Below are important pieces of death penalty legislation that have recently passed or are currently being considered. (DPI welcomes additions and suggestions via email.)
Session dates via StateScape.
State names link to state legislative homepage.
Open Sessions
Arizona
Regular: January 13, 2025 — April 26, 2025
Arkansas
Regular: January 13, 2025 — April 11, 2025
California
Regular: December 2, 2024 — November 30, 2026
California
Special: December 2, 2024 — January 31, 2025
Colorado
Regular: January 8, 2025 — May 7, 2025
Connecticut
Regular: January 8, 2025 — June 4, 2025
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would provide that certain persons who are licensed, registered or doing business in this state shall not manufacture, compound, sell, test, distribute, dispense or supply any drug or medical device for the purpose of executing the death penalty. |
|
Other | Pending |
|
Would restore the death penalty. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Pending |
Delaware
Regular: January 14, 2025 — June 30, 2026
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
The first leg of a constitutional amendment to prohibit the imposition of the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Pending |
Georgia
Regular: January 13, 2025 — April 2, 2026
Hawaii
Regular: January 15, 2025 — May 1, 2026
Idaho
Regular: January 6, 2025 — April 10, 2025
Illinois
Regular: January 8, 2025 — April 29, 2025
Indiana
Regular: January 8, 2025 — April 29, 2025
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would abolish the death penalty and commute the death sentences of current prisoners to life without parole. Would also allow defendants in cases where the state is seeking life without parole to file a petition alleging intellectual disability; in instances where the defendant is found to have an intellectual disability, then the court would not be able to impose a sentence of life without parole. |
|
Retroactive Abolition Bill | Pending |
Iowa
Regular: January 13, 2025 — May 30, 2026
Kansas
Regular: January 13, 2025 — May 5, 2026
Kentucky
Regular: January 7, 2025 — March 28, 2025
Maine
Regular: December 4, 2024 — May 8, 2026
Maryland
Regular: January 8, 2025 — April 7, 2025
Massachusetts
Regular: January 1, 2025 — January 1, 2027
Michigan
Regular: January 8, 2025 — December 31, 2026
Minnesota
Regular: January 14, 2025 — May 18, 2026
Mississippi
Regular: January 7, 2025 — April 6, 2025
Missouri
Regular: January 8, 2025 — May 30, 2025
Montana
Regular: January 6, 2025 — May 9, 2025
Nebraska
Regular: January 8, 2025 — May 29, 2026
New Hampshire
Regular: January 8, 2025 — June 30, 2025
New Jersey
Regular: January 9, 2024 — January 13, 2026
New York
Regular: January 8, 2025 — January 1, 2027
North Carolina
Regular: January 8, 2025 — July 31, 2026
North Dakota
Regular: January 7, 2025 — May 2, 2025
Ohio
Regular: January 6, 2025 — December 31, 2026
Pennsylvania
Regular: January 7, 2025 — November 30, 2026
Rhode Island
Regular: January 7, 2025 — June 30, 2025
South Carolina
Regular: January 14, 2025 — June 30, 2026
South Dakota
Regular: January 14, 2025 — March 31, 2025
Tennessee
Regular: January 14, 2025 — April 24, 2026
Texas
Regular: January 14, 2025 — June 2, 2025
US Federal Government
Regular: January 3, 2025 — October 30, 2026
Vermont
Regular: January 8, 2025 — May 8, 2026
Virginia
Regular: January 8, 2025 — February 22, 2025
Washington
Regular: January 13, 2025 — April 26, 2026
Wisconsin
Regular: January 6, 2025 — December 31, 2026
Wyoming
Regular: January 14, 2025 — March 7, 2025
Upcoming Sessions
Alabama
Regular: February 4, 2025 — May 15, 2025
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would require any person age 18 or older convicted of rape in the first degree or sodomy in the first degree of a victim less than age six to be sentenced to death or life without parole. If the person convicted is less than age 18 then they would be sentenced to either life without parole or life. |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Pending |
Alaska
Regular: January 21, 2025 — May 20, 2026
Florida
Regular: March 4, 2025 — May 2, 2025
Hawaii
Regular: January 15, 2025 — May 1, 2026
Louisiana
Regular: April 14, 2025 — June 12, 2025
Nevada
Regular: February 3, 2025 — June 2, 2025
New Mexico
Regular: January 21, 2025 — March 22, 2025
Oklahoma
Regular: February 3, 2025 — May 30, 2026
Oregon
Regular: January 21, 2025 — June 30, 2025
Utah
Regular: January 21, 2025 — March 7, 2025
West Virginia
Regular: February 12, 2025 — April 12, 2025
Sessions Closed This Year
Illinois
Regular: January 11, 2023 — January 5, 2025
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would allow the death penalty for murders committed in or on the grounds of a religious institution, public or private school, community college, college, university, child care facility, or a public place by someone at least 18 years of age. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Would reinstate the death penalty. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage | |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty for first degree murder of a peace officer. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty and related procedures for the killing of a police officer in the course of official duties. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty for the killing of a person in or on the grounds of a religious institution, public or private school, community college, college, university, child care facility, or a public place. Reestablishes related capital procedures. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty as punishment for the murder of a peace officer or correction facility employee killed while performing their duties and reestablishes capital punishment processes. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Updates existing criminal codes to remove mentions related to capital punishment. |
|
Other | Enacted |
|
Would establish the Capital Crimes Litigation Act of 2024, which would reinstate the death penalty for first-degree murder of a peace officer, firefighter, emergency medical personnel, or correctional facility employee killed while performing official duties and accordingly establish legal processes for capital representation and appeals. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would eliminate a provision abolishing the death penalty, modify aggravating factors, and transfer remaining funds from the Death Penalty Abolition Fund to reestablish a Capital Litigation Trust Fund. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
New York
Regular: January 4, 2024 — January 2, 2025
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Requires that all felony offenders shall be eligible for parole after serving no more than twenty-five years of their sentence; eliminates the possibility of serving consecutive terms of imprisonment which exceed a twenty-five year sentence. |
|
Modifies Sentencing Process | Session Closed Without Passage | |
Relates to commission of murder in the first degree; provides that sentence for commission of certain provisions of murder in the first degree is death or life without parole. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage | |
|
Provides that sentence for commission of certain provisions of murder in the first degree is death or life without parole. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Provides that the sentence for committing murder in the first degree when the victim is a police officer, peace officer or correction officer shall be either death or life imprisonment without parole |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Relates to consideration of the death penalty for the commission of certain provisions of murder in the first degree. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage | |
Ends the imposition of a sentence of life without parole and the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
News & Developments
News
Oct 07, 2024
Delaware Officially Removes Death Penalty from State Statutes Eight Years After State Supreme Court Finds It Unconstitutional
On September 26, 2024, Governor John Carney (D) signed House Bill 70, which officially repeals the death penalty from the state’s law. Although Delaware’s Supreme Court found its death penalty statute to be unconstitutional in 2016, invalidating it for future use and effectively abolishing capital punishment, the passage of HB 70 amends Title 11 of the state’s code to remove the death penalty and replace it with life without parole as the most severe punishment for first-degree murder for…
Read MoreNews
May 17, 2024
Tennessee Authorizes Death Penalty for Child Sexual Assault in Direct Challenge to Supreme Court Precedent
On May 9, Governor Bill Lee of Tennessee signed a bill authorizing the death penalty for aggravated rape of a child, following Florida’s passage of a similar law last year. Both laws contradict longstanding Supreme Court precedent holding the death penalty unconstitutional for non-homicide crimes. Tennessee’s law takes effect on July 1. The state has had a death penalty moratorium in place since May 2022 after Governor Lee learned that state officials had failed to test execution drugs for…
Read MoreNews
Mar 05, 2024
Oklahoma Execution Moratorium Bill Unanimously Passes Committee and Makes Its Way to the State-House Floor
On February 28, 2023, the Oklahoma House Criminal Justice and Corrections Committee unanimously passed a bill that would pause all pending executions and prohibit new death sentences while an independent task force reviews current Oklahoma death penalty procedures. House Bill 3138, also known as the Death Penalty Moratorium Act, was introduced by Republican Representative Kevin McDugle and would create a five-member Death Penalty Reform Task Force to “study and report on the progress of…
Read MoreNews
Feb 02, 2024
Ohio Officials Divided on Death Penalty as Attorney General Pushes New Bill to Legalize Nitrogen Hypoxia for Executions
On Tuesday, January 30, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced new legislation to authorize the use of nitrogen gas in executions in the state. Joined by several Republican state representatives and Louis Tobin of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association, AG Yost said that he is seeking to “kickstart” Ohio’s death penalty after a six-year pause in executions due to difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs. “The status quo is unacceptable,” he said. According to the text of the…
Read MoreNews
Jan 12, 2024
State Legislative Roundup: New Legislation on the Death Penalty
The first month of 2024 marks the start of new legislative sessions for many states and a number of new proposals pertaining to the death…
Read More