In the mid to early Nineteenth Century many states reduced the number of capital crimes. In 1846, Pennsylvania became the first state to move execution away from the public hanging. When hangings happened everybody could come see the person get executed. In 1846, Michigan became the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes. A short time later, Rhode Island and Wisconsin abolished the death penalty for all crimes too. Even though there were states that abolished the death penalty, most states could not abolish capital punishment. Some states even went as far as making more crimes capital offenses. (Death Penalty Inform Center) Some states felt like the death penalty was wrong and those states abolished it. Too many…show more content… However, the death penalty was still being used, but most people did not pay it any attention because of the slavery issue and trying to fight a war.
After the war, new developments in how people were executed came about. The electric chair was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century. Reforming the death penalty actually began in the first half of the twentieth century. From the 1907 to the 1917, six states completely outlawed the death penalty, and three other states limited the crimes for which the death penalty could be used. That means more states realized that putting someone to death over small crimes was just wrong.
In 1924, the use of cyanide gas was introduced, as Nevada sought a more human way of executing its inmates. Even though some states were eliminating the death penalty, some states were adding on to it by trying to find more ways to kill people in a more humane way. In the 1950s, public sentiments began to turn away from capital punishment. Many allied nations either abolished or limited the death penalty, and in the United States the number of execution dropped. (Death Penalty Information