Use of death penalty in the United States dates back to colonial times, with the first recorded execution taking place in Jamestown in 1608. Although its use has always varied from state to state, it was practiced regularly throughout most of our history until 1967, when a temporary ban was instituted while the Supreme Court reviewed its constitutionality.

In 1972, in a 5-4 decision (Furman v. Georgia), the Court ruled that the death pe

nalty as practiced in Georgia was a violation of the Eighth Amendment, (et) which bans cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling focused on unguided jury discretion and the resulting arbitrary and capricious sentencing that took place because of it. However, the court left open the possibility that the death penalty could be reinstated if it were redesigned to avoid these problems. In response, several states set about redrafting their sentencing laws and in 1976 the Court reinstated the death penalty after a ten-year moratorium. The first execution took place on January 17, 1977 when Gary Gilmore was executed by a firing squad in Utah. Federal death penalty statutes were revised in 1988, 1994 and 1996. Since 1977 over 650 people have been executed. Since the death penalty has been reinstated the controversy has escaladed. There have also been numerous court cases that involved the death penalty that struck arguments and different opinions about the death penalty. There has been court cases in which the trail was unfair or not properly handled and also cases in which the accused could not defend him/her self due to lack of good representation because a shortage of money. For example Frederico Martinez-Macias was convicted and sentenced to death for murdering man during a burglary. The attorney appointed to represent Martinez-Macias was paid only $11.84 per hour. His lawyer failed to present an available alibi witness, relied upon an incorrect assumption about the law, and didn't do the research that would have corrected his mistake. He failed to interview and present witnesses who could have testified in rebuttal of the prosecutor's case. Martinez-Macias received competent representation for the first time when a Washington, D.C. firm took on his case pro-bono. A federal district court ordered a new hearing, finding that "the errors that occurred in this case are inherent in a system which pays attorneys such a meager amount." A grand jury refused to re-indict him and Martinez-Macias was released from prison. A study headed by Professor James Liebman of Columbia University found a startlingly high error rate of 68% in death penalty cases over a twenty-three year time period. Another example of a faulty case was the Wanda Jean Allen case were she was convicted of the murder of her lover and in January of 2001 was executed by the state of Oklahoma. Her lawyer had never tried a capital case and did not know how to conduct a proper investigation. He did not discover the existence of a report detailing Allen's mental disabilities. Realizing his incompetence, Allen

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