History of Death Penalty in Massachusetts

The death penalty is a huge issue as controversial as it has always been and is frequently a point of contention between the two major parties in the United States. Recently, due to advances in genetic science, new DNA evidence has often proven convicted criminals innocent who have been on death row for years on end. In Chapter 326 of the Acts of 1898, the death penalty was legalized to be carried out by the electric chair. Since 1898, 65 people have been executed in Massachusetts by the method of electrocution.

On January 1^st, 1900, the electric chair was installed at the State Prison in Charlestown. About 2 years later, it was first used, and it was continually used until May 9^th, 1947. The death penalty debate flares up every so often in this state. In 1975, when the Supreme Court ruled that a mandatory "death penalty" for murderers represented cruel and unusual punishment and was in violation of the Declaration of Rights of the Massachusetts Constitution.

In 1977, the Supreme Court expressed an opinion that the death penalty could only be justified if the commonwealth were able to show that it was true deterrent to crime. Two years later, the Massachusetts legalized the death penalty in the case of murder, under chapter 488 which made death penalty only possible after two different trials with the same jury. There were seven circumstances in which the death penalty could be carried out and three circumstances which would invalidate the previous seven. Instances where the death penalty could be carried out were if the murder was in connection with a violent crime, rape, or money or if the person murder a civil servant, or if they committed murder in jail, have a previous murder conviction, or killed someone while resisting arrest. The three things or "mitigating circumstances" that invalidate all the other circumstances are if the person who committed murder had no prior criminal history or if the person was under age or mentally incapacitated.

In 1980, the District Attorney for Suffolk District v. Watson claimed that the death penalty should be deemed cruel and unusual punishment. It was claimed that Chapter 488 violated Act 26 of the declaration of rights on two grounds which were "The death penalty is unacceptably cruel under contemporary standards of decency, and the death penalty is administered with unconstitutional arbitrariness and discrimination." Once again, it was legalized in 1982 and then declared unconstitutional in 1984.

There was little newsworthy involving the death penalty until 1997, when Paul Cellucci tried to have the death penalty reinstated in Massachusetts. He used the murder of a nine year old to win support for his cause, but lost in a tie breaker vote when Republican John Slattery changed sides at the last minute because he was afraid of putting an innocent man in jail. Celluci later admitted that his side wasn't organized enough to win.

A year later, in 1998, Cellucci tried once again to put the bill through, but was defeated once again in a close 80 to 73 vote. Bill Keach, member of the Boston Chapter of the Campaign to End the death penalty said "Cellucci tried to argue that the death penalty was a deterrent. When he was asked to back up that statement, he balked. He just didn't know what to say." Celluci knew that he was going to be defeated so he tried to limit the death penalty to killers of law enforcement officers and past offenders, but that failed too. Slatterly who switched sides the year prior asked "Why is a cop's life more important than my mother's?"

Massachusetts is one of twelve states that do not currently have the death penalty and since the last bill was rejected by the house in 1999, it would not be allowed to be brought up in the courts for another two years.