Death Penalty Information Center
Search Close Menu
  • Issues
    • Issues
    • Biases & Vulnerabilities
      • Intellectual Disability
      • Mental Illness
      • Race
      • LGBTQ+ People
      • Youth
    • Policy
      • Arbitrariness How non-legal factors affect use of the death penalty
      • Clemency Death sentence reductions and pardons by state and federal executives
      • Costs The death penalty’s monetary cost to taxpayers
      • Deterrence Whether the death penalty deters future violent crime
      • Human Rights How international human rights law and treaties view the death penalty
      • Innocence People wrongfully sentenced to death
      • International How the death penalty is used in countries outside the U.S.
      • Legal Representation How the quality of defense counsel affects death penalty outcomes
      • Official Misconduct How wrongful government action affects death penalty outcomes
      • Public Opinion What the public says about the death penalty
      • Sentencing Alternatives Sentencing options for death-eligible crimes
      • US Supreme Court Supreme Court death penalty cases
  • Research
    • Research
    • Background
      • Crimes Punishable by Death
      • Fact Sheet
      • History of the Death Penalty
    • Data
      • Death Penalty Census
      • Execution Database
      • Innocence Database
      • Legislative Activity
      • Sentencing Data
    • Analysis
      • DPI Reports
    • DPI Reports Dec 19, 2024 The Death Penalty in 2024 Death Sentences and Executions Remain Near Historic Lows Amid Growing Concerns about Fairness and Innocence
  • Death Row & Executions
    • Death Row
      • Death Row Overview
      • Conditions on Death Row
      • Time on Death Row
      • Foreign Nationals
      • Native Americans
      • Women
    • Executions
      • Executions Overview
      • Upcoming Executions
      • Execution Database
      • Methods of Execution
      • Botched Executions
  • State & Federal Info
    • State & Federal Info
    • State by State
    • Federal Death Penalty
    • Military
    • Explore by State

      • Death Penalty
      • Pause on Executions
      • No Death Penalty
      AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA WV WI WY DC
  • Resources
    • Resources
    • Links
      • College Curriculum Case narratives and resources to guide college discussions
      • DPI Podcasts DPI’s monthly podcast series where we speak with death penalty experts.
      • High School Curriculum Materials designed for high school educators and students
      • Publications & Testimony How DPI and others speak about the death penalty
      • Related Websites Links to governmental, advocacy, and legal organizations
      • Student Research Center Resources for students researching the death penalty
      • Teacher's Guide Two-week lesson plans for middle and high school classes
      • En Español Información sobre la pena de muerte en español
    • DPI Resource Fact Sheet PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty.
  • About DPI
  • Media Contact
  • Donate

State & Federal

Mississippi

History of the Death Penalty

From 1804 – 1940, all exe­cu­tions in Mississippi were car­ried out by hang­ing. The first exe­cu­tion by elec­tro­cu­tion took place on October 11, 1940. From then until 1952, the elec­tric chair was moved from coun­ty to coun­ty for 75 exe­cu­tions. Inmates were exe­cut­ed by lethal gas from 1954 – 1989. In 1984, the Mississippi leg­is­la­ture amend­ed the state’s death penal­ty statute to pro­vide for lethal injec­tion for all indi­vid­u­als sen­tenced to death after the law went into effect. Inmates sen­tenced pri­or to the change were still exe­cut­ed by lethal gas. In 1998, lethal gas was removed as an option.

Timeline

1818 — Mississippi car­ries out its first documented execution.

1940 — The portable elec­tric chair replaces hang­ing as the pri­ma­ry method of exe­cu­tion in Mississippi. Hilton Fortenberry is the first per­son in Mississippi to be exe­cut­ed by electric chair.

1955 — In a botched exe­cu­tion last­ing 45 min­utes, Gerald Gallego is the first per­son to be exe­cut­ed by lethal gas. Louisiana then adds an addi­tion­al step to the required test­ing of the gas cham­ber to include plac­ing an ani­mal in the cham­ber to test if the mix­ture of gas is sufficiently lethal.

1984 — The Mississippi leg­is­la­ture amends the state’s death penal­ty statute to allow lethal injec­tion for all indi­vid­u­als sen­tenced to death once the law goes into effect. Inmates sen­tenced pri­or to this statute still faced exe­cu­tion by lethal gas.

1998 — Lethal gas is removed as an option for method of execution.

2002 — Tracy Hansen is the first per­son to exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion in Mississippi.

2011 — A bill is intro­duced to impose a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions but the state leg­is­la­ture does not pass the bill.

2015 — A fed­er­al judge blocks Mississippi from using the seda­tives pen­to­bar­bi­tal and mida­zo­lam in its lethal injec­tion exe­cu­tion pro­to­col. Midazolam has been impli­cat­ed in exe­cu­tions gon awry in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Arizona.

2017 — Mississippi appeals court grants Sherwood Brown a new tri­al after review­ing excul­pa­to­ry results of DNA test­ing and evi­dence. Mr. Brown’s death sen­tence con­vic­tion was obtained as a result of mis­lead­ing forensic testimony.

2020 — Curtis Flowers is exon­er­at­ed after spend­ing 23 years on death row. Mr. Flowers was tried cap­i­tal mur­der six times by the same pros­e­cu­tor, Doug Evans, and has faced numer­ous issues with pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al mis­con­duct and racial bias in jury selec­tion in his trials.

2021 — Mississippi car­ries out the exe­cu­tion of David Cox by lethal injec­tion. This is the first exe­cu­tion car­ried out in near­ly a decade.

2022 — Mississippi leg­is­la­ture pass­es a law allow­ing cor­rec­tions offi­cials to chose their pre­ferred exe­cu­tion method by either lethal injec­tion, elec­tro­cu­tion, fir­ing squad, or nitrogen hypoxia.

Notable Exonerations

Sabrina Butler was 17 years old when her 9‑month old son, who had a heart mur­mur, stopped breath­ing. After attempts to resus­ci­tate her son, Butler rushed to the hos­pi­tal, where the young child was pro­nounced dead. The fol­low­ing day Butler was arrest­ed for child abuse due to the bruis­es left by her resus­ci­ta­tion attempts. She was inter­ro­gat­ed by the police and then pros­e­cut­ed. Then, in 1990, she was con­vict­ed of cap­i­tal mur­der and sen­tenced to death.

Her con­vic­tion was over­turned by the Mississippi Supreme Court in 1992. (Butler v. State, 608 So.2d 314 (Miss. 1992)). The court said that the pros­e­cu­tion had failed to prove that the inci­dent was any­thing more than an acci­dent. At re-tri­al, she was acquit­ted on Dec. 17, 1995 after a very brief jury delib­er­a­tion. It is now believed that the baby may have died either of cys­tic kid­ney dis­ease or from sud­den infant death syn­drome (SIDS).

Milestones in Abolition/​Reinstatement

In 2011, a bill was intro­duced to impose a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. The bill did not pass the state legislature.

Other Interesting Facts

Mississippi was one of two states to use a portable elec­tric chair, and the first state to do so.

Mississippi River. Photo by NSBP.

Resources

  • Department of Corrections
  • Prosecutors
  • Mississippi Public Defenders Association
  • Victims’ ser­vices

Mississippi Execution Totals Since 1976


News & Developments


News

Mar 28, 2025

“He Looks a Little Like the Defendant”: A Closer Look at the History of Racial Bias in Jury Selection

As clos­ing argu­ments of his tri­al began in Johnston County, North Carolina, Hasson Bacote watched as Assistant District Attorney Gregory Butler urged the jury to sen­tence him to death. Mr. Bacote, a Black man, had been con­vict­ed of fatal­ly shoot­ing 18-year-old Anthony Surles dur­ing a rob­bery when Mr. Bacote was just 21 years old. Mr. Bacote admit­ted he had fired a sin­gle shot out of a trail­er, but said he did not know that he hit any­one.​“Hasson Bacote is a thug: cold-blooded…

Read More

News

Dec 20, 2023

Batson Relief for Another Mississippi Prisoner Prosecuted by Doug Evans

Brandonrush, CC0, via Wikimedia…

Read More

News

Dec 07, 2023

Mississippi Supreme Court Delays Decision on Willie Manning Execution Date, Allows Time for Appeal

Courtesy of Krissy Nobile, Mr. Manning’s…

Read More

News

Nov 10, 2023

A Veterans Day Review: Uneven Progress Understanding the Role of Military Service in Capital Crimes

In 2015, DPIC’s Battle Scars report brought world­wide atten­tion to the issue of mil­i­tary vet­er­ans on death row. DPIC found approx­i­mate­ly 300 vet­er­ans incar­cer­at­ed under a sen­tence of death, rep­re­sent­ing at least 10% of death row, and many more who had been exe­cut­ed. Since that report, research and under­stand­ing about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), trau­mat­ic brain injury (TBI), sub­stance use dis­or­ders, and men­tal ill­ness among veterans has…

Read More

News

Jul 12, 2023

Doug Evans, the District Attorney Who Prosecuted Curtis Flowers Six Times, Retires

Doug Evans, the District Attorney who tried death row exoneree Curtis Flowers for mur­der six times, is retir­ing. Mr. Flowers received four death sen­tences, but each con­vic­tion was over­turned when courts found that Evans had ille­gal­ly exclud­ed Black jurors from…

Read More
View More

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 23
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include fed­er­al and military executions): 351
  • Current Death Row Population: 37
  • Women on Death Row: 1
  • Number of Innocent Persons Freed From Death Row: 7
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 0
  • Date of Reinstatement (fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia): April 23, 1974
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1983
  • Location of Death Row (Men): Mississippi State Penitentiary
  • Location of Death Row (Women): Central Mississippi Correctional Facility
  • Capital: Jackson
  • Region: South
  • Population: 2,961,279*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 11.16
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Can a defen­dant get death for a felony in which s/​he was not respon­si­ble for the murder?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: Lethal Injection; nitro­gen hypox­ia if injec­tion deemed uncon­sti­tu­tion­al; elec­tro­cu­tion if lethal injec­tion and nitro­gen hypox­ia deemed unconstitutional
  • How is the Sentence Determined?: Jury
  • Clemency Process: Governor has sole author­i­ty to grant clemency
  • Governor: Tate Reeves
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

State-By-State

States With and Without the Death Penalty

DPI Fact Sheet

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty

More Information


Innocence Database

Execution Database

Death Penalty Census Database

Death Penalty Information Center
  • Issues
    • Overview
    • Biases & Vulnerabilities
      • Intellectual Disability
      • Mental Illness
      • Race
      • LGBTQ+ People
      • Youth
    • Policy
      • Arbitrariness
      • Clemency
      • Costs
      • Deterrence
      • Human Rights
      • Innocence
      • International
      • Legal Representation
      • Official Misconduct
      • Public Opinion
      • Sentencing Alternatives
      • US Supreme Court
  • Research
    • Overview
    • Background
      • Crimes Punishable by Death
      • Fact Sheet
      • History of the Death Penalty
    • Data
      • Death Penalty Census
      • Execution Database
      • Innocence Database
      • Legislative Activity
      • Sentencing Data
    • Analysis
      • DPI Reports
  • Death Row & Executions
    • Death Row
      • Overview
      • Conditions on Death Row
      • Time on Death Row
      • Foreign Nationals
      • Native Americans
      • Women
    • Executions
      • Overview
      • Upcoming Executions
      • Execution Database
      • Methods of Execution
      • Botched Executions
  • State & Federal Info
    • Overview
    • State by State
    • Federal Death Penalty
    • Military
  • About
    • About DPI
    • Staff & Board of Directors
    • Press Releases
    • Work for DPI
  • Resources
    • Overview
    • Links
      • College Curriculum
      • DPI Podcasts
      • High School Curriculum
      • Publications & Testimony
      • Related Websites
      • Student Research Center
      • Teacher's Guide
      • En Español
Subscribe to our Newsletter
Close
Subscribe to our Newsletter

Weekly updated from DPI

Get our full length featured story in your inbox weekly.

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
Donate
Death Penalty Information Center | 1701 K Street NW, Suite 750, Washington, DC 20006
Privacy Policy | ©2025 Death Penalty Information Center