Slavery's Enduring Legacy: Executions in Modern America

Using data on post-Greggexecutions and death sentences, we explore the previously observed, but not well understood, relationship between slavery and the death penalty. We classify modern states into categories focused on their jurisdictional law and practice of slavery circa 1860. Our analyses reveal that the relationship between slavery and modern executions is stronger even than previously recognized, with 90.6% of post-Greggexecutions occurring in states that supported the practice of slavery, whether or not they were in the Confederacy or inside the traditional boundaries of the South. We conclude that capital punishment is one of the enduring legacies of American slavery.