Tennessee is located in the south region of the United States. The state of Tennessee agrees with the death penalty. The number of executions in Tennessee since 1976 was five and the number of deaths before 1976 was 335. The current death row population is 92. The number of women on death row is 2. The Date Death Penalty was re-enacted on February 27, 1974 and the first execution since the re-enactment was in the year 2000. The murder rate in Tennessee is 6.4 per 100,000 people. It is possible for the accused to receive life without parole as a punishment. A person can receive the death penalty for a murder he or she was not responsible for. Two people have been found innocent for the crimes they were accused of and got off death row. One clemency was granted in the state of Tennessee. The clemency process happens when the Governor has the Boards of Pardons and Paroles recommendation for clemency. . The methods the state of Tennessee uses to execute those on death row is lethal injection for those whose capital offense happened after December 31, 1998, those that occurred before this date have the option of electrocution instead of lethal injection. The sentence is determined by a jury. The location of death row is in Livingston, Tennessee. (Death Penalty 2009)
The first recorded death penalty in Tennessee was that of Allen Russell. Russell, age-unknown an African-American male who's crime was rape. He was killed by the hanging method on March 1, 1823. The latest is in 1960 on November 7. On that day African-American William Tines, age 37, was killed by electrocution. His crime was rape. (Executions 2002)
The main things that these criminals have in common is that they are both are African-American and both committed a rape. While looking through the majority of these crimes it is plain to see that most of these people on death row were charged with rape and were mostly African-American. It makes one wonder if there is some racism involved when deciding who gets the death penalty and who does not. Tennessee has also only put three women on death row from 1823-2002. So it seems women are more likely to get off of the hook because they seem more harmless than their male counterparts. Even some lesser crimes such as attempted rape, and attempted burglary warranted capital punishment; all of these intruders were black. There is obviously some underlining racism in the process, and this has not changed.
The report “Probation and Parole in the United States” indicates that in 2006, Tennessee had 4,443 entries into the parole system, and 3,232 exits from parole programs. The report also indicates that Tennessee had a parole population of 9,702 in 2006, and the number of Tennessee residents on parole (per every 100,000 adult residents) was 210. The report also indicates that Tennessee had 26,761 entries into and 21,811 exits from the probation program in 2006, with a total of 52,558 individuals in the probation program. The number of Tennessee residents on probation (per every 100,000 adult residents) was 1,136. This data shows that Tennessee has more than six times as many people on probation than on parole. When compared with Colorado, which has 9,551 people on parole and 63,032 on probation, it appears that although the number of people on parole in each state is very similar, Tennessee has a smaller population of people on probation. One possible reason for this is that Colorado offers more probation programs to offenders (“Probation and parole in the united states, 2007).
Restorative Justice – A perspective on justice that views the main goal of the criminal justice system to be a systematic response to wrongdoing that emphasizes healing victims, offenders, and communities wounded by crime. It stresses peacemaking, not punishment. Justice should involve all parties affected by crime--- victims, criminals, law enforcement, and the community. (Siegel, 2008, p.705)
The following was compiled with the help of information obtained from The Santa Barbara Independent in an article written by Nick Welsh on 11.01.2007
In 2007, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department put nine of their deputies through four days of “restorative justice” training in hopes of trying out this new approach to criminal justice with juvenile offenders. The program was lead by Allan MacRae, the man responsible for helping to bring about this particular form of justice to his native New Zealand, where he says that it has achieved “solid results.” The program focuses on various techniques that help bring juvenile offenders (and their families) together with those affected by the offenders’ crimes. The logic behind this is that it will force juvenile offenders to realize the effect of their actions on the victim(s), as well as on their community. Getting relatives involved is done in hopes that family members can do a better job keeping the offenders out of trouble than could the overworked probation system. According to MacRae, New Zealand used to have one of the highest juvenile incarceration rates in the world before techniques associated with the restorative justice method were introduced. In some of New Zealand’s cities, 66 percent of the offenders successfully completed the programs; while in others, the success rate was as high as 95 percent. He attributes the fact of New Zealand’s considerably lower juvenile crime rate to these programs. As for the high costs involved to institute these types of programs, MacRae insists that the savings over time in New Zealand have more than paid for their programs.
Sources:
Siegel, Larry J. (2008). Introduction to Criminal Justice
Welsh, Nick (2007, November 01). Sheriffs Train in ‘Restorative Justice’
Retrieved November 16, 2009, from the Santa Barbara Independent’s website:
http://www.independent.com/news/2007/nov/01/sheriffs-train-restorative-justice/
Glaze, L. E., & Bonczar, T. P. (2007, November 30). Probation and Parole in the United States, 2006. Retrieved November 16, 2009
Death Penalty Information Center, (2009). Retrieved November 17, 2009 from Death Penalty Information Center
Website: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state
Executions is the U.S. 1608-2002: The ESPY File Executions by State. Website: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ESPYstate.pdf
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