Concept

Capital punishment in the United States

Overview

In the United States, capital punishment (also known as the death penalty) is a legal penalty in 27 states (of which two, Oregon and Wyoming, have no inmates sentenced to death), throughout the country at the federal level, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in the other 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is constitutionally permitted only for murder, with permissibility for use for crimes against the state not having been legally decided. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, only 21 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 6 subject to moratoriums.

As of 2025, four of the 38 OECD member states (the United States, Israel, Japan, and South Korea) retain capital punishment. However, South Korea has observed an unofficial moratorium on executions since 1997

There were no executions in the United States between 1967 and 1977. In 1972, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down capital punishment statutes in Furman v. Georgia, reducing all pending death sentences to life imprisonment. Subsequently, a majority of states enacted new death penalty statutes, and the court affirmed the legality of the practice in the 1976 case Gregg v. Georgia. Since then, more than 8,500 defendants have been sentenced to death; of these, more than 1,605 have been executed. Most executions are carried out by states. For every 8.2 people executed, one person on death row has been exonerated, in the modern era. At least 200 people who were sentenced to death since 1973 have been exonerated, or about 2.2% of those sentenced.

In 2019, the Trump administration's Department of Justice announced its plans to resume executions for federal crimes. On July 14, 2020, Daniel Lewis Lee became the first inmate executed by the federal government since 2003. Thirteen federal death row inmates were executed, all under Trump. The last and most recent federal execution was of Dustin Higgs, who was executed on January 16, 2021. On July 1, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland imposed a moratorium on federal executions. In April 2022, 2,414 people were on federal or state death row.

On December 23, 2024, President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on federal civilian death row to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole; 3 people remain on federal death row. Pursuant to Executive Order 14164, signed by Donald Trump on January 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum on February 5, 2025 that rescinded the Garland moratorium on federal executions. The memorandum also directed the Justice Department to strengthen the death penalty and seek its application by prosecutors whenever reasonable.

The last public execution in the U.S. took place in Kentucky on August 14, 1936, before a crowd of 20,000 people. This was followed by a period from 1936 to 1937 during which executions were semi-public, after which most states began requiring executions to be held privately. Laws generally prohibit public attendance, though journalists and selected individuals may witness them. Timothy McVeigh's 2001 execution was viewed by over 200 people, mainly victims' families, via closed-circuit TV.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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'Very properly.' Let us now return to the enactment of laws. We have treated of sacrilege, and of conspiracy, and of treason. Any of these crimes may be committed by a person not in his right mind, or in the second childhood of old age. If this is proved to be the fact before the judges, the person in question shall only have to pay for the injury, and not be punished further, unless he have on his hands the stain…
Plato, Laws
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In truth, it is better to toss up cross and pile in a cause, than to refer it to a judge whose mind is warped by any motive whatever, in that particular case. But the common sense of twelve honest men gives still a better chance of just decision, than the hazard of cross and pile. These judges execute their process by the sheriff or coroner of the county, or by constables of their own appointment. If any free person…
Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 8
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Upon some occasions, indeed, we both punish and approve of punishment, merely from a view to the general interest of society, which, we imagine, cannot otherwise be secured. Of this kind are all the punishments inflicted for breaches of what is called either civil police, or military discipline. Such crimes do not immediately or directly hurt any particular person; but their remote consequences, it is supposed, do…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
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Related ideas

Place in the tradition

Part of Liberalism.

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