Recent Legislative Activity
Mar 19, 2021
NEWS BRIEF — Wyoming State Senate Defeats Bill to Repeal the Death Penalty
The Wyoming state senate has defeated a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty. Senate File 150, sponsored by
State And Federal Info
Wyoming
Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement
Wyoming was one of the last states to ban the execution of juvenile offenders before the Supreme Court banned the practice in Roper v. Simmons. The state legislature passed a bill banning the death penalty for juveniles in 2004.
Other Interesting Facts
The last execution in Wyoming was that of Mark Hopkinson in 1992. The death sentence of the last person on Wyoming’s death row, Dale Wayne Eaton, was overturned on November 20, 2014. Wyoming prosecutors waived the death penalty in the case on September 27, 2021.
Wyoming Execution Totals Since 1976
News & Developments
Costs
Mar 05, 2021
Wyoming Senate Committee Passes Bill to Repeal State’s Death Penalty
A Wyoming state senate committee has advanced to the full Senate a bill to repeal the state’s death penalty. After taking testimony from witnesses including the state public defender’s office, family members of murder vic…
Costs
Oct 21, 2020
New Voices: Woman Who Lost Mother and Husband in Separate Murders Calls on Wyoming to Repeal Death Penalty
A Wyoming woman whose mother and husband were murdered in separate incidents is calling on the state to repeal its death penalty for the benefit of victims’ family members. In an October 17 op-ed in the Casper Star Tri…
Costs
Aug 14, 2020
Legislators in Virtual Forum Say Economic Impact of Coronavirus Adds to Conservatives’ Concerns About the Death Penalty
Legislators in an August 13, 2020 virtual forum on capital punishment say that the economic impact of the coronavirus on state budgets adds to their concerns about the viability and desirability of the death penalty as a social policy. In…
Costs
Jul 21, 2020
Wyoming Governor “Very Seriously” Considering Death Penalty Moratorium
Calling capital punishment a “luxury” that the state can no longer afford, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon (pictured) told legislators that he is “very seriously” considering imposing a moratorium on the state’s rarely-used death pen…
Crimes Punishable by Death
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
Recent Legislative Activity
Oct 29, 2019
More Than 250 Conservative Leaders Join Call to End Death Penalty
More than 250 conservative leaders from across the country have signed on to a statement expressing their opposition to capital punishment as administered across the United States and issued a “call [to] our fellow conservatives to reexamine the d…
Federal Death Penalty
Jul 22, 2019
Death-Penalty News and Developments for the Week of July 22 – 28, 2019: Appeals Court Permits New Capital Prosecution in Only Wyoming Death-Penalty Case
NEWS: July 23 — The U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled that Wyoming prosecutors may seek the death penalty in resentencing proceedings against 74-year-old
Recent Legislative Activity
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 – buoye…
Recent Legislative Activity
Jan 23, 2019
Bill to Abolish Wyoming’s Death Penalty Introduced with Bipartisan Support
A bipartisan coalition of Wyoming legislators has introduced a bill to abolish the state’s death penalty. On January 15, 2019, Cheyenne Republican State Representative Jared Olsen (pictured, left) and Republican
