Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Mississippi .
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Mississippi .
When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous. If the jury recommends death, it is required to record what it considers the "aggravating circumstances" about the crime that led it to that decision. [1]
In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, the judge issues a life sentence, even if only one juror opposed death (there is no retrial). [1]
The power of clemency belongs to the Governor of Mississippi. [2]
The following crimes are punishable by death in Mississippi:
The laws on the books in Mississippi also provide the death penalty for aircraft hijacking under Title 97, Chapter 25, Section 55 of the Mississippi Code, but in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Kennedy v. Louisiana , that the death penalty is unconstitutional when applied to non-homicidal crimes against the person. However, the ruling meant that crimes "against the state" such as treason or terrorism would not likely be unconstitutional. Therefore, the offence of aircraft hijacking would likely be considered a crime against the state in Mississippi because it is widely considered to be an act of terrorism and the death penalty in this case may be constitutional.[ citation needed ]
Men on death row are held at Unit 29 in The Mississippi State Penitentiary, while women on death row are held at the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) in Rankin County. [5]
The method of execution is lethal injection. [6] Executions take place in the execution chamber, built in 2002, adjacent to the gas chamber, which is no longer in use, but has not yet been disassembled.
Currently executions take place at the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP, also known as "Parchman") in Sunflower County. [7] The condemned prisoner is moved into a holding cell adjacent to the execution room in Unit 17, the location of the execution chamber, in the MSP from his or her death row unit 48 hours prior to the execution. The state places MSP on emergency lockdown status 24 hours before the execution. At 12:00 PM, a media center at MSP opens. At 3:00 PM, the condemned's attorney of record and chaplain are permitted to visit him or her. At 4:00 PM, the prisoner receives his or her last meal; he or she may shower at that time. At 4:30 PM, if the condemned desires, MDOC clergy may visit him or her. At 5:30, witnesses to the execution are transported to Unit 17. At 6:00 PM, officials move the condemned from the holding cell to the execution chamber. At the same time, the witnesses enter the designated observation areas and the execution by lethal injection is then carried out. At 7:00 PM, the state conducts a post-execution briefing with media witnesses. At 8:30 PM, the state closes its media center. [8]
The State of Mississippi used hanging as its method of execution for much of its history. [7] From the earliest recorded execution in 1818 to 2004, records indicate that the state executed a total of 794 people. Of these, the great majority were black males, who account for 639 of recorded executions. [9]
Around the time of the 1901 opening of the Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP) in Parchman, Sunflower County residents objected to having executions performed at MSP because they feared that Sunflower County would be stigmatized as a "death county." Therefore, the State of Mississippi originally performed executions of condemned criminals in their counties of conviction. [9] When, in 1940, Mississippi's state legislature decided to change the state's method of execution to electrocution, while continuing to conduct executions in the county of conviction, a portable electric chair was developed and fabricated for the state's use. [9] On October 11, 1940, the state's first execution of a condemned prisoner by electrocution occurred; Willie Mae Bragg, a black man convicted of murdering his wife, was electrocuted in his county of conviction, Jefferson Davis County. Interestingly, on the same day, Mississippi also carried out their final hanging in a different county when Hilton Fortenberry, another murderer, was put to death in Sharkey County. The state moved the electric chair from county to county, using it to kill condemned prisoners in their counties of conviction. [7] One such example was Houston Roberts, a white man convicted of poisoning his granddaughter in Jackson. [10] Mississippi and Louisiana were the only U.S. states to use a portable electric chair. [9]
Around the 1950s residents of Sunflower County were still opposed to the concept of housing the execution chamber at MSP. In September 1954, Governor Hugh L. White called for a special session of the Mississippi Legislature to discuss the application of the death penalty. [9] During that year, a gas chamber serving as an execution chamber was installed at MSP. The gas chamber replaced the portable electric chair which, between 1940 and November 10, 1954, had been moved from county to county to execute condemned prisoners. The final execution in a portable electric chair was that of Luther Carlyle Wheeler, a white man convicted of murdering a Hattiesburg police officer. He was executed on February 5, 1954, in the Humphreys County courthouse, where, as was customary in Mississippi at the time, the executioner placed the chair in the same courtroom where the jury had convicted the condemned man. Wheeler's execution was attended by a crowd of approximately 300 people. [11] [12] The first person to die in the gas chamber was Gerald A. Gallego, who was executed for murder on March 3, 1955. [13]
On July 1, 1984 the Legislature of Mississippi amended §§ 99-19-51 of the Mississippi Code; the new amendment stated that prisoners who committed capital crimes after July 1, 1984 would be executed by lethal injection. [13] When the Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) opened in January 1986, all women who were incarcerated at MSP were moved to CMCF. [14] The $41 million Unit 32, the state's designated location for male death row inmates, opened in August 1990. [5] [15] Previously Unit 17 housed MSP's male death row. [16] On March 18, 1998 the legislature made another amendment, removing the gas chamber as a method of execution. [13] The lethal injection table was first used in 2002. [9]
Since 1976, Mississippi has executed fewer prisoners than six other southern states despite comparable homicide rates. As of December 2022, 23 inmates were executed after 1976. [17] One critic claims that this stems from the inability of poorer counties to afford legal fees for defendants accused of capital crimes. [18] Because death penalty cases are subject to a high standard of review—and there is a constitutional requirement for effective assistance of counsel as a matter of Due process of law and subsequent appellate review—this has led to a practical and constitutional impediment to its operation. [18]
Since 1985, six prisoners on death row in Mississippi have been released after their charges were dismissed or they were acquitted of the charges on appeal. [19]
Lethal injection is currently the preferred method chosen by the state. The use of a firing squad was re-added to the state’s list of execution methods in 2017. [20] While firing squad remains an alternative for the death penalty, it is the last on the list of choices, after lethal injection, nitrogen hypoxia and electrocution. [21]
The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) is a state agency of Mississippi that operates prisons. It has its headquarters in Jackson. As of 2020 Burl Cain is the commissioner.
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty in 27 states, 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 usually applied for only the most serious crimes, such as aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 of them have authority to execute death sentences, with the other 7, as well as the federal government and military, subject to moratoriums.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arkansas.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Ohio, although all executions have been suspended indefinitely by Governor Mike DeWine until a replacement for lethal injection is chosen by the Ohio General Assembly. The last execution in the state was in July 2018, when Robert J. Van Hook was executed via lethal injection for murder.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Utah.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The state has executed the second-largest number of convicts in the United States since re-legalization following Gregg v. Georgia in 1976. Oklahoma also has the highest number of executions per capita in the United States.
Old Sparky is the nickname of the electric chairs in Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia. Old Smokey is the nickname of the electric chairs used in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. "Old Sparky" is sometimes used to refer to electric chairs in general, and not one of a specific state.
An execution chamber, or death chamber, is a room or chamber in which capital punishment is carried out. Execution chambers are almost always inside the walls of a maximum-security prison, although not always at the same prison where the death row population is housed. Inside the chamber is the device used to carry out the death sentence.
Mississippi State Penitentiary (MSP), also known as Parchman Farm, is a maximum-security prison farm located in the unincorporated community of Parchman in Sunflower County, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region. Occupying about 28 square miles (73 km2) of land, Parchman is the only maximum security prison for men in the state of Mississippi, and is the state's oldest prison.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18.
Capital punishment was abolished in Virginia on March 24, 2021, when Governor Ralph Northam signed a bill into law. The law took effect on July 1, 2021. Virginia is the 23rd state to abolish the death penalty, and the first southern state in United States history to do so.
Capital punishment in Alabama is a legal penalty. Alabama has the highest per capita capital sentencing rate in the United States. In some years, its courts impose more death sentences than Texas, a state that has a population five times as large. However, Texas has a higher rate of executions both in absolute terms and per capita.
Death row, also known as condemned row, is a place in a prison that houses inmates awaiting execution after being convicted of a capital crime and sentenced to death. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution, even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists. In the United States, after an individual is found guilty of a capital offense in states where execution is a legal penalty, the judge will give the jury the option of imposing a death sentence or life imprisonment unparoled. It is then up to the jury to decide whether to give the death sentence; this usually has to be a unanimous decision. If the jury agrees on death, the defendant will remain on death row during appeal and habeas corpus procedures, which may continue for several decades.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Florida.
The Central Mississippi Correctional Facility (CMCF) is a Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) prison for men and women located in an unincorporated area in Rankin County, Mississippi, United States, between the cities of Pearl and Brandon. The 171-acre (69 ha) prison was, for a period of time, the only state prison to hold female prisoners in Mississippi, in addition to minimum and medium security male offenders. It operates as the female death row of the state.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia reintroduced the death penalty in 1973 after Furman v. Georgia ruled all states' death penalty statutes unconstitutional. The first execution to take place afterwards occurred in 1983.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of South Carolina.
Capital punishment is a legal punishment in Tennessee.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Kentucky.
Richard Bernard Moore was an American man executed in South Carolina for murder. He was convicted of the September 1999 murder of James Mahoney, a convenience store clerk, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. In 2022, Moore's case received international attention when he was scheduled for execution and opted to be executed by firing squad under the state's new capital punishment laws. He was set to become the first person executed in South Carolina in over a decade and the first to be executed by firing squad in the state. However, his execution was stayed by the South Carolina Supreme Court on April 20, 2022.
