Massachusetts

History of the Death Penalty

Massachusetts was one of the first states to car­ry out the death penal­ty in colo­nial times but has since changed its approach. In ear­ly times, hang­ing was the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion. Some defen­dants in the 1600’s were exe­cut­ed for reli­gious affil­i­a­tions. Mary Dyer was just one of the peo­ple exe­cut­ed for affil­i­at­ing with the Quaker reli­gion and there were dozens of indi­vid­u­als, both male and female, exe­cut­ed for witch­craft. In 1900, Massachusetts installed an elec­tric chair to be used in death penal­ty cas­es. Electrocution was the most com­mon form of exe­cu­tion in the Commonwealth until cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was abol­ished in 1984. After the death penal­ty was ruled uncon­sti­tu­tion­al in the state, gov­er­nors, includ­ing Mitt Romney, have tried to rein­state the death penal­ty. Attempts thus far have been unsuccessful.

Famous Cases

John Billington, a colonist who arrived on the Mayflower, was the first per­son exe­cut­ed in Massachusetts, in 1630. He was hung for killing John Newcomen.

On April 15, 1920, two men, Frederick Parmenter and Alessandro Berardelli, were robbed and mur­dered in Braintree, Massachusetts. The two men charged with the mur­der, Ferdinando Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti, were Italian immi­grants and fol­low­ers of Luigi Galleani, an Italian anar­chist. Before Sacco and Vanzetti were tried for the mur­ders, Vanzetti was tried and con­vict­ed of a sep­a­rate rob­bery, despite the tes­ti­mo­ny of 16 wit­ness­es who pro­vid­ed an ali­bi for him. Heavy secu­ri­ty was put in place for the mur­der tri­al, due to fears that oth­er anar­chists might try to bomb the cour­t­house. The pros­e­cu­tion pre­sent­ed evi­dence that one of the four bul­lets retrieved from Berardelli’s body matched a gun owned by Sacco, though wit­ness­es tes­ti­fied that they saw one man shoot Berardelli four times, sug­gest­ing that all four bul­lets should have come from the same gun. Defense wit­ness­es tes­ti­fied that they were hav­ing lunch with Sacco at the time of the rob­bery and mur­der, and oth­ers said that Vanzetti had been sell­ing fish at that time. When Sacco and Vanzetti were con­vict­ed of first-degree mur­der, a cap­i­tal crime, demon­stra­tions were held in cities through­out Italy and Latin America. Supporters believed that the men had been con­vict­ed because of their anarchist beliefs.

In 1925, Celestino Madeiros, an ex-con­vict await­ing tri­al for a dif­fer­ent mur­der, con­fessed to com­mit­ting the Braintree mur­ders. Lawyers for Sacco and Vanzetti pre­sent­ed an appeal to Massachusetts’ high­est court, the Supreme Judicial Court, but it was denied. In deny­ing the appeal, the court said, ​“It is not imper­a­tive that a new tri­al be grant­ed even though the evi­dence is new­ly dis­cov­ered and, if pre­sent­ed to a jury, would jus­ti­fy a dif­fer­ent ver­dict.” In 1927, after the appeal had been denied, Judge Webster Thayer sen­tenced the two men to death. The gov­er­nor denied clemen­cy after a com­mis­sion he had formed declared that the tri­al had been fair. Madeiros (who had been con­vict­ed of a sep­a­rate mur­der), Sacco, and Vanzetti were all exe­cut­ed on August 23, 1927. The fol­low­ing day, pro­test­ers demon­strat­ed around the world. Over 10,000 peo­ple in Boston viewed Sacco and Vanzetti in open cas­kets over two days. Fifty years lat­er, then-Governor Michael Dukakis declared August 23, 1977 Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti Memorial Day.

The last exe­cu­tions to take place in Massachusetts were Phillip Bellino and Edward Gertson on May 9, 1947 for the mur­der of Robert William. Both defen­dants were elec­tro­cut­ed at Charlestown State Prison. Their exe­cu­tions inspired a com­mis­sion to eval­u­ate the death penal­ty in Massachusetts to deter­mine the effectiveness.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

After Furman v. Georgia, vot­ers in the Commonwealth passed an amend­ment that allowed the death penal­ty in 1982. Under this new amend­ment, the state could not ​“be con­strued as pro­hibit­ing the impo­si­tion of the pun­ish­ment of death”. Later that same year, the leg­is­la­ture passed a bill rein­stat­ing the death penal­ty for first-degree murder.

In Commonwealth v. Colon-Cruz (1984), the Massachusetts law that enabled cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was ruled uncon­sti­tu­tion­al on the grounds that it was not applied fair­ly, since only defen­dants who went to tri­al were eli­gi­ble; this exclud­ed defen­dants who plead guilty. 

Other Interesting Facts

Until 1951, any first degree mur­der con­vic­tion required the death penal­ty. This changed to pro­vide jury dis­cre­tion on most mur­der cas­es. However, the death penal­ty was still man­dat­ed in mur­ders involv­ing rape or attempted rape.

In total, there have been 345 exe­cu­tions in Massachusetts, includ­ing 26 for witch­craft. Nineteen of those exe­cut­ed for witch­craft were hanged in Salem in 1692 as a result of the infa­mous Salem Witch Trials.

Resources

• Department of Corrections
• Massachusetts Citizens Against the Death Penalty
• Death Penalty in Massachusetts
• Prosecutors
• Public defend­er’s office
• Victims’ ser­vices