# Death Penalty - How Many States?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 1, 2000, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607 "2000-09-01T05:10:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 14
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/1 "2000-09-01T05:10:24Z")
As background to the various death penalty threads, how many of the states in the U.S. have a death penalty? is there much variation in what it is available for?
(I’m hoping this doesn’t turn into a GD - I’m just interesting in the current state of the law. I’m also familiar with the original Supreme Court cases striking down the death penalty, and then the restoration of it a few years later.)
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/2 "2000-09-01T06:21:59Z")
[here](http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cp.htm) is some good info from the [Bureau of Justice Statistics](http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/)
Quick summary:
In 1998:
-68 people were executed in the US
-60 were lethal injections, seven were The Chair, and one was the gas chamber
-38 states have capital punishment statutes.
-All people executed were convicted of murder.
Incidentally, I’ve never heard of the death penalty being used for anything besides first degree homicide in my lifetime.
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### Author:  [@Milton\_De\_La\_Warre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Milton_De_La_Warre)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/3 "2000-09-01T11:05:12Z")
Friedo, thou art young. Or so I would gather from your statement about the death penalty not being used in your lifetime for anything but murder 1. I am sure that others can enlighten here, but as I recall Caryl Chessman went to the green room at California’s Hotel Q for rape and kidnapping. That was --what?— 1963 or 64? Also, I believe that if the Government wanted to, they could execute any active duty service members for comitting a variety of non-murcer 1 crimes like passing codes and so on.
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### Author:  [@labdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/labdude)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/4 "2000-09-01T14:28:42Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by friedo \*
> \*\*
>
> Incidentally, I’ve never heard of the death penalty being used for anything besides first degree homicide in my lifetime.
>
> \*\*
How about Sacco (sp) and Vansetti (sp)
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### Author:  [@Trout\_Mask\_Replica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trout_Mask_Replica)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/5 "2000-09-01T14:54:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by labdude \*
> **How about Sacco (sp) and Vansetti (sp)**
Sacco and Vanzetti were found guilty in 1921 of robbing and killing a paymaster and his bodyguard. Murder committed in the course of a robbery is considered first-degree murder in Massachusetts (at least it is now, don’t know about eighty years ago).
How about Julius and Ethel Rosenberg?
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### Author:  [@oldscratch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oldscratch)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/6 "2000-09-01T15:28:56Z")
I may be wrong, but I do believe there are some people on federal death row that are not there for first degree murder.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/7 "2000-09-01T17:30:58Z")
In 1972, the Supreme Court held that capital punishment, **as it was then practiced** , constituted cruel and unusual punishment. They stopped short, however, of declaring capital punishment to be unconstitutional _per se_. Before this time, executions for crimes other than murder (rape, armed robbery, etc.) were fairly common in several southern states. Executions ceased after the 1972 ruling. IIRC, the Manson gang escaped the death penalty because of this ruling.
The Supreme Court clarified the law in 1976 when they decided that capital punishment is not inherently unconstitutional in murder cases. Mandatory capital punishment (i.e., if you are convicted of first degree murder, you must be sentenced to death) is unconstitutional. Between 1977 and 1994, 24 states actually executed prisoners [ul]Texas
Florida
Virginia
Louisiana
Georgia
Missouri
Alabama
Arkansas
North Carolina
Nevada
Delaware
Mississippi
South Carolina
Utah
Arizona
Indiana
Oklahoma
California
Illinois
Washington
Idaho
Maryland
Nebraska
Wyoming [/ul]
Several other states have capital punishment laws on the books, but did not execute any prisoners between 1977 and 1994 [ul]Connecticut
New Hampshire
New Jersey
Pennsylvania
Ohio
South Dakota
Kentucky
Tennessee
Colorado
Montana
New Mexico
Oregon[/ul]The categories have changed since 1994, I have no doubt. For example, I’m pretty sure that New York has enacted a death penalty statute since 1994, and that Pennsylvania and Montanta have executed at least one prisoner each.
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### Author:  [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/8 "2000-09-01T17:44:32Z")
Huh, A bunch of usually reliable posters and they’re all wrong.
You can only be given the death penalty in one state. After that, it just doesn’t matter.
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### Author:  [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/9 "2000-09-01T21:58:24Z")
Depends on how you mean “given,” **Doc**. You can receive the death sentence in any number of states. You are correct, of course that the sentence can be carried out only once.
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### Author:  [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/10 "2000-09-01T23:01:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by jti \*
> As background to the various death penalty threads, how many of the states in the U.S. have a death penalty? is there much variation in what it is available for?
To answer the first question - 38 states have the death penalty:
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming
(list from [Justice Center Web Site - University of Alaska Anchorage - Focus on the Death Penalty - Death Row](http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/death/deathrow.html))
To answer the second question - I believe that in most (if not all of these states) the death penalty is only imposed for murder.
As far as the federal death penalty, there are currently approx. 60 offenses that can result in a death penalty sentence (see [FEDERAL LAWS PROVIDING FOR THE DEATH PENALTY](http://www.essential.org/dpic/fedoffenses.html)) Of those, the non-homicide crimes are espionage; treason; trafficking in large quantities of drugs; attempting, authorizing or advising the killing of any officer, juror,or witness in cases involving a Continuing Criminal Enterprise.
The USA military has its own death penatly and list of death penalty offenses (e.g. spying, mutiny, desertion, etc…). I couldn’t find a complete condensed list, but you can find the full list of offenses from the [USA Military’s Manual for Courts-Martial](http://books.usapa.belvoir.army.mil/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/MCM98/CCONTENTS).
P.S. manhattan - you say «You can receive the death sentence in any number of states.» Actually you can receive the **federal** death penalty in any state (of course), in addition to state death penalty sentences.
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### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [September 1, 2000, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/11 "2000-09-01T23:25:30Z")
and just to win at Trivial Pursuit, the State of Michigan has \*\* never \*\* had the death penalty in it’s State’s Constitution. There was a single case of a person executed, but the crime was through the Federal Court in Grand Rapids.
Pretty much annually for the past 15 - 20 years, there has been a push of varying degrees to get the Death Penalty prohibition repealed here, but so far no dice.
OTOH, we DO have life in prison w/o chance of parole for a wide variety of offenses that include but not limited to 1st degree murder, murder of a police officer, Possesion w/intent to distribute some specific large quantity of cocain/heroin etc…
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### Author:  [@Nanook\_of\_the\_North\_Shore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nanook_of_the_North_Shore)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2000, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/12 "2000-09-02T00:36:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Arnold Winkelried \*
> \*\*
> To answer the first question - 38 states have the death penalty:
> Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming
>
> (list from [Justice Center Web Site - University of Alaska Anchorage - Focus on the Death Penalty - Death Row](http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/just/death/deathrow.html))
> \*\*
Either ya missed one Arnold or that list is out of date. New York currently has the death penalty, though it hasn’t been used as of yet.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2000, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/13 "2000-09-02T01:18:31Z")
There are about 20 people on federal death row, including the infamous Timothy McVeigh. As far as I can tell, they were all convicted of murder (though I can’t say for sure). The last federal execution was in 1963, IIRC.
In adition to those, there are 7 people on the military’s death row (as of Jan. 1, 2000). Every single one of them was convicted of premeditated murder. The military hasn’t actually executed anyone since 1961, IIRC. There are charges other than murder that can carry the death penalty in military justice, but they did not apply in these 7 cases.
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### Author:  [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)
#### Post date: [September 2, 2000, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/death-penalty-how-many-states/31607/14 "2000-09-02T01:23:27Z")
very interesting - thanks everyone