document_title: Capital punishment in the United States

question_text: when was the death penalty reinstated in the us

question_tokens: when was the death penalty reinstated in the us

text: Capital punishment in the United States

text: History[edit]

text: Pre-Furman history[edit]

text: The first recorded death sentence in the British North American colonies was carried out in 1608 on Captain George Kendall,[12] who was executed by firing squad[13] at the Jamestown colony for allegedly spying for the Spanish government.[14]

text: The Bill of Rights adopted in 1789 included the Eighth Amendment which prohibited cruel and unusual punishment. The Fifth Amendment was drafted with language implying a possible use of the death penalty, requiring a grand jury indictment for "capital crime" and a due process of law for deprivation of "life" by the government.[15] The Fourteenth Amendment adopted in 1868 also requires a due process of law for deprivation of life by any state.

text: The Espy file,[16] compiled by M. Watt Espy and John Ortiz Smykla, lists 15,269 people executed in the United States and its predecessor colonies between 1608 and 1991. From 1930 to 2002, there were 4,661 executions in the U.S., about two-thirds of them in the first 20 years.[17] Additionally, the United States Army executed 135 soldiers between 1916 and 1955 (the most recent).[18][19][20]

text: Early abolition movement[edit]

text: Three states abolished the death penalty for murder during the 19th century: Michigan in 1846 (has never executed a prisoner since achieving statehood), Wisconsin in 1853 and Maine in 1887. Rhode Island is also a state with a long abolitionist background, having repealed the death penalty in 1852, though it was theoretically available for murder committed by a prisoner between 1872 and 1984.

text: Other states which abolished the death penalty for murder before Gregg v. Georgia include: Minnesota in 1911, Vermont in 1964, Iowa and West Virginia in 1965 and North Dakota in 1973. Hawaii abolished the death penalty in 1948 and Alaska in 1957, both before their statehood. Puerto Rico repealed it in 1929 and the District of Columbia in 1981. Arizona and Oregon abolished the death penalty by popular vote in 1916 and 1964 respectively, but both reinstated it, again by popular vote, some years later: Arizona in 1918 and Oregon in 1978.[21] Puerto Rico and Michigan are the only two U.S. jurisdictions to have explicitly prohibited capital punishment in their constitutions: in 1952 and 1964, respectively.

text: Constitutional law developments[edit]

text: Nevertheless, capital punishment continued to be used by a majority of states and the federal government for various crimes, especially murder and rape, from the creation of the United States up to the beginning of the 1960s. Until then, "save for a few mavericks, no one gave any credence to the possibility of ending the death penalty by judicial interpretation of constitutional law," according to abolitionist Hugo Bedau.[22]

text: The possibility of challenging the constitutionality of the death penalty became progressively more realistic after the Supreme Court of the United States decided Trop v. Dulles in 1958, when the court said explicitly for the first time that the Eighth Amendment's cruel and unusual clause must draw its meaning from the "evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society" rather than from its original meaning. Also in the 1932 case Powell v. Alabama, the court made the first step of what would be later be called "death is different" jurisprudence, when it held that any indigent defendant was entitled to a court-appointed attorney in capital cases—a right that was only later extended to non-capital defendants in 1963, with Gideon v. Wainwright.

text: Capital punishment suspended (1972)[edit]

text: In Furman v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court considered a group of consolidated cases. The lead case involved an individual convicted under Georgia's death penalty statute, which featured a "unitary trial" procedure in which the jury was asked to return a verdict of guilt or innocence and, simultaneously, determine whether the defendant would be punished by death or life imprisonment. The last pre-Furman execution was that of Luis Monge on June 2, 1967.

text: In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down the impositions of the death penalty in each of the consolidated cases as unconstitutional in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court has never ruled the death penalty to be per se unconstitutional. The five justices in the majority did not produce a common opinion or rationale for their decision, however, and agreed only on a short statement announcing the result. The narrowest opinions, those of Byron White and Potter Stewart, expressed generalized concerns about the inconsistent application of the death penalty across a variety of cases but did not exclude the possibility of a constitutional death penalty law. Stewart and William O. Douglas worried explicitly about racial discrimination in enforcement of the death penalty. Thurgood Marshall and William J. Brennan Jr. expressed the opinion that the death penalty was proscribed absolutely by the Eighth Amendment as cruel and unusual punishment.

text: The Furman decision caused all death sentences pending at the time to be reduced to life imprisonment, and was described by scholars as a "legal bombshell".[4] The next day, columnist Barry Schweid wrote that it was "unlikely" that the death penalty could exist anymore in the United States.[23]

text: Capital punishment reinstated (1976)[edit]

text: Instead of abandoning capital punishment, 37 states enacted new death penalty statutes that attempted to address the concerns of White and Stewart in Furman. Some states responded by enacting mandatory death penalty statutes which prescribed a sentence of death for anyone convicted of certain forms of murder. White had hinted that such a scheme would meet his constitutional concerns in his Furman opinion. Other states adopted "bifurcated" trial and sentencing procedures, with various procedural limitations on the jury's ability to pronounce a death sentence designed to limit juror discretion.

text: On July 2, 1976, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Gregg v. Georgia[24] and upheld 7–2 a Georgia procedure in which the trial of capital crimes was bifurcated into guilt-innocence and sentencing phases. At the first proceeding, the jury decides the defendant's guilt; if the defendant is innocent or otherwise not convicted of first-degree murder, the death penalty will not be imposed. At the second hearing, the jury determines whether certain statutory aggravating factors exist, whether any mitigating factors exist, and, in many jurisdictions, weigh the aggravating and mitigating factors in assessing the ultimate penalty – either death or life in prison, either with or without parole. The same day in Woodson v. North Carolina[25] and Roberts v. Louisiana,[26] the court struck down 5–4 statutes providing a mandatory death sentence.

text: Executions resumed on January 17, 1977, when Gary Gilmore went before a firing squad in Utah. Although hundreds of individuals were sentenced to death in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s, only ten people besides Gilmore (who had waived all of his appeal rights) were actually executed prior to 1984.

text: Supreme Court narrows capital offenses[edit]

text: In 1977, the Supreme Court's Coker v. Georgia decision barred the death penalty for rape of an adult woman. Previously, the death penalty for rape of an adult had been gradually phased out in the United States, and at the time of the decision, Georgia and the U.S. Federal government were the only two jurisdictions to still retain the death penalty for that offense.

text: In the 1980 case Godfrey v. Georgia, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that murder can be punished by death only if it involves a narrow and precise aggravating factor.[27]

text: The U.S. Supreme Court has placed two major restrictions on the use of the death penalty. First, the case of Atkins v. Virginia, decided on June 20, 2002,[28] held that the execution of intellectually retarded inmates is unconstitutional. Second, in 2005, the court's decision in Roper v. Simmons[29] struck down executions for offenders under the age of 18 at the time of the crime.

text: In the 2008 case Kennedy v. Louisiana, the court also held 5–4 that the death penalty is unconstitutional when applied to non-homicidal crimes against the person, including child rape. Only two death row inmates (both in Louisiana) were affected by the decision.[30] Nevertheless, the ruling came less than five months before the 2008 presidential election and was criticized by both major party candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.[31]

text: Repeal movements and legal challenges[edit]

text: In 2004, New York and Kansas capital sentencing schemes were struck down by their respective state highest courts. Kansas successfully appealed the Kansas Supreme Court decision to the United States Supreme Court, who reinstated the statute in Kansas v. Marsh (2006), holding it did not violate the U.S. Constitution. The decision of New York Court of Appeals was based on the state constitution, making unavailable any appeal. The state lower house has since blocked all attempts to reinstate the death penalty by adopting a valid sentencing scheme.[32] In 2016, Delaware's death penalty statute was also struck down by its state supreme court.[33]

text: In 2007, New Jersey became the first state to repeal the death penalty by legislative vote since Gregg v. Georgia,[34] followed by New Mexico in 2009,[35][36] Illinois in 2011,[37] Connecticut in 2012,[38][39] and Maryland in 2013.[40] The repeals were not retroactive, but in New Jersey, Illinois and Maryland, governors commuted all death sentences after enacting the new law.[41] In Connecticut, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that the repeal must be retroactive. New Mexico is the only state with remaining death row inmates and no present death penalty statute.[42]

text: Nebraska's legislature also passed a repeal in 2015, but a referendum campaign gathered enough signatures to suspend it. Capital punishment was reinstated by popular vote on November 8, 2016. The same day, California's electorate defeated a proposal to repeal the death penalty, and adopted another initiative to speed up its appeal process.[43]

text: Since Furman, 11 states have organized popular votes dealing with the death penalty through the initiative and referendum process. All resulted in a vote for reinstating it, rejecting its abolition, expanding its application field, specifying in the state constitution that it is not unconstitutional, or expediting the appeal process in capital cases.[21]

text: Lethal injection era[edit]

text: From 1976 to January 1, 2017, there were 1,442 executions, of which 1,267 were by lethal injection, 158 by electrocution, 11 by gas inhalation, 3 by hanging, and 3 by firing squad.[44] Executions rose at a near-continuous pace until 1999, when it peaked at 98. After 1999, the number of executions lowered nearly every year, and the 20 executions in 2016 were the fewest since 1991.[6]

text: The death penalty was a notable issue during the 1988 presidential election. It came up in the October 13, 1988 debate between the two presidential nominees George H. W. Bush and Michael Dukakis when Bernard Shaw, the moderator of the debate, asked Dukakis, "Governor, if Kitty Dukakis [his wife] were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?" Dukakis replied, "No, I don't, and I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life. I don't see any evidence that it's a deterrent, and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime." Bush was elected and many, including Dukakis himself, cite the statement as the beginning of the end of his campaign.[45]

text: In 1996, Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act to streamline the appeal process in capital cases. The bill was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, who had endorsed capital punishment during his 1992 presidential campaign.

text: In June 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the constitutionality of lethal injection in Glossip v. Gross. Justice Breyer, joined by Justice Ginsburg, wrote a dissenting opinion saying it was time for the court to prohibit capital punishment entirely, believing it is "highly likely that the death penalty violates the Eighth Amendment" because of unreliability, arbitrariness, and "unconscionably long delays that undermine the death penalty's penological purpose."[46]

text: Because Breyer and Ginsburg are not the first justices to change their minds on that issue, their opinion drew a scathing retort from Justice Scalia, joined by Justice Thomas, who began his concurring opinion by saying "Welcome to Groundhog Day". He expressed the view that whenever a justice asserts it is now time to judicially abolish the death penalty, he only advances the same contentions that have not convinced the court earlier.[47]

text: Justice Thomas, joined by Justice Scalia, also wrote a concurring opinion in this case, saying that Breyer and Ginsburg are engaging in the "ceaseless quest to end the death penalty through undemocratic means" and that the court should never have prohibited mandatory death sentences, because they are the best way to impose a uniform application of the death penalty. He believed that it was contradictory for some judges to be willing to get rid of the death penalty on the grounds of a sentencing arbitrariness and delays for which the court itself is to blame.[48]

text: Capital crimes[edit]

text: Aggravated murder[edit]

text: Aggravating factors for seeking capital punishment of murder vary greatly among death penalty states. California has twenty-two;[49] New Hampshire has seven.[50] Some aggravating circumstances are nearly universal, such as robbery-murder, murder involving rape of the victim, and murder of an on-duty police officer.[10]

text: Several states have included child murder to their list of aggravating factors, but the victim's age under which the murder is punishable by death varies. In 2011, Texas raised this age from six to ten.[51]

text: In some states, the high number of aggravating factors has been criticized on account of giving prosecutors too much discretion in choosing cases where they believe capital punishment is warranted. In California especially, an official commission proposed in 2008 to reduce these factors to five (multiple murders, torture murder, murder of a police officer, murder committed in jail, and murder related to another felony).[52] Columnist Charles Lane went further, and proposed that murder related to a felony other than rape should no longer be a capital crime when there is only one victim killed.[53]

text: Crimes against the state[edit]

text: The opinion of the court in Kennedy v. Louisiana says that the ruling does not apply to "treason, espionage, terrorism, and drug kingpin activity, which are offenses against the State".[54]

text: Since no one is on death row for such offenses, the court has yet to rule on the constitutionality of the death penalty applied for them.

text: Treason, espionage and large-scale drug trafficking are all capital crimes under federal law. Treason is also punishable by death in six states (Arkansas, California, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi and Missouri). Vermont still has a pre-Furman statute providing the death penalty for treason despite removing capital punishment for murder in 1965.[55] Large-scale drug trafficking is punishable by death in two states (Florida and Missouri).[56] Aircraft hijacking is a capital crime in Georgia and Mississippi.

text: Legal process[edit]

text: The legal administration of the death penalty in the United States typically involves five critical steps: (1) prosecutorial decision to seek the death penalty (2) sentencing, (3) direct review, (4) state collateral review, and (5) federal habeas corpus.

text: Clemency, through which the Governor or President of the jurisdiction can unilaterally reduce or abrogate a death sentence, is an executive rather than judicial process.[57]

text: Decision to seek the death penalty[edit]

text: While judges in criminal cases can usually impose a harsher prison sentence than the one demanded by prosecution, the death penalty can be handed down only if the accuser has specifically decided to seek it.

text: In the decades since Furman, new questions have emerged about whether or not prosecutorial arbitrariness has replaced sentencing arbitrariness. A study by Pepperdine University School of Law published in Temple Law Review, surveyed the decision-making process among prosecutors in various states. The authors found that prosecutors' capital punishment filing decisions remain marked by local "idiosyncrasies," suggesting they are not in keeping with the spirit of the Supreme Court's directive. This means that "the very types of unfairness that the Supreme Court sought to eliminate" may still "infect capital cases." Wide prosecutorial discretion remains because of overly broad criteria. California law, for example, has 22 "special circumstances," making nearly all premeditated murders potential capital cases.[58]

text: A proposed remedy against prosecutorial arbitrariness is to transfer the prosecution of capital cases to the state attorney general.[59]

text: Sentencing[edit]

text: Of the 31 states with the death penalty, 29 provide the sentence to be decided by a jury, and 28 require a unanimous sentence.

text: However, the states differ on what happens if the penalty phase results in a hung jury:[60][61]

text:
In four states (Arizona, California, Kentucky and Nevada), a retrial of the penalty phase will be conducted before a different jury (the common-law rule for mistrial).[62]
In two states (Indiana and Missouri), the judge will decide the sentence.
In the 22 other states, a hung jury results in a life sentence, even if only one juror opposed death. Federal law also provides that outcome.

tag: ul

text: The first outcome is referred as the "true unanimity" rule, while the third has been criticized as the "single-juror veto" rule.[63]

text: In Alabama, the sentence is decided by the jury and at least 10 jurors must concur. A retrial happens if the jury deadlock.[64]

text: Nebraska is the only state in which the sentence is decided by a three-judge panel. If one of the judges on the panel opposes death, the defendant is sentenced to life imprisonment.[65] Montana is the only state where the trial judge decides the sentence alone.[66]

text: In all states in which the jury is involved, only death-qualified veniremen can be selected in such a jury, to exclude both people who will always vote for the death sentence and those who are categorically opposed to it.

text: Direct review[edit]

text: If a defendant is sentenced to death at the trial level, the case then goes into a direct review.[67] The direct review process is a typical legal appeal. An appellate court examines the record of evidence presented in the trial court and the law that the lower court applied and decides whether the decision was legally sound or not.[68] Direct review of a capital sentencing hearing will result in one of three outcomes. If the appellate court finds that no significant legal errors occurred in the capital sentencing hearing, the appellate court will affirm the judgment, or let the sentence stand.[67] If the appellate court finds that significant legal errors did occur, then it will reverse the judgment, or nullify the sentence and order a new capital sentencing hearing.[69] Lastly, if the appellate court finds that no reasonable juror could find the defendant eligible for the death penalty, a rarity, then it will order the defendant acquitted, or not guilty, of the crime for which he/she was given the death penalty, and order him sentenced to the next most severe punishment for which the offense is eligible.[69] About 60 percent survive the process of direct review intact.[70]

text: State collateral review[edit]

text: At times when a death sentence is affirmed on direct review, supplemental methods to attack the judgment, though less familiar than a typical appeal, do remain. These supplemental remedies are considered collateral review, that is, an avenue for upsetting judgments that have become otherwise final.[71] Where the prisoner received his death sentence in a state-level trial, as is usually the case, the first step in collateral review is state collateral review, which is often called state habeas corpus. (If the case is a federal death penalty case, it proceeds immediately from direct review to federal habeas corpus.) Although all states have some type of collateral review, the process varies widely from state to state.[72] Generally, the purpose of these collateral proceedings is to permit the prisoner to challenge his sentence on grounds that could not have been raised reasonably at trial or on direct review.[73] Most often these are claims, such as ineffective assistance of counsel, which requires the court to consider new evidence outside the original trial record, something courts may not do in an ordinary appeal. State collateral review, though an important step in that it helps define the scope of subsequent review through federal habeas corpus, is rarely successful in and of itself. Only around 6 percent of death sentences are overturned on state collateral review.[74]

text: In Virginia, state habeas corpus for condemned men are heard by the state supreme court under exclusive original jurisdiction since 1995, immediately after direct review by the same court.[75] This avoids any proceeding before the lower courts, and is in part why Virginia has the shortest time on average between death sentence and execution (less than eight years) and has executed 113 offenders since 1976 with only five remaining on death row as of June 2017.[76][77]

text: To reduce litigation delays, other states require convicts to file their state collateral appeal before the completion of their direct appeal,[78] or provide adjudication of direct and collateral attacks together in a "unitary review".[79]

text: Federal habeas corpus[edit]

text: After a death sentence is affirmed in state collateral review, the prisoner may file for federal habeas corpus, which is a unique type of lawsuit that can be brought in federal courts. Federal habeas corpus is a type of collateral review, and it is the only way that state prisoners may attack a death sentence in federal court (other than petitions for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court after both direct review and state collateral review). The scope of federal habeas corpus is governed by the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (AEDPA), which restricted significantly its previous scope. The purpose of federal habeas corpus is to ensure that state courts, through the process of direct review and state collateral review, have done a reasonable job in protecting the prisoner's federal constitutional rights. Prisoners may also use federal habeas corpus suits to bring forth new evidence that they are innocent of the crime, though to be a valid defense at this late stage in the process, evidence of innocence must be truly compelling.[80] According to Eric Freedman, 21 percent of death penalty cases are reversed through federal habeas corpus.[74]

text: James Liebman, a professor of law at Columbia Law School, stated in 1996 that his study found that when habeas corpus petitions in death penalty cases were traced from conviction to completion of the case that there was "a 40 percent success rate in all capital cases from 1978 to 1995."[81] Similarly, a study by Ronald Tabak in a law review article puts the success rate in habeas corpus cases involving death row inmates even higher, finding that between "1976 and 1991, approximately 47 percent of the habeas petitions filed by death row inmates were granted."[82] The different numbers are largely definitional, rather than substantive: Freedam's statistics looks at the percentage of all death penalty cases reversed, while the others look only at cases not reversed prior to habeas corpus review.

text: A similar process is available for prisoners sentenced to death by the judgment of a federal court.[83]

text: The AEDPA also provides an expeditious habeas procedure in capital cases for states meeting several requirements set forth in it concerning counsel appointment for death row inmates.[84] Under this program, federal habeas corpus for condemned prisoners would be decided in about three years from affirmance of the sentence on state collateral review. In 2006, Congress conferred the determination of whether a state fulfilled the requirements to the U.S. attorney general, with a possible appeal of the state to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. As of March 2016, the Department of Justice has still not granted any certifications.[85]

text: Section 1983[edit]

text: If the federal court refuses to issue a writ of habeas corpus, the death sentence becomes final for all purposes. In recent times, however, prisoners have postponed execution through another way of federal litigation using the Civil Rights Act of 1871 — codified at 42 U.S.C. § 1983 — which allows people to bring lawsuits against state actors to protect their federal constitutional and statutory rights.

text: While the aforementioned appeals are normally limited to one and automatically stay the execution of the death sentence, Section 1983 lawsuits are unlimited, but the petitioner will be granted a stay of execution only if the court believes he has a likelihood of success on the merits.[86]

text: Traditionally, Section 1983 was of limited use for a state prisoner under sentence of death because the Supreme Court has held that habeas corpus, not Section 1983, is the only vehicle by which a state prisoner can challenge his judgment of death.[87] In the 2006 Hill v. McDonough case, however, the United States Supreme Court approved the use of Section 1983 as a vehicle for challenging a state's method of execution as cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment. The theory is that a prisoner bringing such a challenge is not attacking directly his judgment of death, but rather the means by which that the judgment will be carried out. Therefore, the Supreme Court held in the Hill case that a prisoner can use Section 1983 rather than habeas corpus to bring the lawsuit. Yet, as Clarence Hill's own case shows, lower federal courts have often refused to hear suits challenging methods of execution on the ground that the prisoner brought the claim too late and only for the purposes of delay. Further, the Court's decision in Baze v. Rees, upholding a lethal injection method used by many states, has narrowed the opportunity for relief through Section 1983.

text: Execution warrant[edit]

text: While the execution warrant is issued by the governor in several states, in the vast majority it is a judicial order, issued by a judge or by the state supreme court at the request of the prosecution.

text: The warrant usually sets an execution day. Some states instead provide a longer period, such as a week or 10 days to carry out the execution. This is designated to avoid issuing a new warrant in case of a last-minute stay of execution that would be vacated only few days or few hours later.[88]

text: Distribution of sentences[edit]

text: Within the context of the overall murder rate, the death penalty cannot be said to be widely or routinely used in the United States; in recent years the average has been about one death sentence for every 200 murder convictions.

text: Alabama has the highest per capita rate of death sentences. This is because Alabama was one of the few states that allowed judges to override a jury recommendation in favor of life imprisonment, a possibility it removed in March 2017.[89][90]

text: Among states[edit]

text: The distribution of death sentences among states is loosely proportional to their populations and murder rates. California, which is the most populous state, has also the largest death row with over 700 inmates. Wyoming, which is the least populous state, has only one condemned man.

text: But executions are more frequent (and happen more quickly after sentencing) in conservative states. Texas, which is the second most populous state of the Union, carried out over 500 executions during the post-Furman era, more than a third of the national total. California has carried out only 13 executions during the same period.[91][92][93]

text: Among races[edit]

text: African Americans made up 41% of death row inmates while making up only 12.6% of the general population. They have made up 34% of those actually executed since 1976. However, this is an under-representation relative to the proportion of convicted murderers; 52.5% of all homicide offenders between 1980 and 2008 were African Americans.[94] According to a 2003 Amnesty International report, blacks and whites were the victims of murder in almost equal numbers, yet 80% of the people executed since 1977 were convicted of murders involving white victims.[95]

text: Approximately 13.5% of death row inmates are of Hispanic or Latino descent, while they make up 17.4% of the general population.[96]

text: Among sexes[edit]

text: As of October 1, 2014, men accounted for 98% of people on death row and 99% of executions since 1976.[97]

text: Methods[edit]

text: All 31 states with the death penalty provide lethal injection as the primary method of execution.

text: Some states allow other methods than lethal injection, but only as secondary methods to be used merely at the request of the prisoner or if lethal injection is unavailable.[98][99]

text: Several states continue to use the historical three-drug protocol: an anesthetic, pancuronium bromide a paralytic, and potassium chloride to stop the heart.[100] Eight states have used a single-drug protocol, inflicting only an overdose of a single anesthetic to the prisoner.[100]

text: While some state statutes specify the drugs required, a majority do not, giving more flexibility to corrections officials.[100]

text: Pressures from anti-death penalty activists and shareholders have made it difficult for correctional services to get the chemicals. Hospira, the only U.S. manufacturer of sodium thiopental, stopped making the drug in 2011.[101] In 2016, it was reported that more than 20 U.S. and European drug manufacturers including Pfizer (the owner of Hospira) had taken steps to prevent their drugs from being used for lethal injections.[101][102][103]

text: Since then, some states have used other anesthetics, such as pentobarbital, etomidate,[104] or fast-acting benzodiazepines like midazolam.[105] Many states have since bought lethal injection drugs from foreign furnishers, and most states have made it a criminal offense to reveal the identities of furnishers or execution team members.[101][106] In November 2015, California adopted regulations allowing the state to use its own public compounding pharmacies to make the chemicals.[107]

text: In 2009, Ohio approved the use of an intramuscular injection of 500 mg of hydromorphone (a 333-fold overdose for an opioid-naïve patient of this narcotic analgesic closely related to and five times stronger than morphine; this is the equivalent of an entire 50-ml bottle of Dilaudid HP, the most powerful commercially available form, although the advantage of hydromorphone is its very high solubility allowing for solutions of almost arbitrary concentration; 500 mg of hydromorphone HCl as pure powder can be dissolved in isotonic saline in volumes as small as under 2 cc)[108] and a supratherapeutic dose of midazolam as a backup means of carrying out executions when a suitable vein cannot be found for intravenous injection.[109][110]

text: Lethal injection was held to be a constitutional method of execution by the U.S. Supreme Court in two cases: Baze v. Rees (2008) and Glossip v. Gross (2015).[111][112]

text: Offender-selected methods[edit]

text: In the following states, death row inmates with an execution warrant may choose to be executed by:[98][99]

text:
Electrocution in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Gas inhalation in Arizona and California.
Firing squad in Utah.
Hanging in Washington.

text: In five states (Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Utah), the alternative method is offered only to inmates sentenced to death for crimes committed prior to a specified date (usually when the state switched from the earlier method to lethal injection).

text: When an offender chooses to be executed by a means different from the state default method, which is always lethal injection, he loses the right to challenge its constitutionality in court (Stewart v. LaGrand, 1999).

text: The last executions by methods other than injection are as follows (all have chosen this method):

text:
Method
Date
State
Inmate

Electrocution
000000002013-01-16-0000January 16, 2013
Virginia
Robert Gleason

Firing squad
000000002010-06-18-0000June 18, 2010
Utah
Ronnie Lee Gardner

Lethal gas
000000001999-03-03-0000March 3, 1999
Arizona
Walter LaGrand

Hanging
000000001996-01-25-0000January 25, 1996
Delaware
William Bailey

text: Backup methods[edit]

text: Depending on the state, the following alternative methods are statutorily provided in the event that lethal injection is either found unconstitutional by a court or unavailable for practical reasons:[98][99][113]

text:
Electrocution in Florida, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Gas inhalation in California, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wyoming.
Firing squad in Oklahoma and Utah.
Hanging in New Hampshire.

text: Oklahoma is the only state allowing more than two methods of execution in its statutes, providing lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia, electrocution and firing squad to be used in that order in the event that all earlier methods are unavailable. The nitrogen option was added by the Oklahoma Legislature in 2015 and has never been used in a judicial execution, though it is routinely used to give a painless death in animal euthanasia.[114]

text: Three states (Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah) have added back-up methods recently in 2014 or 2015 (or have expanded their application fields) in reaction to the shortage of lethal injection drugs.[115]

text: Some states such as Florida have a larger provision dealing with execution methods unavailability, requiring their state departments of corrections to use "any constitutional method" if both lethal injection and electrocution are found unconstitutional. This was designed to make unnecessary any further legislative intervention in that event, but the provision apply only to legal (not practical) infeasibility.[116][117]

text: In May 2016, an Oklahoma grand jury recommended the state to use nitrogen hypoxia as its primary method of execution rather than as a mere backup, after experts testified that the method would be painless, easy and "inexpensive".[118]

text: Federal executions[edit]

text: The method of execution of federal prisoners for offenses under the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 is that of the state in which the conviction took place. If the state has no death penalty, the judge must choose a state with the death penalty for carrying out the execution.

text: The federal government has a facility and regulations only for executions by lethal injection, but the United States Code allows U.S. Marshals to use state facilities and employees for federal executions.[119][120]

text: Execution attendance[edit]

text: The last public execution in the U.S. was that of Rainey Bethea in Owensboro, Kentucky, on August 14, 1936.

text: It was the last execution in the nation at which the general public was permitted to attend without any legally imposed restrictions. "Public execution" is a legal phrase, defined by the laws of various states, and carried out pursuant to a court order. Similar to "public record" or "public meeting," it means that anyone who wants to attend the execution may do so.

text: Around 1890, a political movement developed in the United States to mandate private executions. Several states enacted laws which required executions to be conducted within a "wall" or "enclosure" or to "exclude public view." Most states laws currently use such explicit wording to prohibit public executions, while others do so only implicitly by enumerating the only authorized witnesses.[121]

text: All states allow news reporters to be execution witnesses for information of the general public, except Wyoming which allow only witnesses authorized by the condemned.[122][123][124] Several states also allow victims' families and relatives selected by the prisoner to watch executions. An hour or two before the execution, the condemned is offered religious services and to choose his last meal (except in Texas which abolished it in 2011).

text: The execution of Timothy McVeigh on June 11, 2001, was witnessed by over 200 people, most by closed-circuit television.

text: Public opinion[edit]

text: Gallup, Inc. monitors support for the death penalty in the United States since 1937 by asking "Are you in favor of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder?" In their last poll in October 2016, 60% of respondents said they were in favor and 37% were opposed.[125] A month earlier, a Pew Research poll found that 49% of Americans supported the death penalty for convicted murderers and 42% opposed, down from 80% in 1974.[126]

text: When persons surveyed are given a choice between the death penalty and life without parole for persons convicted of capital crimes, support for execution has traditionally been significantly lower than in polling that asks only if a person does or does not support the death penalty. In 2010, for instance, a Gallup poll that offered a choice showed 49% favoring the death penalty and 46% favoring life imprisonment.[127]

text: On the other hand, in November 2009, another Gallup poll found that 77% of Americans say that September 11 attacks' mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed should get the death penalty if convicted, including 12 who normally opposed the death penalty when asked the 1937 question.[128] A similar result was found in 2001 when respondents were polled about the execution of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City Bombing that killed 168 victims.[129]

text: Debate[edit]

text: Capital punishment is a controversial issue, with many prominent organizations and individuals participating in the debate. Amnesty International and other groups oppose capital punishment on moral grounds.

text: Some law enforcement organizations, and some victims' rights groups support capital punishment.

text: The United States is one of four industrialized democracies that still practice capital punishment with Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan.

text: Religious groups are widely split on the issue of capital punishment.[130] The Fiqh Council of North America, a group of highly influential Muslim scholars in the United States, has issued a fatwa calling for a moratorium on capital punishment in the United States until various preconditions in the legal system are met.[131]

text: In October 2009, the American Law Institute voted to disavow the framework for capital punishment that it had created in 1962, as part of the Model Penal Code, "in light of the current intractable institutional and structural obstacles to ensuring a minimally adequate system for administering capital punishment." A study commissioned by the institute had said that experience had proved that the goal of individualized decisions about who should be executed and the goal of systemic fairness for minorities and others could not be reconciled.[132] As of 2017[update], 158 prisoners[citation needed] have been either acquitted or received pardons or commutations on the basis of possible innocence[133][134] but none of the over 1,400 offenders executed during this period received a posthumous exoneration.[135]

text: Arguments for and against capital punishment are based on moral, practical, and religious grounds. Advocates of the death penalty argue that it deters crime, is a good tool for prosecutors (in plea bargaining for example),[136] improves the community by eliminating recidivism by executed criminals, provides closure to surviving victims or loved ones, and is a just penalty for the crimes it punishes. Since 1996, 24 studies were published in peer-reviewed journals about the deterrent effect of the death penalty: 17 concluded that it is more deterrent than life imprisonment, 5 that it is not, and two were inconclusive.[137]

text: Opponents deny that the death penalty is an effective means of deterring crime.[138] In addition, its use risks the execution of the innocent; it is unnecessarily barbaric in nature; it cheapens human life; and puts a government on the same base moral level as those criminals who have murdered.[139] Furthermore, some opponents argue that it is applied in an arbitrary manner by a criminal justice system that has been shown to be biased through the systemic influence of racial, socio-economic, geographic, and gender factors. Thus they believe that the current practice of capital punishment is immoral and illegitimate.[140]

text: Another argument (specific to the United States) in the capital punishment debate is the cost. The convict is more likely to appeal the death penalty sentence than one for life without parole.[141] Others, who contest this argument, say that the greater cost of appeals where the prosecution does seek the death penalty is offset by the savings from avoiding trial altogether in cases where the defendant pleads guilty to avoid the death penalty.[142]

text: Various commentators predicted that the death penalty would likely have disappeared in the United States if Hillary Clinton had been elected U.S. President in November 2016 and allowed to appoint a liberal Supreme Court Justice instead of the late Antonin Scalia. Because Donald Trump won and citizens in three states voted the same day for ballot measures supporting capital punishment, columnists came to the conclusion that it will remain indefinitely.[143][144][145]

text: Clemency and commutations[edit]

text: The largest number of clemencies was granted in January 2003 in Illinois when outgoing Governor George Ryan, who had already imposed a moratorium on executions, pardoned four death-row inmates and commuted the sentences of the remaining 167 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.[146] When Governor Pat Quinn signed legislation abolishing the death penalty in Illinois in March 2011, he commuted the sentences of the fifteen inmates on death row to life imprisonment.[37]

text: Previous post-Furman mass clemencies took place in 1986 in New Mexico, when Governor Toney Anaya commuted all death sentences because of his personal opposition to the death penalty. In 1991, outgoing Ohio Governor Dick Celeste commuted the sentences of eight prisoners, among them all four women on the state's death row. And during his two terms (1979–1987) as Florida's Governor, Bob Graham, although a strong death penalty supporter who had overseen the first post-Furman involuntary execution as well as 15 others, agreed to commute the sentences of six people on the grounds of doubts about guilt or disproportionality.

text: Execution hiatus[edit]

text: All executions were suspended through the country between September 2007 and April 2008. At that time, the U.S. Supreme Court was examining the constitutionality of lethal injection in Baze v. Rees. This was the longest period with no executions in the United States since 1982. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld this method in a 7–2 ruling.

text: In addition to the states that have no valid death penalty statute, the following states and jurisdictions are noted that have an official moratorium, or have had no executions for more than ten years, as of 2017:

text:
State / Jurisdiction
Status
Hiatus status[147]

Federal
de facto
Since 2003, issues with lethal injection have delayed any executions; status unclear

U.S. Military
de facto
Last execution took place in 1961

Arizona
by Attorney General
In 2014, Attorney General indefinitely stayed executions

California
de facto
No executions since 2006[148]

Colorado
by Governor
In 2013, Governor set a moratorium

Kentucky
by court order
In 2010, a federal judge suspended executions pending a new protocol[149]

Montana
by court order
In 2015, a federal judge ruled the state's lethal injection protocol is unlawful, stopping executions[150]

Nebraska
de facto
Last execution took place in 1997

Nevada
de facto
Last execution in 2006

North Carolina
de facto
Last execution in 2006

Oklahoma
by implementers
In 2014, state Dept. of Corrections recommended an indefinite hold on executions after a botched execution

Oregon
by Governor
In 2011, Governor announced a moratorium and a review

Pennsylvania
by Governor
In 2015, Governor announced a moratorium pending review

Washington
by Governor
In 2014, Governor announced a moratorium and reprieve for new cases

text: Kansas, New Hampshire and Wyoming have also no executions for over ten years, but in these states it is because of the lack of death row inmates having exhausted the appeal process.

text: Since 1976, four states have executed only condemned prisoners who voluntarily waived further appeals: Pennsylvania has executed three inmates, Oregon two, Connecticut one, and New Mexico one.

text: In North Carolina, executions are suspended following a decision by the state's medical board that physicians cannot participate in executions, which is a requirement under state law.

text: In California, United States District Judge Jeremy Fogel suspended all executions in the state on December 15, 2006, ruling that the implementation used in California was unconstitutional but that it could be fixed.[151]

text: On November 25, 2009, the Kentucky Supreme Court suspended executions until the state adopts regulations for carrying out the penalty by lethal injection.[152]

text: In November 2011, Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber announced a moratorium on executions in Oregon, canceling a planned execution and ordering a review of the death penalty system in the state.[153]

text: On February 11, 2014, Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced a capital punishment moratorium. All death penalty cases that come to Inslee will result in him issuing a reprieve, not a pardon or commutation.[154]

text: On February 13, 2015, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced a moratorium on the death penalty. Wolf will issue a reprieve for every execution until a commission on capital punishment, which was established in 2011 by the Pennsylvania State Senate, produces a recommendation.[155] Effectively there was a moratorium in place, as the state had not executed anyone since Gary M. Heidnik in 1999.


document_title: The House of the Rising Sun

question_text: who wrote there is a house in new orleans

root

text: The House of the Rising Sun

text: Origin and early versions[edit]

text: Origin[edit]

text: Like many classic folk ballads, "The House of the Rising Sun" is of uncertain authorship. Musicologists say that it is based on the tradition of broadside ballads, and thematically it has some resemblance to the 16th-century ballad The Unfortunate Rake.[4] According to Alan Lomax, "Rising Sun" was used as the name of a bawdy house in two traditional English songs, and it was also a name for English pubs.[5] He further suggested that the melody might be related to a 17th-century folk song, "Lord Barnard and Little Musgrave", also known as "Matty Groves",[6][7] but a survey by Bertrand Bronson showed no clear relationship between the two songs.[8] Lomax proposed that the location of the house was then relocated from England to New Orleans by white southern performers.[5] However, Vance Randolph proposed an alternative French origin, the "rising sun" referring to the decorative use of the sunburst insignia dating to the time of Louis XIV, which was brought to North America by French immigrants.[8]

tag: p

text: "House of Rising Sun" was said to have been known by miners in 1905.[6] The oldest published version of the lyrics is that printed by Robert Winslow Gordon in 1925, in a column "Old Songs That Men Have Sung" in Adventure Magazine.[9] The lyrics of that version begin:[9][10]

text: There is a house in New Orleans, it's called the Rising Sun

text: It's been the ruin of many a poor girl

text: The oldest known recording of the song, under the title "Rising Sun Blues", is by Appalachian artists Clarence "Tom" Ashley and Gwen Foster, who recorded it for Vocalion Records on 6 September 1933.[6][11] Ashley said he had learned it from his grandfather, Enoch Ashley. Roy Acuff, an "early-day friend and apprentice" of Ashley's, learned it from him and recorded it as "Rising Sun" on 3 November 1938.[6][11] Several older blues recordings of songs with similar titles are unrelated, for example, "Rising Sun Blues" by Ivy Smith (1927) and "The Risin' Sun" by Texas Alexander (1928).[5]

text: The song was among those collected by folklorist Alan Lomax, who, along with his father, was a curator of the Archive of American Folk Song for the Library of Congress. On an expedition with his wife to eastern Kentucky, Lomax set up his recording equipment in Middlesboro, Kentucky, in the house of singer and activist Tilman Cadle. In 1937 he recorded a performance by Georgia Turner, the 16-year-old daughter of a local miner. He called it The Rising Sun Blues.[11] Lomax later recorded a different version sung by Bert Martin and a third sung by Daw Henson, both eastern Kentucky singers. In his 1941 songbook Our Singing Country, Lomax credits the lyrics to Turner,[11] with reference to Martin's version.

text: Early folk and blues releases[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2016) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

tag: table

text: In 1941, Woody Guthrie recorded a version. A recording made in 1947 by Josh White, who is also credited with having written new words and music that have subsequently been popularized in the versions made by many other later artists, was released by Mercury Records in 1950. White learned the song from a "white hillbilly singer", who might have been Ashley, in North Carolina in 1923–1924.[6] Lead Belly recorded two versions of the song, in February 1944 and in October 1948, called "In New Orleans" and "The House of the Rising Sun", respectively; the latter was recorded in sessions that were later used on the album Lead Belly's Last Sessions (1994, Smithsonian Folkways).

text: In 1957 Glenn Yarbrough recorded the song for Elektra Records. The song is also credited to Ronnie Gilbert on an album by The Weavers released in the late 1940s or early 1950s. Pete Seeger released a version on Folkways Records in 1958, which was re-released by Smithsonian Folkways in 2009.[11] Andy Griffith recorded the song on his 1959 album Andy Griffith Shouts the Blues and Old Timey Songs. In 1960 Miriam Makeba recorded the song on her eponymous RCA album.

text: Joan Baez recorded it in 1960 on her self-titled debut album; she frequently performed the song in concert throughout her career. Nina Simone recorded her first version for the album Nina at the Village Gate in 1962. Tim Hardin sang it on This is Tim Hardin, recorded in 1964 but not released until 1967.[12] The Chambers Brothers recorded a version on Feelin' the Blues, released on Vault records (1970).

text: Van Ronk arrangement[edit]

text: In late 1961, Bob Dylan recorded the song for his debut album, released in March 1962. That release had no songwriting credit, but the liner notes indicate that Dylan learned this version of the song from Dave Van Ronk. In an interview for the documentary No Direction Home, Van Ronk said that he was intending to record the song and that Dylan copied his version. Van Ronk recorded it soon thereafter for the album Just Dave Van Ronk.

text: I had learned it sometime in the 1950s, from a recording by Hally Wood, the Texas singer and collector, who had got it from an Alan Lomax field recording by a Kentucky woman named Georgia Turner. I put a different spin on it by altering the chords and using a bass line that descended in half steps—a common enough progression in jazz, but unusual among folksingers. By the early 1960s, the song had become one of my signature pieces, and I could hardly get off the stage without doing it.[13]

text: The Animals' version[edit]

text:
"The House of the Rising Sun"

Single by The Animals

from the album The Animals

B-side
"Talkin' 'bout You"

Released

19 June 1964 (1964-06-19) (UK)
August 1964 (USA)

Format
7-inch single

Recorded
18 May 1964

Genre
Rock

Length
2:59, 4:29

Label
Columbia Graphophone

Songwriter(s)
Traditional, arranged by Alan Price

Producer(s)
Mickie Most

The Animals singles chronology

"Baby Let Me Take You Home"
(1964)
"The House of the Rising Sun"
(1964)
"I'm Crying"
(1964)

"Baby Let Me Take You Home"
(1964)
"House of the Rising Sun"
(1964)
"I'm Crying"
(1964)

text: An interview with Eric Burdon revealed that he first heard the song in a club in Newcastle, England, where it was sung by the Northumbrian folk singer Johnny Handle. The Animals were on tour with Chuck Berry and chose it because they wanted something distinctive to sing.[14]

text: The Animals' version transposes the narrative of the song from the point of view of a woman led into a life of degradation to that of a man whose father was now a gambler and drunkard, rather than the sweetheart in earlier versions.

text: The Animals had begun featuring their arrangement of "House of the Rising Sun" during a joint concert tour with Chuck Berry, using it as their closing number to differentiate themselves from acts that always closed with straight rockers.[15] It got a tremendous reaction from the audience, convincing initially reluctant producer Mickie Most that it had hit potential,[15] and between tour stops the group went to a small recording studio on Kingsway in London[15] to capture it.

text: Recording and releases[edit]

text: The song was recorded in just one take on 18 May 1964,[16] and it starts with a now-famous electric guitar A minor chord arpeggio by Hilton Valentine.[1][3] According to Valentine, he simply took Dylan's chord sequence and played it as an arpeggio.[17] The performance takes off with Burdon's lead vocal, which has been variously described as "howling,"[2] "soulful,"[18] and as "...deep and gravelly as the north-east English coal town of Newcastle that spawned him."[1] Finally, Alan Price's pulsating organ part (played on a Vox Continental) completes the sound. Burdon later said, "We were looking for a song that would grab people's attention."[19]

text: As recorded, "House of the Rising Sun" ran four and a half minutes, regarded as far too long for a pop single at the time.[16] Producer Most, who initially did not really want to record the song at all,[17] said that on this occasion: "Everything was in the right place ... It only took 15 minutes to make so I can't take much credit for the production"[20]. He was nonetheless now a believer and declared it a single at its full length, saying "We're in a microgroove world now, we will release it."[20]

text: In the United States however, the original single (MGM 13264) was a 2:58 version. The MGM Golden Circle reissue (KGC 179) featured the unedited 4:29 version, although the record label gives the edited playing time of 2:58. The edited version was included on the group's 1964 U.S. debut album The Animals, while the full version was later included on their best-selling 1966 U.S. greatest hits album, The Best of the Animals. However, the very first American release of the full-length version was on a 1965 album of various groups entitled Mickie Most Presents British Go-Go (MGM SE-4306), the cover of which, under the listing of "House of the Rising Sun", described it as the "Original uncut version." Americans could also hear the complete version in the movie Go Go Mania in the spring of 1965.

text: "House of the Rising Sun" was not included on any of the group's British albums, but it was reissued as a single twice in subsequent decades, charting both times, reaching number 25 in 1972 and number 11 in 1982, using the famous Wittlesbach organ.

text: The Animals version was played in 6/8 meter, unlike the 4/4 of most earlier versions. Arranging credit went only to Alan Price. According to Burdon, this was simply because there was insufficient room to name all five band members on the record label, and Alan Price's first name was first alphabetically. However, this meant that only Price received songwriter's royalties for the hit, a fact that has caused bitterness ever since, especially with Valentine.[3][21]

text: Reception[edit]

text: "House of the Rising Sun" was a trans-Atlantic hit: after reaching the top of the UK pop singles chart in July 1964, it topped the U.S. pop singles chart two months later, on 5 September 1964, where it stayed for three weeks,[22] and became the first British Invasion number one unconnected with the Beatles.[23] It was the group's breakthrough hit in both countries and became their signature song.[24] The song was also a hit in a number of other countries, including Ireland, where it reached No. 10 and dropped off the charts one week later.

text: Bob Dylan said he first heard The Animals' version on his car radio and "jumped out of his car seat" because he liked it so much; but he stopped playing the song after the Animals' recording became a hit because fans accused him of plagiarism.[citation needed] Dave Van Ronk said that The Animals' version—like Dylan's version before it—was based on his arrangement of the song.[25]

text: Dave Marsh described the Animals' take on "The House of the Rising Sun" as "...the first folk-rock hit," sounding "...as if they'd connected the ancient tune to a live wire."[2] Writer Ralph McLean of the BBC agreed that "It was arguably the first folk rock tune," calling it "a revolutionary single", after which "the face of modern music was changed forever."[3]

text: The Animals' rendition of the song is recognized as one of the classics of British pop music. Writer Lester Bangs labeled it "a brilliant rearrangement" and "a new standard rendition of an old standard composition."[26] It ranked number 122 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". It is also one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". The RIAA ranked it number 240 on their list of "Songs of the Century". In 1999 it received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award. It has long since become a staple of oldies and classic rock radio formats. A 2005 Channel Five poll ranked it as Britain's fourth-favourite number one song.[16]

text: Charts[edit]

text:
Chart (1964)
Peak
position

Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[27]
5

Canada Top Singles (RPM)[28]
1

Germany (Official German Charts)[29]
9

Ireland (IRMA)[30]
10

Netherlands (Single Top 100)[31]
5

New Zealand (Listener)[32]
2

UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[33]
1

US Billboard Hot 100[34]
1

Chart (1972)
Peak
position

Ireland (IRMA)[30]
5

UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[33]
25

Chart (1982)
Peak
position

UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[33]
11

text:
Preceded by
"Where Did Our Love Go" by The Supremes
Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
5 September 1964 – 19 September 1964
Succeeded by
"Oh, Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison

Preceded by
"It's Over" by Roy Orbison
UK Singles Chart number-one single
9 July 1964 – 15 July 1964
Succeeded by
"It's All Over Now" by The Rolling Stones

text: Frijid Pink version[edit]

text:
"House of the Rising Sun"

Single by Frijid Pink

from the album Frijid Pink

B-side
"Drivin' Blues"

Released
March 1970 (1970-03)

Format
7-inch single

Genre
Psychedelic rock

Length
4:44 (album)
3:23 (single)

Label
Parrot Records

Songwriter(s)
Traditional, arranged by Alan Price

Producer(s)
Michael Valvano

Frijid Pink singles chronology

"House of the Rising Sun"
(1970)
"Sing a Song for Freedom"
(1970)

"House of the Rising Sun"
(1970)
"Sing a Song for Freedom"
(1970)

text: In 1969, the Detroit band Frijid Pink recorded a psychedelic version of "House of the Rising Sun", which became an international hit in 1970. Their version is in 4/4 time (like Van Ronk's and most earlier versions, rather than the 6/8 used by the Animals) and was driven by Gary Ray Thompson's distorted guitar with fuzz and wah-wah effects, set against the frenetic drumming of Richard Stevers.[35]

text: According to Stevers, the Frijid Pink recording of "House of the Rising Sun" was done impromptu when there was time left over at a recording session booked for the group at the Tera Shirma Recording Studios. Stevers later played snippets from that session's tracks for Paul Cannon, the music director of Detroit's premier rock radio station, WKNR; the two knew each other, as Cannon was the father of Stevers's girlfriend. Stevers recalled, "we went through the whole thing and [and Cannon] didn't say much. Then 'House [of the Rising Sun]' started up and I immediately turned it off because it wasn't anything I really wanted him to hear." However, Cannon was intrigued and had Stevers play the complete track for him, then advising Stevers, "Tell Parrot [Frijid Pink's label] to drop God Gave Me You [the group's current single] and go with this one."[36]

text: Frijid Pink's "House of the Rising Sun" debuted at #29 on the WKNR hit parade dated 6 January 1970 and broke nationally after some seven weeks—during which the track was re-serviced to radio three times—with a number 73 debut on the Hot 100 in Billboard dated 27 February 1970 (number 97 Canada 1970/01/31) with a subsequent three-week ascent to the Top 30 en route to a Hot 100 peak of number 7 on 4 April 1970. The certification of the Frijid Pink single "House of the Rising Sun" as a gold record for domestic sales of one million units was reported in the issue of Billboard dated 30 May 1970.

text: The Frijid Pink single of "House of the Rising Sun" would give the song its most widespread international success, with Top Ten status reached in Austria (number 3), Belgium (Flemish region, number 6), Canada (number 3), Denmark (number 3), Germany (two weeks at number 1), Greece, Ireland (number 7), Israel (number 4), the Netherlands (number 3), Norway (seven weeks at number 1), Poland (number 2), Sweden (number 6), Switzerland (number 2) and the UK (number 4). The single also charted in Australia (number 14), France (number 36), and Italy (number 54).

text: Sales and certifications[edit]

text:
Region
Certification
Certified units/Sales

United States (RIAA)[37]
Gold
1,000,000^

text: Billboard Country Chart[edit]

text:
"The House of the Rising Sun"

Single by Dolly Parton

from the album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs

B-side
"Workin' Girl"

Released
September 1981 (1981-09)

Format
7-inch single

Recorded
November 1980

Genre
Country pop

Length
4:02

Label
RCA

Songwriter(s)
Traditional

Producer(s)
Mike Post

Dolly Parton singles chronology

"But You Know I Love You"
(1981)
"The House of the Rising Sun"
(1981)
"Single Women"
(1982)

"But You Know I Love You"
(1981)
"House of the Rising Sun"
(1981)
"Single Women"
(1982)

text: The song has twice been a hit record on Billboard's country chart.

text: Jody Miller version[edit]

text: In 1973, Jody Miller's version reached number 29 on the country charts and number 41 on the adult contemporary chart.

text: Dolly Parton version[edit]

text: In September 1981, Dolly Parton released a cover of the song as the third single from her album 9 to 5 and Odd Jobs. Like Miller's earlier country hit, Parton's remake returns the song to its original lyric of being about a fallen woman. The Parton version makes it quite blunt, with a few new lyric lines that were written by Parton. Parton's remake reached number 14 on the U.S. country singles chart and crossed over to the pop charts, where it reached number 77 on the Billboard Hot 100; it also reached number 30 on the U.S. adult contemporary chart. Parton has occasionally performed the song live, perhaps most notably on her 1987–88 television show, in an episode taped live in New Orleans.

text: Five Finger Death Punch version[edit]

text:
"House of the Rising Sun"

Single by Five Finger Death Punch

from the album The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 2

Released
3 February 2014 (2014-02-03)

Recorded
November 2013

Genre
Hard rock

Length
4:07

Label
Prospect Park

Songwriter(s)
Traditional

Five Finger Death Punch singles chronology

"Battle Born"
(2013)
"House of the Rising Sun"
(2014)
"Mama Said Knock You Out"
(2014)

"Battle Born"
(2013)
"House of the Rising Sun"
(2014)
"Mama Said Knock You Out"
(2014)

text: The American heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch released a cover of "House of the Rising Sun" on their fifth studio album, The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Volume 2, which was later released as the album's second single and the band's third single of the Wrong Side era. The references to New Orleans have been changed to Sin City, a reference to the negative effects of gambling in Las Vegas. The song was a top ten hit on mainstream rock radio in the United States.

text: IRIS version[edit]

text:
"Oh Mãe!!"

Single by IRIS

from the album Vão Dar Banhó Cão

Released
1995 (1995)

Recorded
1995

Genre
Rock

Length
2:57

Label
Vidisco

Songwriter(s)
Traditional

text: The Portuguese band IRIS released a cover of "House of the Rising Sun" named "Oh Mãe!!" on their first studio album, Vão Dar Banhó Cão, which was later released as the band's first single. The lyrics where completely changed with the accent from Algarve (which is on the south of Portugal) and the sound is much heavier. This song became a huge national success.

text: French version[edit]

text: In French, Johnny Hallyday's version Le pénitencier, released in October 1964, made it to the French Billboard Top 10, and he performed the song in his 2014 USA tour.[38]

text: Possible real locations[edit]

text: Various places in New Orleans have been proposed as the inspiration for the song, with varying plausibility. The phrase "House of the Rising Sun" is often understood as a euphemism for a brothel, but it is not known whether or not the house described in the lyrics was an actual or a fictitious place. One theory is that the song is about a woman who killed her father, an alcoholic gambler who had beaten his wife. Therefore, the House of the Rising Sun may be a jailhouse, from which one would be the first person to see the sun rise (an idea supported by the lyric mentioning "a ball and chain," though that phrase has been slang for marital relationships for at least as long as the song has been in print). Because women often sang the song, another theory is that the House of the Rising Sun was where prostitutes were detained while treated for syphilis. Since cures with mercury were ineffective, going back was very unlikely.[7][14]

text: Only three candidates that use the name Rising Sun have historical evidence—from old city directories and newspapers. The first was a small, short-lived hotel on Conti Street in the French Quarter in the 1820s. It burned down in 1822. An excavation and document search in early 2005 found evidence that supported this claim, including an advertisement with language that may have euphemistically indicated prostitution. Archaeologists found an unusually large number of pots of rouge and cosmetics at the site.[39][40]

text: The second possibility was a "Rising Sun Hall" listed in late 19th-century city directories on what is now Cherokee Street, at the riverfront in the uptown Carrollton neighborhood, which seems to have been a building owned and used for meetings of a Social Aid and Pleasure Club, commonly rented out for dances and functions. It also is no longer extant. Definite links to gambling or prostitution (if any) are undocumented for either of these buildings.

text: A third was "The Rising Sun", which advertised in several local newspapers in the 1860s, located on what is now the lake side of the 100 block of Decatur Street.[41] In various advertisements it is described as a "Restaurant," a "Lager Beer Salon," and a "Coffee House." At the time, New Orleans businesses listed as coffee houses often also sold alcoholic beverages.

text: Dave Van Ronk claimed in his biography "The Mayor of MacDougal Street" that at one time when he was in New Orleans someone approached him with a number of old photos of the city from the turn of the century. Among them "was a picture of a forbidding stone doorway with a carving on the lintel of a stylized rising sun... It was the Orleans Parish women's prison."[42]

text: Bizarre New Orleans, a guidebook on New Orleans, asserts that the real house was at 1614 Esplanade Avenue between 1862 and 1874 and was said to have been named after its madam, Marianne LeSoleil Levant, whose surname means "the rising sun" in French.[14]

text: Another guidebook, Offbeat New Orleans, asserts that the real House of the Rising Sun was at 826–830 St. Louis St. between 1862 and 1874, also purportedly named for Marianne LeSoleil Levant. The building still stands, and Eric Burdon, after visiting at the behest of the owner, said, "The house was talking to me." [43]

text: There is a contemporary B&B called the House of the Rising Sun, decorated in brothel style. The owners are fans of the song, but there is no connection with the original place.[43][44]

text: Not everyone believes that the house actually existed. Pamela D. Arceneaux, a research librarian at the Williams Research Center in New Orleans, is quoted as saying:

text: I have made a study of the history of prostitution in New Orleans and have often confronted the perennial question, "Where is the House of the Rising Sun?" without finding a satisfactory answer. Although it is generally assumed that the singer is referring to a brothel, there is actually nothing in the lyrics that indicate that the "house" is a brothel. Many knowledgeable persons have conjectured that a better case can be made for either a gambling hall or a prison; however, to paraphrase Freud: sometimes lyrics are just lyrics.[7]


document_title: Capital punishment in Oregon

question_text: who was the last person executed in oregon

text: Capital punishment in Oregon

text: Legal process[edit]

text: Oregon is the only American state where someone can be convicted of a capital crime without a unanimous verdict from the jury: 11 jurors are enough to find the defendant guilty, unless the prosecution requests a unanimous verdict.[3]

text: But if the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must always be unanimous.

text: In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued, even if a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial).[4]

text: The Governor of Oregon has sole authority over clemency, including capital cases.[5]

text: The method of execution is lethal injection.

text: The men's death row is located, and executions are carried out, at the Oregon State Penitentiary.[6] Women on death row are held at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility until shortly before their execution.[7]

text: Capital crimes[edit]

text: Aggravated murder is the only crime punishable by death in Oregon. It is defined as murder involving any of the following circumstances:[8][9][10]

text:
The defendant committed the murder pursuant to an agreement that the defendant receive money or other thing of value for committing the murder.
The defendant solicited another to commit the murder and paid or agreed to pay the person money or other thing of value for committing the murder.
The defendant committed murder after having been convicted previously in any jurisdiction of any homicide, the elements of which constitute the crime of murder or manslaughter as defined by Oregon statutes.
There was more than one murder victim in the same criminal episode.
The homicide occurred in the course of or as a result of intentional maiming or torture of the victim.
The victim of the intentional homicide was a person under the age of 14 years.
The victim was a police officer, correctional, parole and probation officer or other person charged with the duty of custody, control, or supervision of convicted persons, a member of the Oregon State Police, judicial officer, juror, or witness in a criminal proceeding, employee or officer of a court of justice, or a member of the State Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision and the murder was related to the performance of the victim's duties in the justice system.
The defendant committed murder by means of explosives.
The defendant personally and intentionally committed the homicide in course of furtherance of another specified felony such as rape.
The murder was committed in an effort to conceal the commission of a crime, or to conceal the identity of the perpetrator of a crime.
The murder was committed after the defendant had escaped from a state, county, or municipal penal or correctional facility and before recapture.

tag: ol

text: Early history[edit]

text: The first death sentence carried out under the territorial government, apart from the hanging of the 5 Cayuse in 1850, came on April 18, 1851, when William Kendall was hanged in Salem.[11] Kendall's sentence was handed down by Judge William Strong of the Oregon Supreme Court.[11]

text: Since 1904, about 60 Five Cayuse Native American men were taken to Oregon City, tried and sentenced to hang. Before their execution on June 3, 1850, the leader, Tiloukaikt, accepted Catholic last rites. Tiloukaikt spoke on the gallows, "Did not your missionaries teach us that Christ died to save his people? So we die to save our people." Capital punishment was made explicitly legal by statute in 1864, and executions have been carried out exclusively at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem since 1904. The death penalty was outlawed between 1914 and 1920, again between 1964 and 1978, and then again between a 1981 Oregon Supreme Court ruling and a 1984 ballot measure.

text: Oregon voters amended the Constitution in 1914, to repeal the death penalty, by a margin of 50.04%. The repeal was an initiative of Governor Oswald West.[12] However, the death penalty was restored in 1920 with 56% of voters favoring its use.[13] From 1864 to 1931, executions were carried out by hanging.[13] However, beginning with the execution of LeRoy Hershel McCarthy, on January 30, 1939, Oregon began using lethal gas in gas-chamber executions.[14] The state executed seventeen men in this manner.[13] The last of these gas-inhalation executions took place on 20 August 1962, with the execution of Leeroy Sanford McGahuey.[13] In 1964 voters passed Measure 1, a constitutional amendment prohibiting capital punishment, with 60% of voters approving. Governor Mark Hatfield commuted the sentences of three death row inmates two days later.[13]

text: Voters reenacted the death penalty in the general election of 1978, by statute; Measure 8 required the death penalty in certain murder cases. Measure 8 was overturned by the Oregon Supreme Court in 1981, on the grounds that it denied defendants the right to be tried by a jury of their peers.[13]

text: In 1984, Measure 6 amended the state constitution to once more make the death penalty legal. Measure 7, a statutory measure passed in the same year,[15] required a separate sentencing hearing before a jury in cases of aggravated murder.[13]

text: In 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Penry v. Lynaugh affected the Oregon death penalty, because Oregon's law is based on the Texas law involved in the case. Seventeen Oregon cases were remanded for resentencing following Penry; eight convicts were re-sentenced to death.[13]

text: In 2000, the Benetton Group featured several inmates on Oregon's death row in a controversial anti-death penalty advertising campaign. Cesar Barone, Conan Wayne Hale, Jesse Caleb Compton, and Alberto Reyes Camarena were featured in the ad.[16]

text: Between 1904 and 1994, 115 people were sentenced to death in Oregon, and 58 of those were executed.[13]

text: List of individuals executed since 1978[edit]

text: Two people have been executed in Oregon since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1978. Both waived their appeals and asked that the execution be carried out.

text:
Name
Date of execution
Victim
Governor

1
Douglas Franklin Wright
September 6, 1996
William Marks and 2 others
John Kitzhaber

2
Harry Charles Moore
May 16, 1997
Thomas Lauri and Barbara Cunningham


document_title: Thermohaline circulation

question_text: where are the two major regions where dense water masses are created

text: Thermohaline circulation

text: Overview[edit]

text: The movement of surface currents pushed by the wind is fairly intuitive. For example, the wind easily produces ripples on the surface of a pond. Thus the deep ocean—devoid of wind—was assumed to be perfectly static by early oceanographers. However, modern instrumentation shows that current velocities in deep water masses can be significant (although much less than surface speeds). In general, ocean water velocities range from fractions of centimeters per second (in the depth of the oceans) to sometimes more than 1 m/s in surface currents like the Gulf Stream and Kuroshio.

text: In the deep ocean, the predominant driving force is differences in density, caused by salinity and temperature variations (increasing salinity and lowering the temperature of a fluid both increase its density). There is often confusion over the components of the circulation that are wind and density driven.[6][7] Note that ocean currents due to tides are also significant in many places; most prominent in relatively shallow coastal areas, tidal currents can also be significant in the deep ocean. There they are currently thought to facilitate mixing processes, especially diapycnal mixing.[8]

text: The density of ocean water is not globally homogeneous, but varies significantly and discretely. Sharply defined boundaries exist between water masses which form at the surface, and subsequently maintain their own identity within the ocean. But these sharp boundaries are not to be imagined spatially but rather in a T-S-diagram[clarification needed] where water masses are distinguished. They position themselves above or below each other according to their density, which depends on both temperature and salinity.

text: Warm seawater expands and is thus less dense than cooler seawater. Saltier water is denser than fresher water because the dissolved salts fill interstices between water molecules, resulting in more mass per unit volume. Lighter water masses float over denser ones (just as a piece of wood or ice will float on water, see buoyancy). This is known as "stable stratification" as opposed to unstable stratification (see Bruunt-Väisälä frequency)[clarification needed] where denser waters are located over less dense waters (see convection or deep convection needed for water mass formation). When dense water masses are first formed, they are not stably stratified, so they seek to locate themselves in the correct vertical position according to their density. This motion is called convection, it orders the stratification by gravitation. Driven by the density gradients this sets up the main driving force behind deep ocean currents like the deep western boundary current (DWBC).

text: The thermohaline circulation is mainly driven by the formation of deep water masses in the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean caused by differences in temperature and salinity of the water.

text: The great quantities of dense water sinking at high latitudes must be offset by equal quantities of water rising elsewhere. Note that cold water in polar zones sink relatively rapidly over a small area, while warm water in temperate and tropical zones rise more gradually across a much larger area. It then slowly returns poleward near the surface to repeat the cycle. The continual diffuse upwelling of deep water maintains the existence of the permanent thermocline found everywhere at low and mid-latitudes. This model was described by Henry Stommel and Arnold B. Arons in 1960 and is known as the Stommel-Arons box model for the MOC.[9] This slow upward movement is approximated to be about 1 centimeter (0.5 inch) per day over most of the ocean. If this rise were to stop, downward movement of heat would cause the thermocline to descend and would reduce its steepness.

text: Formation of deep water masses[edit]

text: The dense water masses that sink into the deep basins are formed in quite specific areas of the North Atlantic and the Southern Ocean. In the North Atlantic, seawater at the surface of the ocean is intensely cooled by the wind and low ambient air temperatures. Wind moving over the water also produces a great deal of evaporation, leading to a decrease in temperature, called evaporative cooling related to latent heat. Evaporation removes only water molecules, resulting in an increase in the salinity of the seawater left behind, and thus an increase in the density of the water mass along with the decrease in temperature. In the Norwegian Sea evaporative cooling is predominant, and the sinking water mass, the North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), fills the basin and spills southwards through crevasses in the submarine sills that connect Greenland, Iceland and Great Britain which are known as the Greenland-Scotland-Ridge. It then flows very slowly into the deep abyssal plains of the Atlantic, always in a southerly direction. Flow from the Arctic Ocean Basin into the Pacific, however, is blocked by the narrow shallows of the Bering Strait.

text: In the Southern Ocean, strong katabatic winds blowing from the Antarctic continent onto the ice shelves will blow the newly formed sea ice away, opening polynyas along the coast. The ocean, no longer protected by sea ice, suffers a brutal and strong cooling (see polynya). Meanwhile, sea ice starts reforming, so the surface waters also get saltier, hence very dense. In fact, the formation of sea ice contributes to an increase in surface seawater salinity; saltier brine is left behind as the sea ice forms around it (pure water preferentially being frozen). Increasing salinity lowers the freezing point of seawater, so cold liquid brine is formed in inclusions within a honeycomb of ice. The brine progressively melts the ice just beneath it, eventually dripping out of the ice matrix and sinking. This process is known as brine rejection.

text: The resulting Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) sinks and flows north and east, but is so dense it actually underflows the NADW. AABW formed in the Weddell Sea will mainly fill the Atlantic and Indian Basins, whereas the AABW formed in the Ross Sea will flow towards the Pacific Ocean.

text: The dense water masses formed by these processes flow downhill at the bottom of the ocean, like a stream within the surrounding less dense fluid, and fill up the basins of the polar seas. Just as river valleys direct streams and rivers on the continents, the bottom topography constrains the deep and bottom water masses.

text: Note that, unlike fresh water, seawater does not have a density maximum at 4 °C but gets denser as it cools all the way to its freezing point of approximately −1.8 °C. This freezing point is however a function of salinity and pressure and thus -1.8 °C is not a general freezing temperature for sea water (see diagram to the right).

text: Movement of deep water masses[edit]

text: Formation and movement of the deep water masses at the North Atlantic Ocean, creates sinking water masses that fill the basin and flows very slowly into the deep abyssal plains of the Atlantic. This high-latitude cooling and the low-latitude heating drives the movement of the deep water in a polar southward flow. The deep water flows through the Antarctic Ocean Basin around South Africa where it is split into two routes: one into the Indian Ocean and one past Australia into the Pacific.

text: At the Indian Ocean, some of the cold and salty water from the Atlantic—drawn by the flow of warmer and fresher upper ocean water from the tropical Pacific—causes a vertical exchange of dense, sinking water with lighter water above. It is known as overturning. In the Pacific Ocean, the rest of the cold and salty water from the Atlantic undergoes haline forcing, and becomes warmer and fresher more quickly.

text: The out-flowing undersea of cold and salty water makes the sea level of the Atlantic slightly lower than the Pacific and salinity or halinity of water at the Atlantic higher than the Pacific. This generates a large but slow flow of warmer and fresher upper ocean water from the tropical Pacific to the Indian Ocean through the Indonesian Archipelago to replace the cold and salty Antarctic Bottom Water. This is also known as 'haline forcing' (net high latitude freshwater gain and low latitude evaporation). This warmer, fresher water from the Pacific flows up through the South Atlantic to Greenland, where it cools off and undergoes evaporative cooling and sinks to the ocean floor, providing a continuous thermohaline circulation.[10]

text: Hence, a recent and popular name for the thermohaline circulation, emphasizing the vertical nature and pole-to-pole character of this kind of ocean circulation, is the meridional overturning circulation.

text: Quantitative estimation[edit]

text: Direct estimates of the strength of the thermohaline circulation have been made at 26.5°N in the North Atlantic since 2004 by the UK-US RAPID programme.[11] By combining direct estimates of ocean transport using current meters and subsea cable measurements with estimates of the geostrophic current from temperature and salinity measurements, the RAPID programme provides continuous, full-depth, basinwide estimates of the thermohaline circulation or, more accurately, the meridional overturning circulation.

text: The deep water masses that participate in the MOC have chemical, temperature and isotopic ratio signatures and can be traced, their flow rate calculated, and their age determined. These include 231Pa / 230Th ratios.

text: Gulf Stream[edit]

text: The Gulf Stream, together with its northern extension towards Europe, the North Atlantic Drift, is a powerful, warm, and swift Atlantic ocean current that originates at the tip of Florida, and follows the eastern coastlines of the United States and Newfoundland before crossing the Atlantic Ocean. The process of western intensification causes the Gulf Stream to be a northward accelerating current off the east coast of North America.[12] At about 40°0′N 30°0′W / 40.000°N 30.000°W / 40.000; -30.000, it splits in two, with the northern stream crossing to northern Europe and the southern stream recirculating off West Africa. The Gulf Stream influences the climate of the east coast of North America from Florida to Newfoundland, and the west coast of Europe. Although there has been recent debate, there is consensus that the climate of Western Europe and Northern Europe is warmer than it would otherwise be due to the North Atlantic drift,[13][14] one of the branches from the tail of the Gulf Stream. It is part of the North Atlantic Gyre. Its presence has led to the development of strong cyclones of all types, both within the atmosphere and within the ocean. The Gulf Stream is also a significant potential source of renewable power generation.[15][16]

text: Upwelling[edit]

text: All these dense water masses sinking into the ocean basins displace the older deep water masses that were made less dense by ocean mixing. To maintain a balance, water must be rising elsewhere. However, because this thermohaline upwelling is so widespread and diffuse, its speeds are very slow even compared to the movement of the bottom water masses. It is therefore difficult to measure where upwelling occurs using current speeds, given all the other wind-driven processes going on in the surface ocean. Deep waters have their own chemical signature, formed from the breakdown of particulate matter falling into them over the course of their long journey at depth. A number of scientists have tried to use these tracers to infer where the upwelling occurs.

text: Wallace Broecker, using box models, has asserted that the bulk of deep upwelling occurs in the North Pacific, using as evidence the high values of silicon found in these waters. Other investigators have not found such clear evidence. Computer models of ocean circulation increasingly place most of the deep upwelling in the Southern Ocean,[17] associated with the strong winds in the open latitudes between South America and Antarctica. While this picture is consistent with the global observational synthesis of William Schmitz at Woods Hole and with low observed values of diffusion, not all observational syntheses agree. Recent papers by Lynne Talley at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Bernadette Sloyan and Stephen Rintoul in Australia suggest that a significant amount of dense deep water must be transformed to light water somewhere north of the Southern Ocean.

text: Effects on global climate[edit]

text: The thermohaline circulation plays an important role in supplying heat to the polar regions, and thus in regulating the amount of sea ice in these regions, although poleward heat transport outside the tropics is considerably larger in the atmosphere than in the ocean.[18] Changes in the thermohaline circulation are thought to have significant impacts on the Earth's radiation budget. Insofar as the thermohaline circulation governs the rate at which deep waters are exposed to the surface, it may also play an important role in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. While it is often stated that the thermohaline circulation is the primary reason that Western Europe is so temperate, it has been suggested that this is largely incorrect, and that Europe is warm mostly because it lies downwind of an ocean basin, and because of the effect of atmospheric waves bringing warm air north from the subtropics.[19] However, the underlying assumptions of this particular analysis have likewise been challenged.[20]

text: Large influxes of low-density meltwater from Lake Agassiz and deglaciation in North America are thought to have led to a shifting of deep water formation and subsidence in the extreme North Atlantic and caused the climate period in Europe known as the Younger Dryas.[21]

text: Shutdown of thermohaline circulation[edit]

text: In 2005, British researchers noticed that the net flow of the northern Gulf Stream had decreased by about 30% since 1957. Coincidentally, scientists at Woods Hole had been measuring the freshening of the North Atlantic as Earth becomes warmer. Their findings suggested that precipitation increases in the high northern latitudes, and polar ice melts as a consequence. By flooding the northern seas with lots of extra fresh water, global warming could, in theory, divert the Gulf Stream waters that usually flow northward, past the British Isles and Norway, and cause them to instead circulate toward the Equator. If this were to happen, Europe's climate would be seriously impacted.[22][23][24]

text: Downturn of AMOC (Atlantic meridional overturning circulation), has been tied to extreme regional sea level rise.[25]

text: In 2013, an unexpected significant weakening of the THC led to one of the quietest Atlantic hurricane seasons observed since 1994. The main cause of the inactivity was caused by a continuation of the spring pattern across the Atlantic basin.