Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty in 1846. Rhode Island and Wisconsin were soon to follow. Interestingly, it was local governments who were imposing the death penalty. However, in 1864, Vermont started the movement from local to state-inflicted executions. A decade long abolitionist movement helped end the death penalty in eight states from 1907-1917. Eventually, six of those state reinstated their laws to prevent lynching and other such crimes. In 1931, nine black men (known as the Scottsboro boys) were wrongly convicted of the rape of a white woman and sentenced to death. Fortunate......

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