In the United States, capital punishment was adopted from British common law. Britain influenced America's use of the death penalty more than any other country did. When European settlers came to the new world, they brought the practice of capital punishment.
1622 The first legal execution of a criminal in the American colonies occurs in Virginia with the execution of Daniel Frank for theft.
1636 Massachusetts Bay Colony lists thirteen crimes punishable by death including idolatry and witchcraft.
1791 The Bill of Rights is ratified, including the Eighth Amendment, which prohibits the imposition of cruel and unusual punishment. But capital punishment is universally accepted and it was understood at the time that the Eighth Amendment was not intended to stop it.
1833 Rhode Island became the first state to require private hangings. New York follows suit in 1835.
1846 Michigan is the first state to abolish the death penalty, except for treason, which was later eliminated in 1963. Rhode Island follows suit in
1852, and Wisconsin in 1853.
1888 New York becomes the first state to use electrocution for execution. The new technology was invented by Thomas Edison. William Kemmler is the first person electrocuted on August 6, 1890.
1924 Nevada is the first state to use lethal gas as an execution method. They executed Gee Jon for murder.
1935 U.S. executions reach an all time high at 199.
1966 Support for the death penalty reaches an all time low. Gallup Poll shows nationwide support at only 42%.
1972 U.S. Supreme Court rules in Furman v. Georgia that the Georgia statute, giving the jury complete discretion to decide death or life imprisonment upon conviction of murder, was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court called the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment, in violation of the Eighth Amendment.
1976 The U.S. Supreme Court strikes down the death penalty statutes in North Carolina and Louisiana which provide for a mandatory or automatic death penalty upon conviction of Murder, without consideration of the character of the offender or the circumstances of the crime. Woodson v. North Carolina, and Roberts v. Louisiana.
1977 A Utah firing squad makes Gary Gilmore the first person executed in the U.S. in almost 10 years. His last words: "Let's do it."
1977 Oklahoma is the first state to adopt lethal injection as a method of execution.
1986 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Ford v. Wainright that it is unconstitutional to execute the insane.
1987 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in McCleskey v. Kemp that statistics appearing to show sharp racial disparities in sentencing of killers in Georgia was not sufficient to overturn a death sentence. The Baldus study demonstrated that blacks who killed whites were sentenced to death seven times more often than whites who killed blacks. A person had to prove that he or she had been discriminated against personally.
1989 The U.S. Supreme Court rules in Stanford v. Kentucky that the Constitution does not prohibit the execution of 16 year olds who commit murder.
1994 Congress passes the 1994 Violent Crime Control Act, authorizing the death penalty for scores of new federal crimes.
1994 Support for the death penalty reaches an all time high. Gallup Poll shows nationwide death penalty support at 80%.
1999 The Federal Government completes a new lethal injection execution chamber at the U.S. Penitentiary at Terre Haute, Indiana. All federal death row prisoners are moved there.
2000 Gallup Poll shows death penalty support at 66%, its lowest level in 19 years. According to the same poll, 11% believe that at least 1 in 5 on death row are innocent.
2001 Scholarly research paper from economics professors at the University of Colorado at Denver, H. Naci Mocan and R. Kaj Gittings, suggests that the death penalty has a significant deterrent effect. This study follows similar conclusions reached in January 2001 by economics professors at Emory University, Hashem Dezhbakhsh, Paul Rubin, and Joanna Mehlhop Sheperd.
2001 Georgia's Supreme Court became the first appellate court in the country to rule that electrocution is an unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment. With the ruling, the state automatically switches to the use of lethal injection under a law passed last year to provide an alternate method of execution if the courts ruled electrocution illegal.
2001 Citing problems with the jury charge and verdict form, United States District Court Judge William Yohn sets aside the death sentence of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Abu-Jamal has been recognized worldwide as an anti-death penalty activist, particularly among the young and the entertainment industry, claiming that his conviction and sentence was racist and unjust.
2002 Gallup Poll shows increase in death penalty support to 72%, the highest since 1999, with 47% believing that the death penalty is not imposed often enough.
2003 Gallup Poll shows increase in death penalty support to 74%, the highest since 1996, with 48% believing that the death penalty is not imposed often enough.
