Eighteenth Century B.C. — first estab­lished death penalty laws.

Eleventh Century A.D. — William the Conqueror will not allow per­sons to be hanged except in cas­es of murder.

1608 — Captain George Kendall becomes the first record­ed exe­cu­tion in the new colonies.

1632 — Jane Champion becomes the first woman exe­cut­ed in the new colonies.

1767 — Cesare Beccaria’s essay, On Crimes and Punishment, the­o­rizes that there is no jus­ti­fi­ca­tion for the state to take a life.

Late 1700s — United States abo­li­tion­ist movement begins.

Early 1800s — Many states reduce their num­ber of cap­i­tal crimes and build state penitentiaries.

1823 – 1837 — Over 100 of the 222 crimes pun­ish­able by death in Britain are eliminated.

1834 — Pennsylvania becomes the first state to move exe­cu­tions into correctional facilities.

1838 — Discretionary death penal­ty statutes enact­ed in Tennessee.

1847 — Michigan becomes the first state to abol­ish the death penal­ty for all crimes except treason.

1890- William Kemmler becomes first per­son exe­cut­ed by electrocution.

Early 1900s — Beginning of the ​“Progressive Period” of reform in the United States.

1907 – 1917 — Nine states abol­ish the death penal­ty for all crimes or strict­ly limit it.

1920s — 1940s — American abo­li­tion move­ment loses support.

1924 — The use of cyanide gas intro­duced as an execution method

1930s — Executions reach the high­est lev­els in American his­to­ry — aver­age 167 per year.

1948 — The United Nations General Assembly adopt­ed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights pro­claim­ing a ​“right to life.”

1950 – 1980 — De fac­to abo­li­tion becomes the norm in western Europe.

1958 — Trop v. Dulles. Eighth Amendment’s mean­ing con­tained an ​“evolv­ing stan­dard of decen­cy that marked the progress of a maturing society.”

1966 — Support of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment reach­es all-time low. A Gallup poll shows sup­port of the death penal­ty at only 42%.

1968 — Witherspoon v. Illinois. Dismissing poten­tial jurors sole­ly because they express oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty held unconstitutional.

1970 — Crampton v. Ohio and McGautha v. California. The Supreme Court approves of unfet­tered jury dis­cre­tion and non-bifurcated trials.

June 1972 — Furman v. Georgia. Supreme Court effec­tive­ly voids 40 death penal­ty statutes and sus­pends the death penalty.

1976 — Gregg v. Georgia. Guided dis­cre­tion statutes approved. Death penalty reinstated

January 17, 1977 — Ten-year mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions ends with the exe­cu­tion of Gary Gilmore by fir­ing squad in Utah.

1977 — Oklahoma becomes the first state to adopt lethal injec­tion as a means of execution.

1977 — Coker v. Georgia. Held death penal­ty is an uncon­sti­tu­tion­al pun­ish­ment for rape of an adult woman when the vic­tim is not killed.

December 7, 1982 — Charles Brooks becomes the first per­son exe­cut­ed by lethal injection.

1984 — Velma Barfield becomes the first woman exe­cut­ed since rein­state­ment of the death penalty.

1986 — Ford v. Wainwright. Execution of insane persons banned.

1986 — Batson v. Kentucky. Prosecutor who strikes a dis­pro­por­tion­ate num­ber of cit­i­zens of the same race in select­ing a jury is required to rebut the infer­ence of dis­crim­i­na­tion by show­ing neu­tral rea­sons for his or her strikes.

1987 — McCleskey v. Kemp. Racial dis­par­i­ties not rec­og­nized as a con­sti­tu­tion­al vio­la­tion of ​“equal pro­tec­tion of the law” unless inten­tion­al racial dis­crim­i­na­tion against the defen­dant can be shown.

1988 — Thompson v. Oklahoma. Executions of offend­ers age fif­teen and younger at the time of their crimes is unconstitutional.

1989 — Stanford v. Kentucky, and Wilkins v. Missouri. Eighth Amendment does not pro­hib­it the death penal­ty for crimes com­mit­ted at age six­teen or seventeen.

1989 — Penry v. Lynaugh. Executing per­sons with ​“men­tal retar­da­tion” is not a vio­la­tion of the Eighth Amendment.

1993 — Herrera v. Collins. In the absence of oth­er con­sti­tu­tion­al grounds, new evi­dence of inno­cence is no rea­son for fed­er­al court to order a new trial.

1994 — President Clinton signs the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act expand­ing the fed­er­al death penalty.

1996 — President Clinton signs the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act restrict­ing review in federal courts.

1998 — Karla Faye Tucker and Judi Buenoano executed.

November 1998 — Northwestern University holds the first-ever National Conference on Wrongful Convictions and the Death Penalty. The Conference brings togeth­er 30 inmates who were freed from death row because of innocence.

January 1999 — Pope John Paul II vis­its St. Louis, Missouri, and calls for an end to the death penalty.

April 1999 — U.N. Human Rights Commission Resolution Supporting Worldwide Moratorium On Executions.

June 1999 — Russian President, Boris Yeltsin, signs a decree com­mut­ing the death sen­tences of all of the con­victs on Russia’s death row.

January 2000 — Illinois Governor George Ryan declares a Moratorium on exe­cu­tions and appoints a blue-rib­bon Commission on Capital Punishment to study the issue.

2002 — Ring v. Arizona. A death sen­tence where the nec­es­sary aggra­vat­ing fac­tors are deter­mined by a judge vio­lates a defen­dan­t’s con­sti­tu­tion­al right to a tri­al by jury.

2002 — Atkins v. Virginia. the exe­cu­tion of ​“men­tal­ly retard­ed” defen­dants vio­lates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cru­el and unusual punishment.

January 2003 — Gov. George Ryan grants clemen­cy to all of the remain­ing 167 death row inmates in Illinois because of the flawed process that led to these sentences.

June 2004 — New York’s death penal­ty law declared uncon­sti­tu­tion­al by the state’s high court.

March 2005 — In Roper V. Simmons, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the death penal­ty for those who had com­mit­ted their crimes under 18 years of age was cru­el and unusual punishment.

December 2007 — The New Jersey General Assembly votes to become the first state to leg­isla­tive­ly abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment since it was re-instat­ed in 1976.

February 2008 — The Nebraska Supreme Court rules elec­tro­cu­tion, the sole exe­cu­tion method in the state, to be cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment, effec­tive­ly freez­ing all exe­cu­tions in the state.

June 2008 — Kennedy v. Louisiana. Capital pun­ish­ment can­not apply to those con­vict­ed of child rape where no death occurs.

March 2009 — Governor Bill Richardson signs leg­is­la­tion to repeal the death penal­ty in New Mexico, replac­ing it with life without parole.

March 2011 — Governor Pat Quinn signs leg­is­la­tion to repeal the death penal­ty in Illinois, replac­ing it with life without parole.