State And Federal Info
The execution of Duncan McKenzie by lethal injection in 1995 was the first execution by a method other than hanging in Montana.
In 1988, David Cameron Keith was granted clemency by Gov. Ted Schwinden. Reasons reportedly included Keith’s partial paralysis and blindness, remorse, religious conversion, and the possibility that he may have shot the victim as a reflex action.
Bills to abolish the death penalty passed the Montana Senate in 2009 and 2011, but were defeated in the state House Judiciary committee each time.
Hanging was the method of execution in Montana until 1995 (lethal gas was added in 1983 but never used), although the last hanging in Montana occurred in 1943. In 1995, Montana adopted lethal injection as the sole method of execution.
Montana was one of the last states to move executions from local authorities to centralized state administration.
Recent Legislative Activity
Mar 01, 2021
Frustrated by the inability to put prisoners to death, legislators in two states are seeking to jumpstart the execution process by changing the laws that govern how executions may be conducted. After gaining little traction in prior legislative se…
Crimes Punishable by Death
Dec 23, 2019
In a year of declining death-penalty usage across the United States, nowhere was the erosion of capital punishment as sustained and pronounced in 2019 as it was in the western United States. Continuing a wave of momentum from
Recent Legislative Activity
Feb 19, 2019
Bills to repeal and replace the death penalty with non-capital punishments have gained new traction across the United States in 2019 as a result of opposition to the death penalty among ideologically conservative legislators. That movement – buoye…
Mental Illness
Jul 26, 2018
Lloyd Barrus (pictured, left) will not become the first person sentenced to death in Montana this century, after prosecutors dropped their pursuit of the death penalty for the killing of a sheriff’s deput…
Lethal Injection
Oct 09, 2015
“Over time lethal injection has become only more problematic and chaotic,” Deborah W. Denno, a professor at Fordham Law School, told the New York Times, summarizing the ongoing battles that have led states to adopt new drug sources or alt…
Recent Legislative Activity
Oct 07, 2015
On October 6, Montana District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock (pictured) held that the state’s proposed lethal injection protocol violated state law, which requires that an “ultra fast-acting barbiturate” be used in executions. Judg…
Recent Legislative Activity
Feb 27, 2015
Several state legislatures have recently taken action on bills related to capital punishment. In Arkansas, a bill to abolish the death penalty passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a voice vote. Bill sponsor Sen. David Burnett,…
Recent Legislative Activity
Feb 20, 2015
On February 18, the Montana House Judiciary Committee voted (11 – 10) to advance HB 370, a bill to replace the death penalty with a maximum sentence of life without parole. The same committee had rejected similar bills several times…
Costs
Feb 07, 2013
A recent editorial in the Great Falls Tribune in Montana outlined some of the key problems with the death penalty as the state legislature considers its repeal. The editors expressed concerns about the ri…
Recent Legislative Activity
Feb 04, 2013
A bipartisan group of legislators in Montana will introduce a bill to replace the state’s death penalty with a sentence of life without parole. The sponsors include two Republicans and two Democrats. A coalition of conservative la…
