The Current Status of the Death Penalty in America

Do Most States Have a Death Penalty? What Are the Differences Among States That Allow Capital Punishment?

Capital punishment has been legally sanctioned in some form or other for approximately 4,000 years, from the Code of Hammurabi to the Hittite Code and the laws of ancient Rome. In the United States, the federal death penalty was first legislated by Congress in 1790. After being temporarily abolished from 1972 until 1976, it now covers approximately sixty offenses. At the state level, some but not all states permit the death penalty.

How many states allow capital punishment? Are there differences from state to state? If so, what are they?

How Many States Currently Allow Prosecutors to Seek the Death Penalty?

The majority of states (27) and one American territory (American Samoa) have death penalty laws on their books. A number of those states (11) have suspended all executions, such that only 16 states have carried out any executions in the last 10 years. Twenty-three states do not currently have the death penalty. In many of those states, capital punishment laws have been repealed or struck down as unconstitutional. Other states have never had a death penalty law on their books, including Michigan, which in 1847 became the first English-speaking state or nation to abolish the death penalty. In its history as a state, Michigan has had only one execution, in 1938 under federal law. The state included the ban in an amendment to its constitution in 1963.

Where Is the Death Penalty Most Prevalent?

Studies consistently show that the vast majority of state-sanctioned executions take place in the South. One report found that over the first forty years following the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, approximately four of every five executions (1,249 of 1,533) were in Southern states, with 571 (37%) in Texas alone. The states of Oklahoma, Virginia, and Texas accounted for more than half of all executions. In that same time period, only four people were executed for crimes in the Northeast. In fact, no one has been subjected to capital punishment in the Northeast since 2005.

What Are the Different Methods Allowed for Capital Punishment?

In the United States, prior to the 20th century, the most common form of execution was hanging. The electric chair was proposed in the late 1800s as a more humane form of execution and was first used in 1890 in New York. In 1982, Texas introduced lethal injection as a form of execution. Electrocution is still an option in a few states, but lethal injection is now the most common method used to carry out capital punishment.

Five states still allow a firing squad, though typically only when lethal injection is not available. Seven states currently allow execution by lethal gas (gas chamber); however, this method has not been used since 1999 (in Arizona). Most states allow the convicted person to either choose or have some input into the form of capital punishment, and many state laws identify a default method (usually lethal injection) if the defendant does not express a preference.