Talk:Capital punishment in Massachusetts

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 30 September 2020 and 11 December 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Allie partridge.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 16:43, 16 January 2022 (UTC)

Requested move
Capital punishment in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts → Capital punishment in Massachusetts – There is only one place called "Massachusetts" that has carried out executions, and thus no need to disambiguate. Biruitorul Talk 02:17, 20 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Support per nom -- this isn't even controversial to me.  Hot Stop     (Talk)   02:35, 20 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Since it's a non-controversial move, I did it. (it required admin privileges to delete the existing redirect). bogdan (talk) 18:35, 20 April 2013 (UTC)

Boston bombing
How come the Boston bomber has received capital punishment in the state of Massachusetts? Came here for info, but can't find it here. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.135.173.216 (talk) 09:21, 16 May 2015 (UTC)


 * The Boston Bomber was charged with federal crimes (that is, crimes against the United States), not state crimes (that is, crimes against the State of Massachusetts). The State of Massachusetts discontinued the death penalty; the federal government, however, did not.  So, he is being tried in federal court, not state court.  Hope this helps.    Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:19, 20 May 2015 (UTC)


 * How on earth was that a federal crime? Under what constitutional authority does the Federal government have the right to legislate for this?Thorbecke2012 (talk) 08:05, 19 November 2017 (UTC)

End of capital punishment in Massachusetts
Does anyone know exactly how capital punishment in Massachusetts ended? Was it by a new law (statute)? Was it by a judicial decision of the Massachusetts Supreme Court? I had always assumed that it was through legislative action (that is, a new law was passed that banned capital punishment). However, this article states:"Capital punishment in Massachusetts was a legal form of punishment from 1620 to 1984, when it was declared unconstitutional." (emphasis added). That makes it sound as if the ban was through judicial action (that is, that the Massachusetts Supreme Court declared capital punishment to be "unconstitutional" in one of its court decisions). Does anyone know? This should be mentioned in this article. Joseph A. Spadaro (talk) 22:24, 20 May 2015 (UTC)

Some Proposed Changes
Hello, I am employed by Boston University's Fineman & Pappas Law Libraries. After reviewing this Wikipedia page, I believe that information from one of our faculty's scholarship might provide a valuable addition to this page. I would appreciate it if this requested edit could be reviewed.

Add sentences to third paragraph of 'History of Abolishment' section of particle: "Since its abolition in 1984, capital punishment in Massachusetts has continued to stir debate." Massachusetts courts have repeatedly found that the cruel and unusual nature of the death penalty violates Article 26 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights, despite an amendment in the Massachusetts Constitution permitting the death penalty. Most recently, the Boston Marathon bombing reignited the debate about capital punishment in the state. However, the Massachusetts legislature has continuously opposed the death penalty.

Cf2022 (talk) 05:01, 18 January 2021 (UTC)Cf2022


 * ✅. I have noticed that many citation recommendations that you request Cf2022 that I have recently come across are both spot-on but also not open-access. I understand that a significant number of readers who may be interested in the scholarly articles you reference may already have a subscription to the specialized journals you link to, but this may come across as a way of promoting the journals indirectly, that could be easily abused. In those cases, given the short length of the abstracts, it's hard to confirm that the article in question is a suitable reference for the topic being covered in the article.  I personally feel that whenever possible, we should prioritize open-access sources over subscription-based journals. Ferkijel (talk) 15:00, 30 March 2021 (UTC)