Jay reviewed recent capital punishment cases in the months prior to the passage of the reform bill. Between November 1795 and April 1796, he issued several stays of execution.In addition to noting the influence of granting pardons for capital punishment crimes at the state level,
2From George Washington to Colonel Lewis Nicola, 5 February 1780 (Washington Papers)
I have however since on account of the frequency of capital punishments and from General Woodford’s representation that this was the first offence the prisoner had been guilty of,). GW remained concerned about the frequency of executions and the resulting loss of the “good effects” of capital punishment (
3Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
at Milton they keep a Nightly Watch. it is really a Distressing calamity, but we shall be infested with more vagabonds, if the states go on to abolish capital punishmentsCapital punishment was an increasingly contested issue in the 1790s. Between 1794 and 1798 five states restricted the use of the death penalty to cases of murder or murder and treason. Virginia and New Jersey joined New York...
4To James Madison from George Joy, 17 April 1817 (Madison Papers)
satisfaction that there has been no capital punishment for high treason? A better cause of satisfaction would have been that no one had deserved it.Monroe wrote: “and I add, with peculiar satisfaction, that there has been no example of a capital punishment being inflicted on any one for the crime of high treason” (
5Abigail Adams to John Adams, 25 March 1797 (Adams Papers)
. While used satirically in both cases, the line is a reference to the 1794 Pennsylvania law restricting the use of capital punishment to cases of first degree murder (Albert Post, “Early Efforts to Abolish Capital Punishment in Pennsylvania,”
6To Thomas Jefferson from "Friend," 23 October 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
...in conjunction with another serious offense, and was the only crime punishable by death. During the nineteenth century, other states followed Pennsylvania’s example in reforming their systems of punishment (David Brion Davis, “The Movement to Abolish Capital Punishment in America, 1787–1861,” ...capital punishment that foreshadowed the reasoning of “Friend” in the letter above. In that...
7To James Madison from G. F. H. Crockett, 24 September 1823 (Madison Papers)
An Address to the Legislature of Kentucky, on the Abolition of Capital Punishments in the United States, and the Substitution of Exile for Life
8To Thomas Jefferson from James Wood, 3 March 1797 (Jefferson Papers)
was “An Act to amend the Penal Laws of this Commonwealth,” passed 15 Dec. 1796, which specified prison terms rather than capital punishment for crimes other than first-degree murder. Prisoners were to labor in a penitentiary during their sentences, and each would spend a portion of the term in solitary confinement. The act authorized the governor to spend up to...
9To Alexander Hamilton from Josias Carvel Hall, 11 September 1799 (Hamilton Papers)
a few examples of Capital punishment perhaps." In the margin of the first page there is an "X" mark beside the line in the first paragraph beginning "to use uncommon Exertion...."
10From Thomas Jefferson to Daniel Carroll Brent, 10 October 1802 (Jefferson Papers)
...intention to kill his wife,” the jurist noted, there was also “no evidence of any circumstance which could justify his striking her at all.” Cranch, who thought juries often demonstrated a “great tenderness” in cases involving capital punishment, was surprised that the jury deliberated only a