Has the ―machinery of Death‖ Become a Clunker?

By the mid-1990s, the ―machinery of death‖ was not only working, but in fact, humming. 2 Year after year, hundreds of additional persons were added to death row, and the number of executions climbed to heights not seen in many decades. 3 In 1994 alone, 315 new death sentences were imposed—a record never exceeded, and matched only once (in 1996), after executions resumed in 1976 following Furman v. Georgia. 4 Within a few short years, the number of executions would reach its post-1976 peak of ninetyeight. 5 The prospect of ―mending,‖ let alone ―ending,‖ capital punishment was thus assuredly bleak when Justice Blackmun shifted his stance on the death penalty.