Capital Punishment, 2021 – Statistical Tables | November 2023 7
Status of the death penalty in 2021
As of December 31, 2021, a total of 30 states and the
federal government authorized the death penalty
(tables 2 and 3). While the Washington Supreme
Court declared the state death penalty statute
unconstitutional, as applied, on October 11, 2018 (State
v. Gregory, 192 Wash. 2d 1, 427 P.3d 621 (2018)), the
Washington state legislature has neither revised nor
repealed the statute.
In 2019, New Hampshire repealed the death penalty
(HB 455), eective May 30, 2019. The repeal did not
aect previously imposed death sentences, and as of
December 31, 2021, New Hampshire held one male
prisoner under sentence of death.
In 2021, the Virginia legislature repealed the death
penalty, replacing the crime of capital murder with
aggravated murder (2021 Va. Acts chs. 344, 345, Spec.
Sess. I). The amended law provided that all prisoners
under previously imposed death sentences (2) would
have their sentences changed to life imprisonment
without the possibility of parole, eective July 1, 2021.
Oregon recently revised the denition of aggravated
murder (Or. Laws 2019, ch. 365), which substantially
reduced the scope of oenses eligible for the death
penalty. (See Status of the death penalty in 2019 in Capital
Punishment, 2019 – Statistical Tables (NCJ 300381, BJS,
June 2021).) On October 7, 2021, the Oregon Supreme
Court ruled that the change in the law may be applied
retroactively (State v. Bartol, 368 Or 598 (2021)). As a
result, prisoners sentenced to death prior to September
2019 may be entitled to have their death sentences
vacated since those sentences are now in violation of
Article 1, Section 16 of the Oregon Constitution.
During 2021, Ohio amended its code of criminal
procedure to prohibit imposition of the death penalty
for aggravated murder when the oender had a
serious mental illness at the time of the oense (O.R.C.
§ 2929.025). An oender who has been diagnosed
with schizophrenia, schizoaective disorder, bipolar
disorder, and/or delusional disorder and proves that the
condition(s) impaired the oender’s capacity at the time
of the oense will be sentenced to life imprisonment
without parole if convicted. The amendments became
eective April 12, 2021.
South Carolina amended its death penalty statute to
authorize a ring squad as a method of execution (S.C.
Code § 24-3-530), eective May 14, 2021.
Tennessee established a mechanism to allow
defendants who were sentenced to death prior to the
statute’s enactment date and whose conviction is nal
on direct review to petition the trial court to determine
if the defendant is intellectually disabled (Tenn. Code
Ann. § 39-13-203). The change became eective
May18,2021.
Authorized methods of execution in 2021
Methods of execution are dened by statute and
vary by jurisdiction. In 2021, all 30 states with a death
penalty statute authorized lethal injection as a method
of execution (table 4). Fourteen states also authorized
an alternative method of execution: electrocution
(8states), ring squad (4), lethal gas (3), nitrogen
hypoxia (3), and hanging (2).
In states that authorized multiple methods of
execution, the condemned prisoner usually selected
the method. Five states (Arizona, Arkansas, Kentucky,
Tennessee, and Utah) stipulated which method must
be used depending on the date of either the oense or
sentencing. Six states authorized alternative methods
if lethal injection was ruled to be unconstitutional:
Arkansas authorized electrocution; Delaware authorized
hanging; Mississippi and Oklahoma authorized
electrocution, ring squad, or nitrogen hypoxia; Utah
authorized ring squad; and Wyoming authorized
lethal gas.
Federal prisoners are executed by lethal injection,
pursuant to 28 C.F.R. Part 26. For oenses prosecuted
under the federal Violent Crime Control and Law
Enforcement Act of 1994, the law of the state in which
the conviction took place determines the method used
(18 U.S.C. § 3596).
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