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State & Federal

District of Columbia

Notable Cases

The first record­ed exe­cu­tion in Washington, D.C. was the hang­ing of James McGirk in 1802.

Mary Surratt, the only woman exe­cut­ed in D.C., was hanged by the U.S. mil­i­tary in 1865 for con­spir­ing to assas­si­nate President Abraham Lincoln.

Charles Guiteau was exe­cut­ed in 1882 for assas­si­nat­ing President Garfield.

The District of Columbia has not had an exe­cu­tion since Robert Carter in 1957. Carter was con­vict­ed of fatal­ly shoot­ing an off-duty police offi­cer who pur­sued him after Carter robbed a dry clean­ers. The jury in the case rec­om­mend­ed mer­cy for Carter, but the law at the time man­dat­ed a death sen­tence for a con­vic­tion of first-degree murder.

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

The District’s death penal­ty was nul­li­fied by the Supreme Court deci­sion in Furman v. Georgia in 1972 and repealed by the D.C. Council in 1981. District res­i­dents vot­ed 2 – 1 against the death penal­ty in a 1992 ref­er­en­dum ordered by Congress. Prior to the ref­er­en­dum, the D.C. Council passed leg­is­la­tion allow­ing for a sen­tenc­ing option of life with­out parole for first-degree mur­der. Lawmakers tout­ed the leg­is­la­tion as an alter­na­tive to the rein­state­ment of the death penalty.

In 1997, the D.C. Council’s Judiciary Committee reject­ed a bill to per­mit cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment for the mur­der of pub­lic safe­ty employ­ees. The bill was pro­posed by then-Mayor Marion Barry.

Other Interesting Facts

For most of its his­to­ry, Washington, D.C. was gov­erned by fed­er­al statutes. Although D.C. now has its own code of laws, it is still sub­ject to Congressional over­sight. The fed­er­al gov­ern­ment has sought the death penal­ty in mur­der cas­es that occurred in D.C.

Hanging and elec­tro­cu­tion are the only meth­ods of exe­cu­tion that have been used in the District of Columbia.

Washington Monument with Cherry Blossoms. Photo by Anne Holsinger.

Resources

  • Department of Corrections
  • National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (locat­ed in Washington, D.C.)
  • Amnesty International (locat­ed in Washington, D.C.)
  • ACLU of the Nation’s Capital
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News & Developments


News

Oct 25, 2013

Upcoming Events to Review Death Penalty Practice

Two events in November will exam­ine the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty from a vari­ety of per­spec­tives. On November 12, the American Bar Association will host the National Symposium on the Modern Death Penalty at the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The con­fer­ence will cul­mi­nate the ABA’s eight-year effort to ass­es the death penal­ty in var­i­ous states, using cri­te­ria for due process estab­lished by the ABA. Former President Jimmy…

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News

Jan 20, 2011

ARBITRARINESS: Contract Killer Spared the Death Penalty Despite Seven Murders

Although the death penal­ty is often described as being reserved for the​“worst of the worst” offend­ers, in prac­tice defen­dants respon­si­ble for many mur­ders are often spared while those who com­mit­ted arguably less­er offens­es are exe­cut­ed. Oscar Veal was a con­tract killer for a large drug ring and mur­der-for-hire oper­a­tion. He was con­vict­ed of sev­en counts of mur­der and eight counts of rack­e­teer­ing con­spir­a­cy. However, in exchange for testimony…

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News

Jan 13, 2011

NEW VOICES: ​“Police Officials Argue Death Penalty Doesn’t Make Us Safer”

Four law enforce­ment offi­cials from var­i­ous coun­tries who came togeth­er in Washington, D.C., in 2010 for a ground­break­ing inter­na­tion­al dia­logue on the death penal­ty recent­ly pub­lished an op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News regard­ing their dis­cus­sion. From their expe­ri­ence, they dis­count­ed the argu­ment that the death penal­ty deters potential…

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Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: No
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 0
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include fed­er­al and military executions): 118
  • Current Death Row Population: 0
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 0
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 0
  • Date of Reinstatement (fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia): N/​A
  • Date of Abolition: 1981
  • Location of Death Row/​Executions: N/​A
  • Capital: N/​A
  • Region: South
  • Population: 689,545*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 23.5
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Clemency Process: N/​A
  • Mayor: Muriel Bowser
Upcoming Executions

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

State-By-State

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DPI Fact Sheet

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty

More Information


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