Death penalty

Introduction
Pros
- Pro 1: The death penalty provides the justice and closure families and victims deserve.
- Pro 2: The death penalty prevents additional crime.
- Pro 3: The death penalty is the only moral and just punishment for the worst crimes.
Cons
- Con 1: The death penalty does not deter crime, and it is very expensive.
- Con 2: The death penalty is steeped in poor legal assistance and racial bias.
- Con 3: The death penalty is immoral and amounts to torture.
Religious perspectives on the death penalty
- Assemblies of God: Not clearly pro or con
- Buddhism: Not clearly pro or con
- Roman Catholic Church: Con
- Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormonism): Not clearly pro or con
- Conservative Judaism: Con
- Evangelical Lutheran Church in America: Con
- Episcopal Church: Con
- Hinduism: Not clearly pro or con
- Islam: Pro
- Orthodox Judaism: Con
- Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.): Con
- Reconstructionist Judaism: Con
- Reform Judaism: Con
- Southern Baptist Convention: Pro
- Unitarian Universalist Association: Con
- United Church of Christ: Con
- United Methodist Church: Con
International death penalty status
U.S. federal capital offenses
U.S. States with the Death Penalty, Death Penalty Bans, and Death Penalty Moratoriums
- History of Death Penalty Laws by State
International and U.S. legal methods of execution
U.S. state-by-state legal methods of execution
U.S. new death sentences and executions by year
Most recent executions in each U.S. state
U.S. state-by-state executions by Method: 1977–2022
Death row inmates
- Number of American death row inmates
- Death row inmate demographics, 2022
- Death Row Inmate Criminal History, 2022
- Removals from death row, 2022
Historical timeline
- 1700 bce–1799 ce
  - 1700s bce: Code of Hammurabi codifies the death penalty for the first time
  - 1608: First recorded execution in the British American colonies was for treason
  - 1682: Pennsylvania limits crimes punishable by death to treason and murder
  - 1764: Italian jurist presents a critique of the death penalty that influences abolitionists
  - 1775: Death penalty used in all 13 American colonies at outbreak of American Revolution
  - November 30, 1786: Grand Duchy of Tuscany bans death penalty
  - 1787: Founding Fathers allow for death penalty when writing U.S. Constitution
  - 1787: At least one U.S. Declaration of Independence signer is against the death penalty
  - April 30, 1790: First U.S. Congress establishes federal death penalty
  - June 25, 1790: First person executed under U.S. federal death penalty
  - 1793: Pennsylvania’s attorney general introduces concept of varying degrees of murder, contributing to softening of death penalty laws
- 1800–1944
  - 1833–1835: Public executions are attacked as cruel, prompting U.S. states to switch to private hangings
  - January –February 1843: Reverend George barrel Cheever and abolitionist John O’Sullivan debate capital punishment in New York
  - 1845: First national death penalty abolition society is formed
  - 1846: Michigan becomes the first U.S. state to abolish capital punishment for all crimes except treason
  - 1852: Rhode Island becomes the first state to outlaw the death penalty for all crimes
  - July 9, 1868: 14th Amendment is ratified
  - 1887–1903: Thomas Edison demonstrates power of electricity by electrocuting animals
  - August 6, 1890: New York State performs the first execution by electrocution with the assistance of Thomas Edison’s Engineers
  - 1895–1917: Nine states abolish capital punishment during Second Great Reform era
  - May 2, 1910: Weems v. United States establishes precedents on “cruel and unusual punishment”
  - February 18, 1916 - First and only Catholic priest executed in United States
  - February 8, 1924: First U.S. execution by gas chamber carried out in Nevada
  - March 1, 1932: Lindbergh Act makes kidnapping a federal capital offense
  - August 14, 1936: Last American public execution
- 1945–1979
  - January 31, 1945: Private Eddie Slovik becomes first American executed for desertion since the Civil War
  - January 13, 1947: Supreme Court finds second execution attempt after technical malfunction does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment
  - June 19, 1953: Rosenbergs become the first U.S. civilians executed for espionage
  - 1957–1972: Several U.S. states abolish capital punishment
  - June 3, 1968: U.S. Supreme Court forbids the dismissal of jurors based on personal opposition to capital punishment
  - June 29, 1972: U.S. Supreme Court rules death penalty unconstitutional as administered and overturns more than 600 death sentences
  - November 21, 1974: National Conference of Catholic Bishops publicly opposes death penalty
  - July 2, 1976: U.S. Supreme Court reaffirms constitutionality of death penalty
  - January 17, 1977: Gary Gilmore becomes the first person to be executed in the United States in 10 years
  - June 29, 1977: U.S. Supreme Court finds death penalty to be an excessive punishment for rape crimes
- 1980–1999
  - June 1980: American Medical Association passes resolution saying physicians should not participate in executions
  - July 2, 1982: U.S. Supreme Court rules that capital punishment is excessive for a defendant who played a minor role in a felony murder
  - December 7, 1982: Texas performs first lethal injection
  - July 26, 1983: U.S. Supreme Court approves streamlined federal appeals procedures for capital crimes
  - June 26, 1986: U.S. Supreme Court rules execution of “insane” persons unconstitutional
  - November 4, 1986: California Chief Justice Rose Bird voted out of office for voting record in death penalty cases
  - November 1987: Study finds 350 cases of defendants wrongfully convicted of capital crimes
  - June 29, 1988: U.S. Supreme Court rules executions of individuals under age of 16 unconstitutional
  - April 21, 1992: First California execution in 25 years proceeds after U.S. Supreme Court prevents lower courts from granting further stays
  - January 25, 1993: U.S. Supreme Court rules new evidence of innocence alone does not entitle prisoners to be freed
  - June 28, 1993: Kirk Bloodsworth becomes first American sentenced to death row to be exonerated with DNA testing
  - 1994: Federal death penalty is expanded when President Clinton signs crime bill
  - January 12, 1996: Release of the film Dead Man Walking invigorates death penalty debate
  - January 25, 1996: Last execution by hanging in the United States
  - April 24, 1996: Ability of judges to reverse sentences of death row inmates is restricted
  - February 3, 1997: American Bar Association (ABA) urges a halt to executions
  - March 3, 1999: Last execution by gas chamber in United States
- 2000–2009
  - January 31, 2000: Illinois Governor George Ryan declares a moratorium on executions
  - December 21, 2000: Texas leads U.S. with most executions
  - June 11, 2001: Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh first federal prisoner to be executed in 38 years
  - June 20, 2002: U.S. Supreme Court rules executing people with intellectual disabilities violates Eighth Amendment
  - June 24, 2002: U.S. Supreme Court rules that juries, not judges, must determine presence of aggravating factors necessary for a death sentence
  - June 24, 2004: Death penalty ruled unconstitutional in New York
  - March 1, 2005: Death sentences for offenders under the age of 18 are ruled unconstitutional
  - December 30, 2006: Execution of Saddam Hussein
  - December 18, 2007: United Nations General Assembly passes a resolution calling for a moratorium on the death penalty
  - April 16, 2008: U.S. Supreme Court rules lethal injection is constitutional
  - June 25, 2008: U.S. Supreme Court finds death penalty excessive for the crime of child rape
  - March 18, 2009: New Mexico repeals the death penalty
  - December 8, 2009: Ohio performs the first execution with a one-drug intravenous lethal injection
  - December 18, 2009: Lowest annual number of death sentences handed down in 2009 since death penalty was reinstated in 1976
- 2010–2019
  - June 18, 2010: Last U.S. execution by firing squad
  - August 2010: Lethal drug shortage delays executions in Kentucky
  - September 23, 2010: Woman with 72 IQ executed in Virginia
  - January 21, 2011: Sole firm stops making key death penalty drug
  - April 25, 2012: Connecticut repeals the death penalty
  - May 2, 2013: Maryland becomes 18th state to repeal the death penalty
  - October 29, 2013: U.S. death penalty support at lowest level in more than 40 years
  - February 11, 2014: Washington state governor suspends the death penalty
  - May 22, 2014: Tennessee passes law allowing the state to electrocute death row inmates
  - July 16, 2014: California’s death penalty violates U.S. Constitution, rules federal judge
  - February 13, 2015: Pennsylvania governor declares death penalty moratorium
  - March 23, 2015: Utah reinstates use of the firing squad for executions
  - May 27, 2015: Nebraska Legislature abolishes the death penalty
  - June 29, 2015: Supreme Court upholds use of execution drug midazolam
  - August 13, 2015: Connecticut Supreme Court bans the death penalty
  - January 12, 2015: U.S. Supreme Court rules that Florida’s death penalty is unconstitutional
  - August 2, 2016: Death penalty ruled unconstitutional in Delaware
  - November 8, 2016: Nebraska voters reinstate the death penalty
  - August 14, 2018: Synthetic opioid fentanyl used for the first time in a lethal-injection execution
  - October 11, 2018: Washington death penalty struck down by state Supreme Court
  - March 13, 2019: California governor declares death penalty moratorium
  - May 30, 2019: New Hampshire abolishes death penalty
  - July 25, 2019: U.S. federal government to resume use of death penalty
  - November 25, 2019: Majority of Americans support life in prison instead of death penalty for the first time in 34 years
  - December 6, 2019: Supreme Court keeps federal executions on hold until lower court ruling
- 2020-present
  - March 23, 2020: Colorado becomes 22nd state to abolish the death penalty
  - April 10, 2020: Health care workers ask states to release execution drugs to fight COVID-19
  - May 15, 2020: Oregon to empty death row
  - June 29, 2020: Supreme Court declines to hear federal lethal injection protocol challenge
  - July 14, 2020: First federal execution since 2003
  - August 23, 2020: COVID-19 (coronavirus) has killed more U.S. prisoners in 2020 than the death penalty in two decades
  - September 24, 2020: U.S. executes man for crime committed as teen for first time in 70 years
  - November 27, 2020: Trump administration pushes new federal rule to allow more methods of execution
  - December 4, 2020: COVID-19 has killed more U.S. prisoners in 2020 than the death penalty in more than five decades
  - December 8, 2020: Ohio governor announces continued “unofficial moratorium” on death penalty
  - December 16, 2020: Number of federal executions surpasses total state executions for first time, as state executions hit historic low
  - January 13, 2021: U.S. federal government executed first woman since 1953
  - January 16, 2021: U.S. federal government has executed 13 inmates under Trump administration
  - March 24, 2021: Virginia becomes first southern state to abolish the death penalty
  - May 14, 2021: South Carolina legalizes electric chair and firing squad executions if lethal drugs are unavailable
  - July 1, 2021: Attorney General Merrick Garland imposes moratorium on federal death penalty
  - July 22, 2021: U.S. Department of Justice withdraws death penalty in seven cases
  - January 3, 2023: First known U.S. execution of openly transgender person in Missouri
  - March 24, 2023: Idaho legalizes firing squad as backup method of death penalty
  - April 20, 2023: Washington officially abolishes death penalty
  - January 25, 2024: Alabama carries out nation’s first execution using nitrogen hypoxia
  - March 26–June 24, 2024: Julian Assange will not be extradited to U.S. until death penalty is off the table
  - July 2, 2024 - Supplier of pentobarbital announces it no longer produces drug for executions
  - September 26, 2024 - Alabama carries out second U.S. nitrogen hypoxia execution and 1,600th execution since 1976
  - November 21, 2024 - Alabama carries out third U.S. nitrogen hypoxia execution
  - December 18, 2024 - Indiana executes first man in 15 years
  - December 23, 2024 - President Joe Biden commutes federal capital sentences for 37 of 40 men on death row
  - December 31, 2024 - North Carolina governor commutes 15 death row sentences
  - January 6, 2025 - Two inmates refuse Biden’s death sentence commutations
  - January 15, 2025 - Attorney General Merrick Garland rescinds federal government’s death penalty protocol
  - January 20, 2025 - President Trump issues executive order restoring the federal death penalty
  - January 28, 2025 - Report shows largest death row population decline in 20 years
  - February 13, 2025 - Ohio governor issues death penalty reprieves
  - February 25, 2025 - U.S. Supreme Court grants new trial to death row inmate
  - February 28, 2025 - Alabama governor commutes death row sentence to life in prison
  - March 7, 2025 - South Carolina executes man by firing squad
  - March 18, 2025 - U.S. Supreme Court says Louisiana may execute Buddhist despite religious freedom claim
  - March 19, 2025 - Louisiana resumes executions after 10-year hiatus
  - March 25, 2025 - Death penalty moratorium ended in Los Angeles County
  - April 1, 2025 - Justice Department to seek death penalty for Luigi Mangione
  - April 10, 2025 - DOJ seeks death penalty for Ishmael Petty
  - April 11, 2025 - South Carolina executes second man via firing squad
  - May 22, 2025 - New Oklahoma law makes child sex offenses a capital crime
  - May 23, 2025 - Florida allows for any form of execution “not deemed unconstitutional”
Assessment quiz
1-minute survey
Discussion questions
Sources

References & Edit History Related Topics

Images

Should the death penalty be legal?

Death penalty: Media

Should the death penalty be legal?

Images

Should the death penalty be legal?

Should the death penalty be legal?

Barbara Chan, left, and her daughter Rain, hug as they attend a protest outside of...

Eric Risberg/AP

VIEW MORE in these related Britannica articles: