The Death Penalty - What it says about America through maps.

This map of the United States indicates which state uses what form of capital punishment, if at all. This map shows us which state uses which form of death penalty, for example, Arizona uses death by gas chamber and lethal injection. The states filled in with grey are states which do not use death penalty. The reasons why a state would opt out of the use of death penalty are usually based on moral, practical and religious grounds. Along with this, the argument that the death penalty can be considered unconstitutional seems to prevent states that have abolished the death penalty for it repealed. The states with no capital punishment also notice a lower homicide rate. Which also questions the relevance of the death penalty in modern day US.

It is not only clear that the states are divided in the view of Capital Punishment but an interesting correlation begins to unfold. For the most part, the states where the death penalty is abolished are also Democrats. Perhaps showing that the views on such matters of capital punishment find their bearings politically.

The map below also shows the numbers of how many people have been executed, per state, since 1976. In 1972, the death penalty was suspended, due to the case Furman v Georgia. In the map below, you can see even more clearly (due to it's more in depth nature) the states who carry out he most. Unshockingly, Texas is the state who have carried out the most executions since 1976 (the number lying at around 471) and if looked at in terms of the Nine Nations, more than just per state, Dixieland/The Bible Belt have seen a total of 858 executions since 1976. This could be to do with the strong ethics and morals which find themselves engrossed in Republican and Fundamental Christian ideologies.