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State & Federal

Michigan

News & Developments


News

Jul 27, 2015

Citing High Cost of Death Penalty Appeals, California Prosecutor Agrees to Reduce Prisoner’s Sentence to Life Without Parole

Citing the high cost of death penal­ty appeals and dif­fi­cul­ty obtain­ing cus­tody of an out-of-state pris­on­er, the Kern County, California District Attorney’s office has agreed to reduce the 1989 death sen­tence imposed upon Clarence Ray (pic­tured) to a sen­tence of life with­out parole. Ray’s lawyers had filed a peti­tion chal­leng­ing the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of his California con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. The par­ties reached agree­ment that Ray’s death sen­tence would be reversed in exchange for his giv­ing up the remain­der of his appeals. Prosecutors said that fight­ing the peti­tion for a reduced…

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Oct 16, 2014

NEW RESOURCES: Podcast Series on Each State’s Death Penalty

DPIC has recent­ly added four pod­casts to our new series on impor­tant facts about the death penal­ty in each state. Seven state pod­casts are now avail­able: Michigan, Wisconsin, Maine, Minnesota, North Dakota, Alaska, and Hawaii. We expect to add new episodes each week, with two more com­ing tomorow (Oct. 17). The series has begun with states that have abol­ished the death penal­ty, and focus­es on the devel­op­ments lead­ing to repeal in those states. The issues that brought those states to abo­li­tion are often sim­i­lar to the ones states with the…

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Aug 29, 2014

NEW RESOURCES: Podcasts on Individual States

DPIC is begin­ning a new series of pod­casts based on the his­to­ry of the death penal­ty in each state. The series will first present the states that have end­ed the death penal­ty. Three pod­casts, fea­tur­ing Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maine, are now avail­able. These short audio clips sum­ma­rize the his­to­ry sur­round­ing the repeal of the death penal­ty in those states, includ­ing famous cas­es, issues that spurred leg­is­la­tors to take action, and sub­se­quent attempts at rein­state­ment of the death penal­ty. We hope this new series will be an excel­lent resource for students…

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Mar 12, 2013

BOOKS: Gil Wanger’s Lifetime of Work Against Capital Punishment

The Michigan Committee Against Capital Punishment has pub­lished a col­lec­tion of over 40 years of tes­ti­mo­ny, brochures, and oth­er infor­ma­tion by attor­ney and death-penal­ty expert Eugene Wanger. The col­lec­tion begins with the res­o­lu­tion from Michigan​’s 1962 con­sti­tu­tion­al con­ven­tion ban­ning cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in the state. It includes Wanger’s tes­ti­mo­ny at numer­ous hear­ings oppos­ing bills attempt­ing to rein­state the death penal­ty, as well as brochures and short arti­cles. The bound and boxed vol­ume pro­vides a com­pre­hen­sive overview of the his­to­ry of death-penal­ty leg­is­la­tion in Michigan. Through leg­is­la­tion in 1846, the state became…

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Aug 04, 2011

First Federal Death Sentence in Non-Death Penalty State Overturned

On August 3 the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Sixth Circuit over­turned the fed­er­al death sen­tence of Marvin Gabrion, who was con­vict­ed of a 1997 mur­der in a National Forest in Michigan. Gabrion was the first defen­dant in the coun­try to receive the fed­er­al death penal­ty for a crime com­mit­ted in a non-death penal­ty state since the fed­er­al death penal­ty was rein­stat­ed in 1988. All three mem­bers of the judi­cial pan­el upheld Gabriion’s mur­der con­vic­tion, but two judges called for anoth­er sen­tenc­ing tri­al because Gabrion’s defense team was…

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History of Death Penalty

Only 13 executions were carried out in Michigan’s history, just 6 of which occurred after Michigan officially became a territory in 1805. The only execution carried out in Michigan after it gained statehood was the federal execution (outside state jurisdiction) of Anthony Chebatoris in 1938. The death penalty has been constitutionally banned in Michigan since 1963.

Famous Cases

In 1828, Patrick Fitzpatrick was hanged after being declared guilty for the rape and murder of an innkeeper’s daughter. In 1835, Fitzpatrick’s former roommate confessed to the murder on his deathbed, proving that Fitzpatrick had been executed for a murder in which he was innocent.

Other Interesting Facts

Michigan became the first English-speaking territory in the world to abolish capital punishment in 1847. Treason remained a crime punishable by the death penalty in Michigan despite the 1847 abolition, but no one was ever executed under that law. In 1962 a constitutional convention passed a proposal to abolish the death penalty for all crimes in Michigan by a 108 to 3 vote.

Tahquamenon Falls. Photo by Attila Nagy.

Resources

  • Department of Corrections
  • ACLU Michigan
  • Prosecutors
  • Public defender’s office
  • Victims’ services

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: No
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 0
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include federal and military executions): 13
  • 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: 1847
  • Location of Death Row/Executions: N/A
  • Capital: Lansing
  • Region: Midwest
  • Population: 10,077,331*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 5.57
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: N/A
  • Clemency Process: N/A
  • Governor: Gretchen Whitmer

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