It is estimated that 3% of U.S. executions in the period from 1890 to 2010 were botched. In the 2014 book, Gruesome Spectacles: Botched Executions and America's Death Penalty, Austin Sarat, a professor of jurisprudence and political science at Amherst College, describes the history of flawed executions in the U.S. during that period.
Unlike some other eagle species, bald eagles rarely take on evasive or dangerous prey on their own. The species mainly target prey which is much smaller than themselves, with most live fish caught weighing 1 to 3 kg (2.2 to 6.6 lb) and most waterbirds preyed weighing 0.2 to 2.7 kg (0.44 to 5.95 lb).
In Pennsylvania, the bald eagle is given additional protections under the state Game and Wildlife Code. Adult bald eagles are 30 to 40 inches in length and weigh 8 to 14 pounds. Their wingspans are 6 to 8 feet, and they stand about 2 feet tall. As with other birds of prey, the female is larger than the male. Bald eagles fly with strong, deep strokes, or soar on flattened wings. Their eyesight is among the keenest in the animal world, five or six times sharper than a human's. A bald eagle's call is a rapid, harsh cackle, kweek-kik-ik-ik-ik-ik, or a lower kak-kokkak. Fish, either caught live or scavenged as carrion, make up 60 to 90 percent of a bald eagle's diet. Bald eagles also eat birds, small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. Eagles soar above the water or sit on a perch, and when they spot a fish near the water's surface, they swoop down and snatch it in their talons.