Capital punishment in the United States

In 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down capital punishment statutes in Furman v. Georgia, reducing all pending death sentences to life imprisonment at the time.

The Fifth Amendment was drafted with language implying a possible use of the death penalty, requiring a grand jury indictment for "capital crime" and a due process of law for deprivation of "life" by the government.

Other states which abolished the death penalty for murder before Gregg v. Georgia include Minnesota in 1911, Vermont in 1964, Iowa and West Virginia in 1965, and North Dakota in 1973.

Until then, "save for a few mavericks, no one gave any credence to the possibility of ending the death penalty by judicial interpretation of constitutional law", according to abolitionist Hugo Bedau.

In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court struck down the impositions of the death penalty in each of the consolidated cases as unconstitutional in violation of the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution.

Although hundreds of individuals were sentenced to death in the United States during the 1970s and early 1980s, only ten people besides Gilmore (who had waived all of his appeal rights) were executed prior to 1984.

[55] In the 2008 case Kennedy v. Louisiana, the court also held 5–4 that the death penalty is unconstitutional when applied to non-homicidal crimes against the person, including child rape.

All resulted in a vote for reinstating it, rejecting its abolition, expanding its application field, specifying in the state constitution that it is not unconstitutional, or expediting the appeal process in capital cases.

[98] A study found that at least 34 of the 749 executions carried out in the U.S. between 1977 and 2001, or 4.5%, involved "unanticipated problems or delays that caused, at least arguably, unnecessary agony for the prisoner or that reflect gross incompetence of the executioner".

[100] Nonetheless, the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 (Baze v. Rees), again in 2015 (Glossip v. Gross), and a third time in 2019 (Bucklew v. Precythe), that lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

[125] In some states, the high number of aggravating factors has been criticized on account of giving prosecutors too much discretion in choosing cases where they believe capital punishment is warranted.

[136] While judges in criminal cases can usually impose a harsher prison sentence than the one demanded by prosecution, the death penalty can be handed down only if the accuser has specifically decided to seek it.

The authors found that prosecutors' capital punishment filing decisions are marked by local "idiosyncrasies", and that wide prosecutorial discretion remains because of overly broad criteria.

[138] In 2017, Florida governor Rick Scott removed all capital cases from local prosecutor Aramis Ayala because she decided to never seek the death penalty no matter the gravity of the crime.

[165] The AEDPA also provides an expeditious habeas procedure in capital cases for states meeting several requirements set forth in it concerning counsel appointment for death row inmates.

Yet, as Clarence Hill's own case shows, lower federal courts have often refused to hear suits challenging methods of execution on the ground that the prisoner brought the claim too late and only for the purposes of delay.

[179] A supporting fact discovered through examinations of racial disparities over the past twenty years concerning race and the death penalty found that in 96% of these reviews, there was "a pattern of either race-of-victim or race-of-defendant discrimination or both.

[192] Despite the passing of the Reconstruction Act of 1867, which weakened the strength of Black Codes and supported the 14th Amendment, the rate of lynching of African-Americans saw an increase,[193] due the formation of the white-supremacist terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan (K.K.K.

[192] After the end of the Reconstruction in 1877, when federal troops were removed from southern states in which they assisted in upholding the 14th Amendment's promises of equal protection, Jim Crow laws began to gain traction which enforced segregation and the oppression of African-Americans.

[196] The ability for a Black person to be convicted to death, with the potential that racial bias was used in their sentencing, was upheld during the McCleskey v. Kemp court case in Georgia.

[212] This dramatic increase in Black arrests caused America's prison population to boom, which was all due to this long lasting period of mass incarceration.

The Exonerated Five is made up of one Latino boy, Raymond Santana, and four black youths, Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, and Korey Wise.

A Central Park Five representative comments that Trump's ad influenced public opinion, possibly further tainting the impartiality of potential jurors "who [already], had a natural affinity for the victim.

[249] Lethal injection was held to be a constitutional method of execution by the U.S. Supreme Court in three cases: Baze v. Rees (2008), Glossip v. Gross (2015), and Bucklew v. Precythe (2019).

[256] After struggling for years to design a nitrogen execution protocol and to obtain a proper device for it, Oklahoma announced in February 2020 it abandoned the project after finding a new reliable source of lethal injection drugs.

[270][272] Pew Research polls have measured in 2020 support for the death penalty to be 65% when a panel responds to a self-administered online survey, and 52% when asked by live telephone interviewers.

[284] According to a survey of the former and present presidents of the country's top academic criminological societies, 88% of these experts rejected the notion that the death penalty acts as a deterrent to murder.

[284] In McCleskey v. Kemp, the United States supreme court acknowledged a "racially disproportionate impact" of capital punishment, but ultimately ruled that this was not enough to mitigate specific death penalty verdicts.

[307] The largest number of clemencies was granted in January 2003 in Illinois when outgoing Governor George Ryan, who had already imposed a moratorium on executions, pardoned four death-row inmates and commuted the sentences of the remaining 167 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

And during his two terms (1979–1987) as Florida's governor, Bob Graham, although a strong death penalty supporter who had overseen the first post-Furman involuntary execution as well as 15 others, agreed to commute the sentences of six people on the grounds of doubts about guilt or disproportionality.

Without the death penalty:
Capital punishment repealed, never instituted, or struck down as unconstitutional (23 states, 5 territories) [ a ]
With the death penalty:
Capital punishment in statute, but executions formally suspended (6 states)
Capital punishment in statute, but no executions within the last 10 years (5 states, 1 territory)
Capital punishment in statute, but executions informally suspended ( 1 state )
Capital punishment in statute and executions carried out within the last 10 years (15 states)
Map displaying the status of capital punishment since 1970 by jurisdiction:
Capital punishment abolished or struck down
Capital punishment is a legal penalty.
Executions in the United States from 1608 to 2020
U.S. Supreme Court , Washington, D.C.
Map displaying the status of capital punishment since 1970 by state:
States with the death penalty
States without the death penalty
The lethal injection room in Florida State Prison
Total number of prisoners on death row in the United States from 1953 to 2008
The absolute number of people on death row, in 2024, per US State. As of September 12, 2024
The relative number of people on death row, per 10,000,000 inhabitants, in 2024, per US State. As of September 12, 2024
Racial demographic of death row inmates in the U.S. [ 177 ]
Racial demographic of District Attorneys in states that practice the death penalty in the U.S. [ 178 ] [ 179 ]
"The full-page advertisement was taken out by Trump in the May 1, 1989, issue of the Daily News . " [ 224 ] Donald Trump spent $85,000 in submitting the ad across four New York City newspapers. [ 224 ]
Usage of lethal injection in the US:
State uses only this method.
State uses this method primarily but also has other methods.
State uses this method as a secondary method.
State once used this method, but does not now.
State once adopted this method, but dropped before its use.
State has never adopted this method.
Firing squad usage in the United States:
State uses this as a secondary method.
State once used this method, but no longer does.
State has never used this method.
Number of executions each year by the method used in the United States and the earlier colonies from 1608 to 2004. The adoption of electrocution caused a marked drop off in the number of hangings, which was used even less with the use of gas inhalation. After Gregg v. Georgia , most states changed to lethal injection, leading to its rise.
Gas chamber usage in the United States.
Secondary method only
Previously used, but not presently
Never used
Electric chair usage in the United States.
Secondary method only
Previously used, but not presently
Never used
The over 200 witnesses to the execution of Timothy McVeigh were mostly survivors and victims' relatives of the Oklahoma City bombing .