Maine

Notable Cases

Jeremiah Baum, exe­cut­ed in 1780, was put to death for trea­son. This is the only exe­cu­tion in Maine for a crime oth­er than murder.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

In 1876 the leg­is­la­ture of Maine abol­ished the death penal­ty by a vote of 75 to 68.

In 1883 the death penal­ty was reestab­lished in Maine.

Maine abol­ished the death penal­ty for a sec­ond time in 1887. The move­ment toward abo­li­tion was dri­ven by a botched exe­cu­tion in 1885. Due to a poor­ly-tied hang­man’s noose, Daniel Wilkinson died slow­ly of stran­gu­la­tion. Wilkinson’s exe­cu­tion was the last in Maine.

A bill was intro­duced in 1925 to rein­state the death penal­ty in Maine, but no leg­isla­tive action was tak­en on it. Another attempt to rein­state the death penal­ty occurred in 1937, but once again no leg­isla­tive action was tak­en on the bill. Further attempts to rein­state the death penal­ty occurred in the Maine leg­is­la­ture in 1973, 1975, 1977 and 1979 but all of them were defeated.

Other Interesting Facts

The first exe­cu­tion in Maine took place in 1644.

 

Resources

• Department of Corrections
• ACLU of Maine
• Prosecutors
• Maine Commission on Indigent Legal Services (Maine has no pub­lic defender’s office)
• Victims’ ser­vices