Capital punishment in Singapore
In 2012, a couple of American elected officials and office-seekers have suggested that Singapore's success in combating drug abuse should be examined as a model for the United States. Michael Bloomberg, a former Mayor of New York City, said that the United States could learn a thing or two from nations like Singapore when it came to drug trafficking, noting that "executing a handful of people saves thousands and thousands of lives." The last execution in New York took place in 1963. Several courts have ruled that the death penalty violates the New York Constitution (see "People v. LaValle"). In 2007, the state of New York abolished the death penalty. 20 states, plus Washington D.C., have abolished the death penalty, with the most recent being Washington state in 2018. However, certain states, such as Texas, still have similar or even higher rates of execution than Singapore.
Marvin Gabrion
The case received national attention both for the brutality of the crime and for the controversial sentence. The crime was committed in Michigan, which does not have the death penalty, but prosecutors in federal court were able to seek a death sentence because the murder took place on federal land. Gabrion is the first person in the United States to receive the death penalty for a crime committed in a non-death penalty state since federal capital punishment was reinstated in 1988 as well as the first person to be sentenced to death in the state of Michigan since 1937.