-
Captain George Kendall becomes the first recorded execution in the new colonies.
Britain influenced America’s use of the death penalty more than any other country.The first recorded execution in the new colonies was that of Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown colony of Virginia in 1608. Kendall was executed for being a spy for Spain. -
Cesare Beccaria’s essay
Cesare Beccaria’s 1767 essay, On Crimes and Punishment, that had an especially strong impact throughout the world when we´re talking about death penalty and human rights. In the essay, Beccaria theorized that there was no justification for the state’s taking of a life. The essay gave abolitionists an authoritative voice and renewed energy to change this matter. -
Pennsylvania becomes the first state to move executions into correctional facilities.
Pennsylvania became the first state in the union to eradicate public hangings. For the following decades, each county throughout the state was in charge of carrying out private hangings within their jails. -
Michigan becomes the fist state to abolish death penalty
Michigan became the first English-speaking territory in the world to abolish capital punishment in 1847. Treason remained a crime punishable by the death penalty in Michigan despite the 1847 abolition, but no one was ever executed under that law. I -
William Kemmler becomes first person executed by electrocution.
On August 6, 1890, William Kemmler became the first person to be sent to the chair. After he was strapped in, a charge of approximately 700 volts was delivered for only 17 seconds before the current failed. The second charge was 1,030 volts and applied for about two minutes.. An autopsy showed that the electrode attached to his back had burned through to the spine. -
9 states abolish death penalty
In 1907, Kansas took the 'Maine Law' a step further and abolished all death penalties. Between 1911 and 1917, eight more states abolished capital punishment (Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oregon, Arizona, Missouri and Tennessee - the latter in all cases but rape). Votes in other states came close to ending the death penalty." -
Rosenbergs Become the First US Civilians Executed for Espionage
Despite the numerous appeals for clemency were executed by the electric chair at Sing-Sing Prison on 19 June 1953. They were the only people in the United States ever executed for Cold War espionage, and their conviction fuelled US Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade against 'anti-American activities" by US citizens." -
US Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Unconstitutional
US Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Unconstitutional as Administered and Overturns over 600 Death Sentences.The death penalty violated the Eight and Fourteenth Amendments. Of the five Supreme Court Justices, William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall were alone in declaring the death penalty unconstitutional as a form of punishment entirely. -
Texas Performs First Lethal Injection
In 1977, an Oklahoma medical examiner named Jay Chapman proposed that death-row inmates be executed using three drugs administered in a specific sequence. Then, in 1982 Texas became the first to use the procedure, executing 40-year-old Charles Brooks for murdering Fort Worth mechanic David Gregory. -
Colorado Becomes 22nd State to Abolish the Death Penalty
Governor Jared Polis (D) signed SB 20-100 on Monday, Mar. 23, 2020 to abolish the death penalty as of July 1, 2020 and commute the sentences of the three men on death row to life in prison without parole.The June 2009 death penalty sentence of Robert Ray for murder was the last time a Colorado jury imposed the death penalty.