Gale Encyclopedia of American Law Volume 2 P27 fully illuminates today's leading cases, major statutes, legal terms and concepts, notable persons involved with the law, important documents and more. Legal issues are fully discussed in easy-to-understand language, including such high-profile topics as the Americans with Disabilities Act, capital punishment, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, physician-assisted suicide and thousands more. | 248 CAPITAL PUNISHMENT Capital Punishment PRISONERS EXECUTED UNDER CIVIL AUTHORITY IN THE UNITED STATES 1977 TO 2007 Total prisoners executed 1 099 source . Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics Capital Punishment 2007. woman Coker v. Georgia 433 . 584 97 S. Ct. 2861 53 L. Ed. 2d 982 2002 . Death by electrocution has been challenged several times as being inconsistent with evolving standards of decency . In a series of Florida cases the . Supreme Court denied certiorari in appeals where the petitioner offered proof that during the execution the electric chair was engulfed by flames and that smoke had emanated from the inmate s head. But the Florida Supreme Court ruled that death by electrocution does not violate the Eighth Amendment s prohibition of cruel and unusual citing evidence that execution by electrocution renders an inmate instantaneously unconscious thereby making it impossible to feel pain when the electrical current is properly maintained Provenzano v. Moore 744 So. 2d 413 Fla. 1999 cert denied 528 . 1182 120 S. Ct. 1222 145 L. Ed. 2d 1122 2000 . ILLUSTRATION BY GGS CREATIVE RESOURCES. REPRODUCED BY PERMISSION OF GALE A PART OF CENGAGE LEARNING. no clear consensus against executing mentally retarded defendants who had been convicted of murder. However just 13 years later the Court found that standards of decency had evolved to a point at which mentally retarded defendants could no longer be made subject to capital punishment without violating the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment ATKINS V. VIRGINIA 536 . 304 122 S. Ct. 2242 153 L. Ed. 2d 335 . 2002 . The Court emphasized the fact that since Penry 18 states had passed legislation excluding the mentally retarded from the class of defendants who are eligible for capital punishment. Applying the same type of analysis in Stanford v. Kentucky 492 . 361 109 S. Ct. 2969 106 L. Ed. 2d 306 1989 the Court found that there was no national consensus .
