Below are important pieces of death penalty legislation that have recently passed or are currently being considered. (DPIC welcomes additions and suggestions.)
(Left: A board displays the vote totals in the Kentucky Senate on HB 269, a bill to prohibit the imposition of the death penalty against individuals with a documented history of serious mental illness. One late vote was added to the tally displayed on the vote board. The 25-9 vote on March 25, 2022 completed legislative approval of the measure, which was forwarded to the governor for final action.)
Open Sessions
California
Regular: December 5, 2022 — November 30, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would codify case law exempting those with intellectual disability from the death penalty and clarify the definition of intellectual disability. |
|
Limits Death Eligibility | Enacted |
|
Would add murder of a child under age 12 as an aggravating circumstance |
|
Expands Aggravating Circumstances | Failed |
|
Would make a defendant ineligible for the death penalty IF the court finds there was a violation of subdivision (a) of Section 745 of the Penal Code, which prohibits conviction or sentencing based on race, ethnicity, or national origin. |
|
Limits Death Eligibility | Enacted |
|
This bill would (among other things unrelated to the death penalty) require the court to electronically transmit to the Governor, in a mutually agreed upon format, the statement of the conviction and judgment, the certified copies of the order of judgment, and the warrant. The bill would eliminate the requirement that the court provide a complete transcript of the testimony given at trial and the copy of the clerk’s transcript when a judgment of death is had. |
|
Other | Enacted |
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 | Pending |
Would reinstate the death penalty. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Pending | |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty for first degree murder of a peace officer. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Pending |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty and related procedures for the killing of a police officer in the course of official duties. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Pending |
|
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 | Pending |
|
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 | Pending |
|
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 | Pending |
|
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 | Pending |
Massachusetts
Regular: January 4, 2023 — December 31, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would reintroduce the death penalty for the murder of law enforcement officers. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Pending |
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 | Pending | |
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 | Pending | |
|
Provides that sentence for commission of certain provisions of murder in the first degree is death or life without parole. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Pending |
|
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 | Pending |
Relates to consideration of the death penalty for the commission of certain provisions of murder in the first degree. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Pending | |
Ends the imposition of a sentence of life without parole and the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Pending |
Ohio
Regular: January 2, 2023 — December 31, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would add nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution; prisoners could elect to use the method, but nitrogen hypoxia would be used if lethal injection is unavailable. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Pending |
Would abolish the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Pending | |
|
Would prohibit the state from using nitrogen gas as an execution method. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Pending |
Pennsylvania
Regular: January 3, 2023 — November 30, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would provide compensation and services to those wrongfully to victims of wrongful conviction and imprisonment in Pennsylvania. |
|
Wrongful Conviction Compensation Bill | Pending |
|
Would require jurors to unanimously find that aggravating circumstances outweigh mitigating circumstances beyond a reasonable doubt in order for a death sentence to be imposed. |
|
Modifies Sentencing Process | Pending |
|
Would repeal the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Pending |
|
Would repeal the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Pending |
|
Would allow for the death penalty for convicted Human Traffickers of children. |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Pending |
|
Would allow for the death penalty and the chemical castration of child rapists. |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Pending |
Sessions Closed This Year
Alabama
Regular: February 6, 2024 — May 7, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would prohibit the use of nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Prior to 2017, judicial override — the judge implementing a decision contrary to the jury’s recommendation — was permitted. This bill would allow defendants sentenced to death via judicial override to be resentenced. |
|
Modifies Sentencing Process | Session Closed Without Passage |
Arizona
Regular: January 8, 2024 — April 26, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would repeal the state's felony murder rule, which currently allows individuals to be charged with murder if someone dies during the commission of certain felonies, even if they were not directly responsible for the murder. The bill would also provide opportunities for those convicted under the statute to be resentenced. |
|
Limits Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would amend the constitution as follows:
|
|
Other | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would eliminate the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Arkansas
Regular: January 8, 2024 — May 1, 2024
Delaware
Regular: January 10, 2023 — June 30, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would eliminate the death penalty and resentence those convicted of first-degree murder committed after 18 years of age to life without parole. |
|
Abolition Bill | Enacted |
|
Would modify the state constitution to eliminate the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would amend the state's existing death penalty law that was deemed unconstitutional by the Delaware Supreme Court in 2016 to align with various constitutional standards, thereby reintroducing capital punishment in the state. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Florida
Regular: January 9, 2024 — March 8, 2024
Georgia
Regular: January 9, 2023 — April 2, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would provide pretrial proceedings when the accused has an intellectual disability in capital offense cases where the death penalty is sought. |
|
Other | Session Closed Without Passage |
Hawaii
Regular: January 17, 2024 — May 3, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Provides for a sentence of death or life imprisonment without possibility of parole upon conviction for sex trafficking of a minor. Requires separate sentencing proceedings after conviction before a jury. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Idaho
Regular: January 8, 2024 — March 29, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would allow a capital sentence for lewd conduct with a minor under 12 if there are aggravating circumstances. |
|
Expands Aggravating Circumstances | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would make lewd conduct with a minor child under 12 years of age eligible for a death sentence. |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
Indiana
Regular: January 9, 2023 — March 8, 2024
Iowa
Regular: January 9, 2023 — May 22, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would establish the death penalty for murder in first degree offenses involving kidnapping and sexual abuse offenses against the same victim who is a minor. |
|
Expands Aggravating Circumstances | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Kansas
Regular: January 9, 2023 — April 30, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Would abolish the death penalty, create the crime of aggravated murder with a sentence of life imprisonment without parole |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage | |
|
Would authorize nitrogen hypoxia as an execution method and would require the district court to issue a warrant to the secretary of corrections to carry out a sentence of death. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Session Closed Without Passage |
Kentucky
Regular: January 2, 2024 — March 30, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would add abuse of a corpse of the victim of kidnapping or murder by engaging in deviate sexual intercourse, sexual intercouse, or sexual contact as an aggravating circumstance. |
|
Expands Aggravating Circumstances | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole for inmates presently sentenced to death |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would abolish the death penalty and replace it with life imprisonment without parole for prisoners presently sentenced to death; would prohibit life imprisonment without benefit of parole for a juvenile offender convicted of a capital offense; would define "serious intellectual disability" and "significant subaverage general intellectual functioning" |
|
Retroactive Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Louisiana
Regular: March 11, 2024 — June 4, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Modifies procedures relating to notifying and contacting victims. |
|
Other | Enacted |
|
Modifies procedures relating to notifying and contacting victims. |
|
Other | Enacted |
|
Would remove nitrogen hypoxia as an authorized method of execution. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Session Closed Without Passage |
Louisiana
Special: February 19, 2024 — March 6, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would add nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution as alternative execution methods. Would also make records or information relating to the execution confidential. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Enacted |
Maryland
Regular: January 10, 2024 — April 8, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would provide the death penalty as potential punishment for first-degree murder, and establish certain procedures relating to custody, warrant of execution, incompetency, method of execution, witnesses, certificate, disposition of body, notice, trial, sentencing, review, and appeal in relation to imposition of the death penalty. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Mississippi
Regular: January 2, 2024 — May 5, 2024
Missouri
Regular: January 3, 2024 — May 5, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would allow the death penalty for for the offenses of statutory rape in the first degree and sexual trafficking of a child in the first degree |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
Would abolish the death penalty and replace it with a maximum sentence of life without parole |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Nebraska
Regular: January 4, 2023 — April 18, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would change provision relating to persons present during an execution, including adding two members of the legislature as witnesses. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would add nitrogen hypoxia as a method of execution |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Proposes a constitutional amendment that would abolish the death penalty and resentence death-row prisoners to life |
|
Retroactive Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
New Jersey
Regular: January 11, 2022 — January 13, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Proposes constitutional amendment to restore the death penalty under certain circumstances. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage | |
|
Would restore the death penalty for certain murders. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
New Mexico
Regular: January 16, 2024 — February 15, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would make aggravated criminal sexual penetration and criminal sexual penetration of a child punishable by death. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty for the murder of a police officer. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty. |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
North Carolina
Regular: January 11, 2023 — June 30, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would repeal the death penalty and resentence those with death sentences to life without parole. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would repeal the death penalty and resentence those with death sentences to life without parole. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would introduce a separate sentencing proceeding by the courts to determine a life or death sentence when the state gives notice of intent to seek the death penalty for defendants convicted of a capital felony. When the jury cannot unanimously decide on a death sentence, the judge must impose a life sentence. |
|
Modifies Sentencing Process | Enacted |
Oklahoma
Regular: February 6, 2023 — May 25, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would establish the Death Penalty Moratorium Act, which would pause executions in the state until further legislative action. Would also establish the Death Penalty Reform Task Force to prepare a report by November 30, 2025 on the progress made since the 2017 Report of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission. |
|
Other | Session Closed Without Passage |
Oregon
Regular: February 1, 2024 — February 28, 2024
South Carolina
Regular: January 10, 2023 — June 30, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would allow the death penalty for persons who commit criminal sexual conduct with a victim under eleven years of age and remove the repeat offender requirement; clarifies that both mitigating and aggravating factors apply. |
|
Expands Aggravating Circumstances | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would conceal the identities of members of the execution team, including suppliers of lethal-injection drugs. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Enacted |
|
Would abolish the death penalty and all laws related to death-penalty procedure. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would keep confidential the identity of persons involved in the planning or administration of executions. Would also exempt execution drugs from the state procurement code and state licensing processes and requirements. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Session Closed Without Passage |
South Dakota
Regular: January 9, 2024 — March 25, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would allow the death penalty for the rape of a child age twelve and under |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would repeal the death penalty |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Tennessee
Regular: January 10, 2023 — April 26, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
Requires a person sentenced to the punishment of death to file any post-conviction appeal within 180 days of the original sentence and any unsuccessful direct appeal; requires the attorney general and reporter to notify the defendant and the defendant’s attorney when two or more appeals may be filed simultaneously. |
|
Modifies Appeals Process | Session Closed Without Passage | |
Would require a sentence of death to be carried out within 30 business days of the conclusion of any appeals or post-conviction relief, if the jury unanimously determines that certain circumstances are met. |
|
Modifies Sentencing Process | Enacted | |
Would authorize the death penalty as a punishment for rape of a child, aggravated rape of a child, or especially aggravated rape of a child. |
|
Expands Aggravating Circumstances | Enacted | |
Would make the identities of the entity that compounds, distributes, or manufactures lethal injection drugs or the individuals who carry out the execution public record. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Session Closed Without Passage | |
Would provide firing squad as a method of execution. |
|
Modifies Execution Protocol | Session Closed Without Passage |
Texas
Regular: January 10, 2023 — May 29, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would abolish the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would abolish the death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would prohibit the death penalty for defendants with severe mental illness. |
|
Limits Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would change the procedure for determining intellectual disability in capital cases, and align the state’s definition of intellectual disability with clinical standards |
|
Limits Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would prohibit the death penalty in cases that rely solely on the testimony of a single eyewitness |
|
Limits Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would require a court to withdraw an execution date if requested by the prosecutor. |
|
Other | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would limit the use of the death penalty in “law of parties” cases, limiting them to instances where the individual is a “major participant” in a capital murder and behave with “reckless indifference to human life” |
|
Limits Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
Regular: January 3, 2023 — October 30, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would make possession of child pornography a death eligible crime. |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would make various crimes involving children, including trafficking, exploitation, and sexual abuse, death eligible offenses. |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
This bill establishes new criminal offenses for killing, assaulting, and fleeing to avoid prosecution for killing a judge, law enforcement officer, or public safety officer. Additionally, the bill
|
|
Expands Aggravating Circumstances | Session Closed Without Passage | |
Would expand the list of statutory aggravating factors in death penalty determinations to also include killing or targeting a law enforcement officer, firefighter, or other first responder. |
|
Expands Aggravating Circumstances | Session Closed Without Passage | |
Would eliminate the death penalty for any violation of federal law. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage | |
|
This bill requires a federal court to construe the imposition of a death penalty sentence for an individual convicted of an offense under state law for receiving or providing a reproductive health service (e.g., an abortion) as cruel and unusual punishment and a miscarriage of justice. It also authorizes civil suits by affected individuals and a right to habeas corpus relief in federal district court. |
|
Limits Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would authorize the death penalty for certain fentanyl-related offenses that result in death. |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would eliminate the federal death penalty and resentence those on federal death row. |
|
Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Would establish federal criminal offenses involving the murder of federal, state, or local law enforcement officers. Violators are subject to life in prison or death. Would set forth aggravating factors (e.g., intent to ambush or prior history of promoting violence against a law enforcement officer) to be considered in determining whether to impose the death penalty. |
|
Expands Death Eligibility | Session Closed Without Passage |
Utah
Regular: January 16, 2024 — March 1, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would make information relating to executions confidential. |
|
Other | Enacted |
Virginia
Regular: January 10, 2024 — March 10, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would reinstate the death penalty |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Failed |
Washington
Regular: January 9, 2023 — March 8, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would update the constitution to align with the Washington Supreme Court ruling that abolished the state’s death penalty. |
|
Abolition Bill | Enacted |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty for prisoners who commit murder. The Washington Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty in 2018. |
|
Retroactive Abolition Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
West Virginia
Regular: January 10, 2024 — March 10, 2024
Number(s) | Description | Events | Type | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Would allow the death penalty for intentionally killing law-enforcement officer or first responder in line of duty |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
|
Would reinstate the death penalty |
|
Reinstatement Bill | Session Closed Without Passage |
Wyoming
Regular: February 12, 2024 — March 8, 2024
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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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