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24 American J. Crim. Just. 1 (1999-2000)

handle is hein.journals/acnjrlocm24 and id is 1 raw text is: TWENTY YEARS AFTER GILMORE: Who Is Being Executed?t JOHN H. CULVERtt California Polytechnic State University ABSTRACT: This research profiles the 432 felons executed between 1977, the first execution in the post-Gregg era, and 1997. The 432 death row inmates exe- cuted during this period were males (with one exception), convicted of murder under at least one aggravating circumstance, and had extensive criminal histories. Most held low-prestige jobs prior to their last arrest, achieved less than a high school education, and had serious mental or emotional problems. Only a handful of these executions generated any publicity. Those who were executed were lower class individuals unlikely to arouse any public sympathy. INTRODUCTION Over a quarter of a century ago, the United States Supreme Court struck down capital punishment laws because the states were adminis- tering the death penalty in an arbitrary and capricious manner (Furman v. Georgia, 1972). Several years later, the Court held the death penalty was constitutional as long as the states followed certain procedural safeguards (Gregg v. Georgia, 1976). Shortly thereafter, Gary Gilmore gained the dubious distinction of becoming the first per- son to be executed in the post-Gregg period. Prior to Gilmore's death before a Utah firing squad, no state had held an execution since 1967. Despite the past two decade's experience with capital punishment, disturbing reports continue to surface about its fundamental fairness. In 1994, Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun, previously regarded as pro-capital punishment, issued a dissenting opinion in which he stated, From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machin- ery of death . . . I feel morally and intellectually obligated simply to concede that the death penalty experiment has failed (Callins v. Col- lins, 1994, p. 438). According to Blackmun (Callins v. Collins, 1994, p. 437), the death penalty remains fraught with arbitrariness, discrimina- t The author would like to thank Richard Tewksbury and the three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper. tt Direct all correspondence to: John H. Culver, California Polytechnic State Univer- sity, Department of Political Science, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407. E-mail: jculver@calpoly.edu. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Vol. 24 No. 1, 1999 @ 1999 Southern Criminal Justice Association