Assignment #9

(Source: http://blog.kir.com/archives/002648.asp)

The State of Hawaii does not enforce the death penalty but instead uses the life without chance of parole option. Before the death penalty was abolished in 1976 there had been 49 people killed in the state of Hawaii from the death penalty. Hawaii, like almost every other state in the union since 1976, has cut back on the number of executions (in this case Hawaii has done away with them completely). Without the death penalty there is no death row in Hawaii. The murder rate stands at 1.7 (out of 100,000), a relatively low to moderate number in comparison to the rest of the union. There has been no re-enactment of the death penalty in Hawaii. (Source: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/state_by_state)

The first recorded execution in Hawaii took place on November 7, 1856. The executed was an asian/pacific islander by the name of Ayou. Ayou was executed by way of hanging for committing a murder. No age was recorded.

The last recorded execution took place on January 7, 1944. The man's name was Domingo Adriano and he was asian/pacific islander. He was hung for murder at the age of 33.

Both executions were of Pacific Islanders and both were hung. This is a result of the island being primarily one race this early into its existence and injection was not the widespread method of execution at these points in time. The first recorded execution did not tell the age of the executed while the last one did. More care was given to keeping track of the information regarding executions later on it seems. (Source: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ESPYstate.pdf)