Death Penalty State-by-State

William Browning William Browning Wed Mar 9, 7:42 pm ET

Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed a law abolishing the death penalty in his state today. In doing so, he commuted the death sentences of 15 people and gave them life without the possibility of parole.

Here's a brief summary of states that have the death penalty and those that disallow death sentences.

States Allowing the Death Penalty

Currently, there are 34 states with a death penalty, according to Amnesty International. Methods of executions in most states are by lethal injection, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

Alabama: Reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Prisoners can choose to be electrocuted or have a lethal injection. Currently there are 201 people on death row.

Arizona: Started death penalties in 1973. Inmates can die by lethal injection or lethal gas. Prisoners have been executed 24 times since 1973 with eight exonerations.

Arkansas: Re-enacted death penalty in 1973. Lethal injection and electrocution are the methods involved in executing prisoners in Arkansas.

California: Has had the death penalty since 1974. Since its reinstatement, 13 people have died either by lethal injection or lethal gas.

Colorado: Death penalty reinstated in 1975. Only one person has died from lethal injection since the death penalty was put back on the books.

Connecticut: Executions reinstated in 1973. One person has died of lethal injection since that time.

Delaware: Re-enacted death penalty in 1974. Delaware is one of few states that allow hanging as a method of execution, lethal injection being the other.

Florida: Has had a death penalty since 1972. In nearly 40 years, 69 people have been put to death and 23 have been exonerated. Lethal injection and electrocution are the methods used in Florida.

Georgia: Death penalty sentences resumed in 1973. Lethal injection has killed 49 inmates since then.

Idaho: Has instituted a death penalty since 1973. Only one person has died by lethal injection in that time frame.

Indiana: Has been in the court system since 1973. Lethal injection is the method used.

Kansas: Reinstated the death penalty in 1994. Lethal injection is the only method of execution although no one has been put to death since that time.

Kentucky: Death penalty has been in place since 1975. Lethal injection and electrocution are the methods used in Kentucky.

Louisiana: Death penalty has been around since 1973. Lethal injection has been the method of choice in the state.

Maryland: Has had death penalty cases since 1975. Lethal gas or lethal injection are the methods of execution.

Mississippi: Death penalty has been around since 1974. Lethal injection and lethal gas have executed 13 people in that time.

Missouri: Has had the death penalty since 1975. Lethal injection and lethal gas are the methods used with 68 people dying since the law was reinstated.

Montana: Reinstated the death penalty in 1974. Only three people have died from lethal injection since then.

Nebraska: Re-enacted death penalty in 1973. Lethal injection is the only method to carry out the sentence.

Nevada: Death penalty on the books since 1973. Lethal injections are the prescribed method in Nevada.

New Hampshire: Has had the death penalty since 1991. Is one of few states that still allows hanging as a method of death; lethal injection is the other.

North Carolina: Death penalty on the books since 1977. Lethal injection is the only method by which inmates die.

Ohio: Death penalty re-enacted in 1974. Lethal injection is the cause of death in these cases.

Oklahoma: Death penalty cases reinstated in 1973. There are three methods by which prisoners can die: lethal injection, electrocution and firing squad.


Oregon: Has had the death penalty since 1978. Lethal injection is the prescribed method in death penalty cases.

Pennsylvania: Reinstated death penalty in 1974. Lethal injection has put to death only three people in that time.

South Carolina: Has had the death penalty since 1969, the longest continuous time of any state. Electrocution and lethal injection are the ways by which prisoners can die.

South Dakota: Reinstated death penalty in 1979. Lethal injection has killed only one prisoner in over 30 years.

Tennessee: Death penalty on the books since 1974. Electrocution and lethal injection are the only ways to die.

Texas: Death penalty reinstated in 1979. Lethal injection has put to death a record 466 inmates in that time, the most of any state in the union.

Utah: Has had the death penalty since 1973. Lethal injection and firing squad are the methods of death in Utah.

Virginia: Reinstated the death penalty in 1975. Electrocution and lethal injection are the methods used to put inmates to death.

Washington: The state of Washington re-enacted the death penalty in 1975. Lethal injection and hanging are the methods used.

Wyoming: Has had the death penalty since 1977. Lethal gas and lethal injection are the prescribed methods to carry out sentencing.

States Banning the Death Penalty

States without the death penalty number 16 total counting Illinois' recent decision. All of these states have had the death penalty at one time in the past.

Alaska: Banned the death penalty in 1957 two years before it became a state. Alaska executed 12 people before that time.

Hawaii: Banned executions in 1957, also two years before achieving statehood.

Illinois: Abolished the death penalty in 2011 after an 11-year moratorium.

Iowa: Banned the death penalty in 1965. As many as 45 people were executed before then.

Maine: Disallowed the death penalty in 1887, the third-longest ban in the country. Because Maine is an older state, 21 people were executed before that point.

Massachusetts: Banned the death penalty in 1984. Only three people were executed from 1973 until 1984.

Michigan: Hasn't had a death penalty since 1846, the longest of any state. Before the ban was in place, 13 people were executed.

Minnesota: Banned the death penalty in 1911. There were 66 recorded executions previously.

New Jersey: Stopped having death penalty sentences in 2007. Before 1976, New Jersey had executed 361 people.

New Mexico: Abolished the death penalty in 2009, but only for new cases. Two men remain on death row.

New York: State courts banned executions in 2007. Before 1976, over 1,100 people were sentenced to die but none since then.

North Dakota: Banned the death penalty in 1973 with the U.S. Supreme Court decision. Only eight people were executed previously.

Rhode Island: Abolished executions in 1972 with the U.S. Supreme Court decision. Rhode Island had the death penalty for 100 years and executed 52 people.

Vermont: Officially disallowed the death penalty in 1987, but the ban was effective since 1965 when capital punishment was outlawed. In the time executions were allowed, 26 prisoners died.

Washington, D.C.: Abolished the death penalty in 1972 with the Supreme Court decision, followed by a vote of the D.C. Council in 1981. Until the ban, 118 people were executed as prisoners.

West Virginia: Abolished the death penalty in 1965. Before that time, 155 people were put to death under the law.

Wisconsin: Banned executing prisoners in 1853, the second longest of any state. Only one prisoner has been executed in the state, the lowest in the union.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110310/tr_ac/8029962_death_penalty_statebystate