States With and Without the Death Penalty

 

STATES WITH THE DEATH PENALTY (31)
Other State Information:
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky		 Louisiana
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon		 Pennsylvania
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
Washington
Wyoming

ALSO
- U.S. Gov't
- U.S. Military
STATES WITHOUT THE DEATH PENALTY (19) (YEAR ABOLISHED OR OVERTURNED IN PARENTHESES)
Alaska (1957)
Connecticut (2012)**
Delaware (2016)#
Hawaii (1957)
Illinois (2011)
Iowa (1965)
Maine (1887)
Maryland (2013)
Massachusetts (1984)		 Michigan (1846)
Minnesota (1911)
New Jersey (2007)
New Mexico (2009)*
New York (2007)^^
North Dakota (1973)
Rhode Island (1984)^
 		 Vermont (1964)
West Virginia (1965)
Wisconsin (1853)

ALSO
Dist. of Columbia (1981) 

 
DEATH PENALTY STATES WITH GUBERNATORIAL MORATORIA (4)
Colorado (2013)
Oregon (2011)		 Pennsylvania (2015) Washington (2014)

 

^ In 1979, the Supreme Court of Rhode Island held that the state's statute imposing a mandatory death sentence for an inmate who killed a fellow prisoner was unconstitutional. The legislature repealed the law and removed it from the state criminal code in 1984.

^^ In 2004, the New York Court of Appeals held that a portion of the state's death penalty law was unconstitutional. In 2007, the court ruled that its prior holding applied to the last remaining person on the state's death row. The legislature has voted down attempts to restore the statute.

* In March 2009, New Mexico voted to abolish the death penalty. However, the repeal was not retroactive, leaving two people on the state's death row.

** In April 2012, the Connecticut legislature voted to abolish the death penalty for future crimes. By its terms, the repeal law did not affect the status of the 11 prisoners then on the state's death row. The Connecticut Supreme Court subsequently ruled in August 2015 that the death penalty violated the state constitution. The Court reaffirmed that holding in May 2016 and reiterated that the state's remaining death row prisoners must be resentenced to life without possibility of parole. 

# On August 2, 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court held that the state's capital sentencing procedures were unconstitutional and struck down Delaware's death penalty statute. On August 15, the Delaware Attorney General's office announced that it will not appeal the Supreme Court's ruling. Whether the Supreme Court's decision applies to the 13 people facing active death sentences is still unknown.

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