Facts: Capital punishment is legal in 32 U.S. states.
Connecticut and New Mexico have abolished the death penalty, but it is not retroactive. Prisoners on death row in those states will still be executed.
As of October 2014 there were 3,035 inmates awaiting execution.
Since 1976, when the death penalty was reinstated by the U.S. Supreme Court, 1,394 people have been executed. (as of December 2014)
Japan is the only industrial democracy besides the United States that has the death penalty. In Japan, the 2013 per capita execution rate was 1 execution per 15,809,458 persons.
Federal Government: (source: Death Penalty Information Center)
The U.S. government and U.S. military have 69 people awaiting execution. (as of October 2014)
The U.S. government has executed three people since 1976.
Females:
There are 57 women on death row in the United States. (as of October 2014)
Fifteen women have been executed since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. (as of October 2014)
Juveniles:
Twenty-two individuals were executed between 1985 and 2003 for crimes committed as juveniles aged 16 and 17.
March 1, 2005 – Roper v. Simmons. The Supreme Court rules that the execution of juveniles is unconstitutional. This means that 16 and 17-year-olds are ineligible for execution. And reverses two 1989 cases in Kentucky and Missouri.
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February 11, 2014 – Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announces that he is issuing a moratorium on death penalty cases during his term in office.
May 22, 2014 – Tennessee becomes the first state to make death by electric chair mandatory when lethal injection drugs are unavailable.
May 28, 2014 – A judge in Ohio issues an order temporarily suspending executions in the state so that authorities can further study new lethal injection protocols.
July 23, 2014 – Arizona uses a new combination of drugs for the lethal injection to execute convicted murderer Joseph Woods. After he was injected it took him nearly two hours to die. Witness accounts differ as to whether he was gasping for air or snoring as he died.
September 4, 2014 – The Oklahoma Department of Public Safety issues a report on the controversial April execution of inmate Clayton Lockett. Complications with the placement of an IV into Lockett played a significant role in problems with his execution, according to the report. An autopsy confirmed that Lockett died from the execution drugs and not from a heart attack, but many consider it botched nonetheless because it took 43 minutes for him to die.
November 19, 2014 – A Utah legislative committee votes 9-2 to endorse a bill that will allow the execution of condemned prisoners by firing squad if drugs needed for lethal injection are not available. The bill is scheduled to be heard by full Utah Legislature convening in January 2015.
December 22, 2014 – A U.S. district court judge in Oklahoma rules that future scheduled executions may proceed after he denies a preliminary injunction request filed by 21 Oklahoma death row inmates stemming from the problematic execution of Clayton Lockett on April 29th.
December 22, 2014 – Arizona’s state-commisioned review board decides that the execution of Joseph Woods was “handled appropriately,” but that it will be changing the combination they use in future executions from a two drug formula to a three drug formula, or a single drug injection if the State can obtain it (pentobarbital).
December 31, 2014 – Outgoing Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley takes the state’s last four inmates off death row, commuting their sentences to life in prison without parole in one of his final acts in office.
January 8, 2015 – Ohio announces that it is reincorporating thiopental sodium, a drug which it used in executions from 1999-2011, into it’s execution policy. The state is also dropping the two-drug regimen of midazolam and hydromorphone.
January 23, 2015 – The Supreme Court agrees to hear a case concerning the lethal injection protocol in Oklahoma. The inmates claim that the state protocol violates the Constitution’s prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.
