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18 BCE
Eighteenth Century B.C.- first established death penalty laws
The death penalty was also part of the Fourteenth Century B.C.’s Hittite Code; in the Seventh Century B.C.’s Draconian Code of Athens, which made death the only punishment for all crimes. Britain influenced America’s use of the death penalty more than any other country. Laws regarding the death penalty varied from colony to colony. -
Captain George Kendall becomes the first recorded execution in the new colonies
The verdict of guilty was pronounced by Ratcliffe. Kendall argued that because Ratcliffe announced his punishment using his alias Ratcliffe, and not his real surname, Sicklemore, his sentence was nullified. The council had Captain Martin announce Kendall's death sentence. Kendall was executed on December 1, 1608, by firing squad. He is believed to be the first person executed by capital punishment. -
Jane Champion becomes the first woman executed in the new colonies
She received the death penalty in Virginia for murder and concealing death for slaying her illegitimate child. Champion’s lover, William Gallopin, who fathered the baby, aided in the infanticide and was sentenced to face the gallows. It’s unclear whether Gallopin was ever executed. -
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.1915 saw the first use of the electric chair, two years after it was approved by the Pennsylvania General Assembly in 1913. -
Michigan becomes the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes except treason
Treason remained a crime punishable by the death penalty in Michigan despite the 1847 abolition, but no one was ever executed under that law. In 1962 a constitutional convention passed a proposal to abolish the death penalty for all crimes in Michigan by a 108 to 3 vote. The state's final public execution took place in 1830. -
The use of cyanide gas introduced as an execution method
From 1921 to 1972 (when the U.S. Supreme Court commenced its moratorium on the death penalty), lethal gas was applied in some 600 executions. The high cost of renovating disused gas chambers, as well as a growing perception of the method as unconstitutionally cruel, contributed to this trend, leading some scholars to predict in the early 21st century that the method would not be used again. -
Furman v. Georgia. Supreme Court effectively voids 40 death penalty statutes and suspends the death penalty.
Furman v. Georgia was a criminal case in which the United States Supreme Court invalidated all death penalty schemes in the United States in a 5–4 decision, with each member of the majority writing a separate opinion. Following Furman, in order to reinstate the death penalty, states had to at least remove arbitrary and discriminatory effects in order to satisfy the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. -
Oklahoma becomes the first state to adopt lethal injection as a means of execution
The state has executed the second largest number of convicts in the United States (after Texas) since re-legalization following Gregg v. Georgia in 1976. Oklahoma also has the highest number of executions per capita in the state. When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous. -
Charles Brooks becomes the first person executed by lethal injection.
Charles Brooks Jr., also known as Shareef Ahmad Abdul-Rahim, was a convicted murderer who was the first person to be executed using lethal injection. He was the first prisoner executed in Texas since 1964, and the first African-American to be executed anywhere in the United States in the post-Gregg era. The Supreme Court of the United States rejected by 6–3 a petition to grant a stay of execution. The State Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended by 2–1 that the execution proceed. -
Governor Pat Quinn signs legislation to repeal the death penalty in Illinois, replacing it with life without parole.
The governor also commuted the death sentences of the 15 people on the state’s death row to life without parole. The ban on capital punishment comes after an eleven-year moratorium on executions declared by former Republican Gov. George Ryan and makes Illinois the 16th state to end the death penalty.