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Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned practice of killing a person as a punishment for a crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that the person is responsible for violating norms that warrant said punishment. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in such a manner is known as a death sentence, and the act of carrying out the sentence is known as an execution. A prisoner who has been sentenced to death and awaits execution is condemned and is commonly referred to as being "on death row". Etymologically, the term capital refers to execution by beheading, but executions are carried out by many methods, including hanging, shooting, lethal injection, stoning, electrocution, and gassing.
In the United States, capital punishment is a legal penalty throughout the country at the federal level, in 27 states, and in American Samoa. It is also a legal penalty for some military offenses. Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 states and in the federal capital, Washington, D.C. It is usually applied for only the most serious crimes, like aggravated murder. Although it is a legal penalty in 27 states, 20 states have the ability to execute death sentences, with the other seven, as well as the federal government, being subject to different types of moratoriums. The existence of capital punishment in the United States can be traced to early colonial Virginia. Along with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Singapore, the United States is one of five advanced democracies and the only Western nation that applies the death penalty regularly. It is one of 54 countries worldwide applying it, and was the first to develop lethal injection as a method of execution, which has since been adopted by five other countries. The Philippines has since abolished executions, and Guatemala has done so for civil offenses, leaving the United States as one of four countries to still use this method. It is common practice for the condemned to be administered sedatives prior to execution, regardless of the method used.
The list of people executed by the U.S. state of Texas, with the exception of 1819–1849, is divided into periods of 10 years.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in China. It is commonly applied for murder and drug trafficking, and is a legal penalty for other offenses. Executions are carried out by lethal injection or by shooting. In a survey conducted by the New York Times in 2014, it was found the death penalty retained widespread support in Chinese society.
David Thomas Dawson was an American convicted murderer who was executed at Montana State Prison in Deer Lodge, Montana. Dawson was executed for the April 1986 murders of the Rodstein family in Billings, Montana. He remains the last person executed in Montana.
Duncan Peder McKenzie Jr. was convicted of the murder of a Conrad, Montana schoolteacher named Lana Harding on January 21, 1974. After his conviction in March 1975, he was on death row for twenty years, receiving eight stays of execution. His ninth stay of execution was denied by the United States courts of appeals.
Terry Allen Langford was an American convicted murderer who was executed by lethal injection in Montana. Langford was executed for the July 1988 murders of Ned and Celene Blackwood, in Ovando, Montana. His case was profiled in the true crime television series, Stolen Voices, Buried Secrets.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in Jordan. The country had a moratorium on capital punishment between 2006 and 2014. In late 2014 the moratorium was lifted and 11 persons were executed. Two more executions followed in 2015, 15 executions took place in 2017 and one in 2021.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Montana.
References
- ↑ "Searchable Execution Database". Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved August 16, 2019.