Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Nevada .
There have been no executions in Nevada since 2006, in part because of a shortage of drugs used in executions by lethal injection. In April 2021, the Nevada Assembly passed a bill that would have repealed the capital punishment statute. However, the state senate did not act on the matter after Governor Steve Sisolak said that he believes some crimes deserve the death penalty, suggesting that he would veto the bill. [1] According to a poll, 46 percent of Nevadans support the death penalty, while 49 percent oppose it. [2] The last person executed in the state was convicted murderer Daryl Mack. [3]
The first recorded execution in the area that is now Nevada was the hanging of John Carr for murdering Bernhard Cherry of Carson City on November 30, 1860, and the first recorded legal execution in the Nevada Territory was the hanging of Allen Milstead outside Dayton for killing Lyon County Commissioner T. Varney at Ragtown. Since the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976, 12 people have been executed by the state. The most recent execution was in 2006, when Daryl Mack was executed for murder. There are approximately 77 people on death row. [4]
Elizabeth Potts, who was hanged in 1890, was the only woman legally executed in the state, alongside her husband Josiah Potts, for the murder and partial dismemberment of Miles Faucett. [5]
Hanging was the method prescribed by law from 1860 to 1921. The venue of executions moved from the counties to Nevada State Prison in 1903. In response to Mormon preferences, [6] the Nevada State Legislature passed a statute in 1910 that became effective in January 1911, [7] allowing condemned prisoners to choose between execution by shooting or hanging. [8] On May 14, 1913, Andriza Mircovich became the only inmate in Nevada to be executed by shooting. [9] After the warden of Nevada State Prison was unable to find five men to form a firing squad, [10] a shooting machine was built to carry out Mircovich's execution. [11] A law in 1921 made the gas chamber the sole means of execution. It was used from the 1924 execution of Gee Jon to the 1979 execution of Jesse Bishop, both at Nevada State Prison. A total of 32 men were executed by gas chamber in Nevada between this time. Lethal injection became the sole method of execution in Nevada by 1985, starting with the execution of 47 year old Carroll Edward Cole. [12]
The use of cyanide gas in Nevada was used as a plot device in the short story "Nevada Gas" by Raymond Chandler. [13]
When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous.
In case of a hung jury during the penalty phase of the trial, the judge has discretion to order a retrial or impose a life sentence. [14]
Under the Nevada Constitution, clemency can be granted by the governor of Nevada with advice and consent of a board on which he sits, and also includes justices of the state supreme court and the state attorney general. [15]
Lethal injection is the only method of execution in Nevada. [16]
First degree murder can be punished by death if it involves one of the following aggravating factors: [17]
The men's death row in Nevada is located at Ely State Prison. [18] The death row for women is in the Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center (previously Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Center). [19]
The execution chamber, which opened in 2016, is located at Ely State Prison. [20] Prior to 2016, executions by the state of Nevada were still designated to be carried out in the former gas chamber at the otherwise closed Nevada State Prison. [21] Due to a lack of elevator access, this former gas chamber was not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Greg Cox, the director of the Nevada Department of Corrections, stated that he anticipated a legal challenge to carrying out the execution there if an execution date is set. That, and the inconvenience of re-opening the prison to conduct an execution at the only place the law allowed, led to the construction of the new execution chamber at Ely and the amendment of the law, making it the new sole place for executions. There was some local humor about the old place of execution being closed because it was unsafe. [22]
In the U.S. state of California, capital punishment is a legal penalty. However it is not allowed to be carried out as of March 2019, because executions were halted by an official moratorium ordered by Governor Gavin Newsom. Prior to the moratorium, executions were frozen by a federal court order since 2006, and the litigation resulting in the court order has been on hold since the promulgation of the moratorium. Thus, there will be a court-ordered moratorium on executions after the termination of Newsom's moratorium if capital punishment remains a legal penalty in California by then.
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.
The U.S. state of Washington enforced capital punishment until the state's capital punishment statue was declared null and void and abolished in practice by a state Supreme Court ruling on October 11, 2018. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional as applied due to racial bias however it did not render the wider institution of capital punishment unconstitutional and rather required the statute to be amended to eliminate racial biases. From 1904 to 2010, 78 people were executed by the state; the last was Cal Coburn Brown on September 10, 2010. In April 2023, Governor Jay Inslee signed SB5087 which formally abolishing capital punishment in Washington State and removed provisions for capital punishment from state law.
Capital punishment was abolished via the legislative process on May 2, 2013, in the U.S. state of Maryland.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Oklahoma.
Gee Jon was a Chinese national who was the first person in the United States to be executed by lethal gas. A member of the Hip Sing Tong criminal society from San Francisco, California, Gee was sentenced to death for the murder of an elderly member from another gang in Nevada. An unsuccessful attempt to pump poison gas directly into his cell at Nevada State Prison led to the development of the gas chamber.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of New Hampshire for persons convicted of capital murder prior to 30 May 2019, when it was abolished prospectively for future crimes.
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 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.
Nevada State Prison (NSP) was a penitentiary located in Carson City. The prison was in continuous operation since its establishment in 1862 and was managed by the Nevada Department of Corrections. It was one of the oldest prisons still operating in the United States. The high security facility housed 219 inmates in September 2011. It was designed to hold 841 inmates and employed a staff of 211.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Idaho.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Wyoming.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Mississippi.
Andriza Mircovich was an Austro-Hungarian national of Serb descent. He was the only prisoner ever to be executed by shooting in the US state of Nevada. He had been sentenced to death for the premeditated murder of John Gregovich in Tonopah, Nevada. Mircovich felt that he was owed more money from Gregovich's administration of his late cousin's estate and resorted to settling the matter by stabbing Gregovich to death.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of North Carolina.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Arizona. After the execution of Joseph Wood in 2014, executions were temporarily suspended but resumed in 2022. On January 23, 2023, newly inaugurated governor Katie Hobbs ordered a review of death penalty protocols and in light of that, newly inaugurated attorney general Kris Mayes issued a hold on any executions in 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 in Missouri first used in 1810 is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Missouri.
Andriza Mircovich.