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State & Federal

Montana

News & Developments


News

Mar 01, 2021

Legislators in South Carolina, Montana Seek to Change Execution Methods to Allow Executions to Resume

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 ses­sions, a bill to make elec­tro­cu­tion the default method of exe­cu­tion is mov­ing for­ward in South Carolina, which is approach­ing ten years since its last exe­cu­tion. In Montana, after a court ruled in 2015 that the drugs in the state’s pro­posed exe­cu­tion pro­to­col did not com­ply with Montana’s death penal­ty statute, legislators…

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Dec 23, 2019

DPIC Analysis: Death Penalty Erosion Spreads Across the Western United States in 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 Washington​’s judi­cial abo­li­tion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in October 2018, one state halt­ed exe­cu­tions and dis­man­tled its death cham­ber, anoth­er cleared its death row, two cut back on the cir­cum­stances in which the death penal­ty could be sought and imposed, and the entire region set record lows for new death sen­tences and executions.

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Feb 19, 2019

Death-Penalty Repeal Efforts Across U.S. Spurred by Growing Conservative Support

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 – buoyed by fis­cal and pro-life con­ser­v­a­tives, con­ser­v­a­tive law-reform advo­cates, and the deep­en­ing involve­ment of the Catholic Church in death-penal­ty abo­li­tion – has led to unprece­dent­ed suc­cess­es in numer­ous hous­es of state leg­is­la­tures and moved repeal efforts clos­er to fruition in a num­ber of deeply Republican states. In 2019, con­ser­v­a­tive leg­is­la­tors are lead­ing the…

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Jul 26, 2018

Montana Prosecutors Drop Death Penalty Against Mentally Ill Defendant

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 deputy. In a motion filed July 19, 2018, Broadwater County Attorney Cory Swanson (pic­tured, right) wrote that, ​“after exten­sive analy­sis of the Defendant’s his­to­ry of … men­tal ill­ness,” the state would no longer seek the death penal­ty in the case. Doctors at the Montana State Hospital had diag­nosed Barrus with mul­ti­ple men­tal health dis­or­ders, includ­ing a delu­sion­al disorder,…

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Oct 09, 2015

Amid Unavailability of Lethal Injection Drugs, States Push Legal Limits to Carry Out Executions

“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 alter­na­tive meth­ods of exe­cu­tion. Several states have obtained or sought drugs using sources that may vio­late phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal reg­u­la­tions. For the exe­cu­tion of Alfredo Prieto, Virginia obtained pen­to­bar­bi­tal from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which pur­chased it from a com­pound­ing phar­ma­cy whose iden­ti­ty is shield­ed by the state’s secre­cy law. ​“Even…

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Oct 07, 2015

Montana Judge Puts Executions on Hold

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. Judge Sherlock said the pro­posed bar­bi­tu­rate, pen­to­bar­bi­tal, does not qual­i­fy as such a drug.

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Feb 27, 2015

Recent Developments in Death Penalty Legislation

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, a for­mer pros­e­cu­tor and judge who both sought and imposed the death penal­ty, said, ​“It’s no longer a deter­rent. It’s a pun­ish­ment that’s actu­al­ly bro­ken. It does­n’t work. And it costs a huge amount of mon­ey to try and pros­e­cute those cas­es.” Arkansas last car­ried out an exe­cu­tion in 2005. A sim­i­lar bill in…

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Feb 20, 2015

Death Penalty Repeal Bill Advances with Bi-Partisan Support in Montana

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 in recent years. The bill will now move to the full House. Republican bill spon­sor Rep. David Moore (pic­tured) said he thought the bill had a decent chance of pass­ing in the House. Rep. Clayton Fiscus, one of two Republican mem­bers of the Judiciary Committee who sup­port­ed the bill, said, ​“Our death…

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Feb 07, 2013

EDITORIALS: Montana Paper Calls for Repeal

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 risks of mis­take with exe­cu­tions: ​“There is no way to take back an exe­cu­tion. That rea­son alone pro­vides good cause to elim­i­nate the death penal­ty in Montana.” The paper also not­ed that vic­tims’ fam­i­lies wait for decades for exe­cu­tions to be car­ried out, with the defen­dants receiv­ing most of the atten­tion: “[D]uring the long peri­ods before their…

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Feb 04, 2013

Conservatives and Republicans Support Death Penalty Repeal Bill in Montana

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 law­mak­ers, reli­gious groups, and human rights groups sup­port the repeal of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. Republican Sen. Matthew Rosendale (pic­tured), a mem­ber of Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, said his stance on the death penal­ty did not cost him votes. ​“People know where I stand on the death penal­ty and I still got elect­ed by…

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Oct 08, 2012

NEW VOICES: Former Supporters Rethinking the Death Penalty Because of its High Costs

According to a recent arti­cle in the Wall Street Journal, some long-time sup­port­ers of the death penal­ty have recent­ly shift­ed their posi­tions, ques­tion­ing whether the occa­sion­al exe­cu­tion is worth the costs incurred by tax­pay­ers at a time when bud­gets are strained. Gil Garcetti (pic­tured), the for­mer dis­trict attor­ney of Los Angeles County, which is respon­si­ble for rough­ly one-third of California​’s 727 death-row inmates, recent­ly remarked, ​“I was a sup­port­er and believ­er in the death penal­ty, but I’ve begun to see that this sys­tem does­n’t work and it isn’t func­tion­al. It…

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Notable Cases

The execution of Duncan McKenzie by lethal injection in 1995 was the first execution by a method other than hanging in Montana.

Notable Commutations/Clemencies

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.

Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement

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.

Other Interesting Facts

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.

Pompeys Pillar National Monument. Photo by Montana Bureau of Land Management.

Resources

  • Department of Corrections
  • Montana Abolition Coalition
  • Montana County Attorneys Association
  • Public defender’s office
  • Victims’ services

Montana Execution Totals Since 1976

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 3
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include federal and military executions): 71
  • Current Death Row Population: 2
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent Persons Freed From Death Row: 1
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 1
  • Date of Reinstatement (following Furman v. Georgia): March 1, 1974
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1995
  • Location of Death Row/Executions: Montana State Prison, Deer Lodge Deer (Women: Warm Springs)
  • Capital: Helena
  • Region: West
  • Population: 1,084,225*
  • Murder rate (per 100,000 population): 2.53
  • 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
  • How is Sentence Determined?: Jury decides on aggravators; Judge decides sentence
  • Clemency Process: Governor may receive a non-binding recommendation of clemency from a board or advisory group
  • Governor: Greg Gianforte

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