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State & Federal

Montana

Timeline

1943 — Montana car­ries out the last exe­cu­tion by hanging.

1988 — David Cameron Keith is grant­ed clemen­cy by Montana Governor Ted Schwinden.

1995 — Montana adopts lethal injec­tion as the sole method of exe­cu­tion. Duncan McKenzie is the first per­son to be exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion instead of hang­ing in Montana.

2006 — Montana car­ries out the exe­cu­tion of David Thomas Dawson by lethal injec­tion. Mr. Dawson is the last per­son to be exe­cut­ed in Montana.

2011 — The Montana state Senate pass­es a bill that would repeal the death penal­ty and replace it with a sen­tence of life without parole.

2012 — Montana District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock strikes down Montana’s three-drug lethal injec­tion pro­to­col as it dif­fers from the two-drug exe­cu­tion pro­to­col spelled out in the law, which Judge Sherlock said would increase the like­li­hood of error and con­fu­sion in the process.

2015 — Montana District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock rules that the state of Montana is pro­hib­it­ed from using pen­to­bar­bi­tal in its lethal injec­tion pro­to­col until the statute autho­riz­ing lethal injec­tion is mod­i­fied in con­for­mance with this deci­sion. As a result, exe­cu­tions in Montana will con­tin­ue to be on hold indefinitely.

2021 — Montana leg­is­la­tors pro­pose a mea­sure to broad­en the types of drugs that can be used in lethal injec­tions. The leg­is­la­tion would amend the state’s exe­cu­tion law to remove the require­ment that Montana must use an ​“ultra-fast-act­ing barbiturate.”

2023 — Montana Senate votes down a bill that aims to revise the state’s lethal injec­tion pro­ce­dure to secure a restart in executions.

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


News & Developments


News

Feb 13, 2025

Montana House Legislators Defeat Bill that Would Have Broadened Lethal Injection Methods

Montana State…

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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…

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News

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…

Read More

News

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…

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News

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…

Read More
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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
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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More Information


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