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State & Federal

Wyoming

Timeline

1871 — John Boyer becomes the first man to be legal­ly exe­cut­ed in Wyoming and is pub­licly hanged in front of a Wyoming jail.

1977 — Wyoming rein­states the death penal­ty fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia.

1992 — Wyoming car­ries out most recent exe­cu­tion, exe­cut­ing Mark Hopkinson by lethal injection.

2001 — Governor Jim Geringer signs a law to add the sen­tenc­ing option of life with­out parole as an alter­na­tive penal­ty for defen­dants con­vict­ed of first-degree murder.

2004 — The Wyoming Legislature pass­es a bill ban­ning the death penal­ty for juve­niles, mak­ing Wyoming one of the last states to do so before the Supreme Court banned the prac­tice in Roper v. Simmons.

2014 — Dale Wayne Eaton becomes the last per­son to be removed from Wyoming’s death row when his death sen­tence is overturned.

2019 — A bipar­ti­san coali­tion of leg­is­la­tors intro­duces a bill to abol­ish Wyoming’s death penalty.

2020 — Governor Mark Gordon informs leg­is­la­tors that he is ​“very seri­ous­ly” con­sid­er­ing impos­ing a mora­to­ri­um on the state’s death penalty.

2021 — A Wyoming sen­ate com­mit­tee advances a bill to repeal the state’s death penal­ty to the full Senate. The state sen­ate defeats the bill by a 4 – 1 vote.

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.

Yellowstone National Park. Photo by Arad Mojtahedi.

Resources

  • Department of Corrections
  • Public defend­er’s office
  • ACLU of Wyoming
  • Victims’ ser­vices

Wyoming Execution Totals Since 1976


News & Developments


News

Mar 22, 2022

Bungled Resentencing of Wyoming’s Only Active Death Penalty Case Revictimizes Victim’s Family

March 25, 2022 will mark the end of the only death penal­ty case in Wyoming — or at least the fam­i­ly of Lisa Marie Kimmell…

Read More

News

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 Senator Brian Boner (R – Douglas, pic­tured dur­ing the floor debate), was report­ed out of the Senate Revenue Committee by a 4 – 1 vote on March 4, the sec­ond time a bill to end Wyoming’s death penal­ty had passed a state sen­ate com­mit­tee. However, the bill failed in the state sen­ate by a vote of 19 – 11. Nine Republicans and the chamber’s…

Read More

News

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…

Read More

News

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’…

Read More

News

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…

Read More
View More

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: Yes
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 1
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include fed­er­al and military executions): 22
  • Current Death Row Population: 0
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 0
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 0
  • Date of Reinstatement (fol­low­ing Furman v. Georgia): February 27, 1977
  • First Execution After Reinstatement: 1992
  • Location of Death Row (Men): Rawlings
  • Location of Death Row (Women): Lusk
  • Capital: Cheyenne
  • Region: West
  • Population: 576,851*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 2.25
  • 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: Injection /​Gas if Injection Found Unconstitutional
  • How is Sentence Determined?: Jury
  • Clemency Process: Governor has sole author­i­ty to grant clemency
  • Governor: Mark Gordon
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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DPI Fact Sheet

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More Information


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