Capital punishment by the United States federal government
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of individuals executed by the United States. The United States federal government (in comparison to the separate states) applies the death penalty for certain crimes: treason, espionage, federal murder, large scale drug trafficking and attempting to kill a witness, juror, or court officer in certain cases. Military law allows execution of soldiers for several crimes. Executions by the federal government have been rare compared to those by state governments. Only 26 federal (including military) executions have been carried since 1950. Only 3 of those (none of them military) have occurred in the modern post-Gregg era. This list only includes those executed under federal jurisdiction. Fifty-five people are on the federal death row at the Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana as of November 23, 2007.
Contents |
[edit] History
The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 restored the death penalty under federal law for drug offenses and some types of murder. President Clinton signed the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act expanding the federal death penalty in 1994. In response to the Oklahoma City bombing, the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 was passed in 1996. Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute became the only federal prison to hold and execute people.
Timothy McVeigh was the first person executed by the United States since 1976 on June 11, 2001 for his involvement in the Oklahoma City bombing. It was the first federal execution since 1963. Other executions by the United States include Juan Raul Garza on June 19, 2001 and the most recent person executed by the federal government, Louis Jones Jr. on March 18, 2003. Sentences of death are now handed down by the jury, and the jury's decision is read by the judge.
Fifty-five people are currently on the federal death row. Two people have been re-sentenced since 1976 to life in prison and one was commuted to life in prison by President Bill Clinton in 2001.
[edit] Capital offenses
These are the twelve offenses punishable by death or another punishment in the United States Code:
- Using a chemical weapon where the use causes death
- Killing a member of the United States Congress, the Cabinet or Supreme Court
- Kidnapping a member of the Congress, the Cabinet or Supreme Court resulting in death
- Conspiracy to kill a member of the Congress, the Cabinet or Supreme Court resulting in death
- Espionage
- Using an explosive to knowingly to kill a person
- Causing death using an illegal firearm
- Genocide where death results
- First Degree Murder
- Murder perpetrated by poison or lying in wait.
- Murder that is willful, deliberate, malicious, and premeditated.
- Murder in the perpetrated or in the attempt to perpetrate any arson, escape, murder, kidnapping, treason, espionage, sabotage, aggravated sexual abuse or sexual abuse, child abuse, burglary, or robbery
- Murder perpetrated as part of a pattern or practice of assault or torture against a child or children
- Murder perpetrated from a premeditated design unlawfully and maliciously to effect the death of any human being other than him who is killed.
- Murder committed by a federal prisoner or an escaped federal prisonier sentenced to 15 to life or a more severe penalty
- Murdering the president or his staff
- Kidnapping the president or his staff resulting in death
- Killing persons aiding Federal investigations or State correctional officers
- Sexual abuse resulting in death
- Sexual exploitation of children resulting in death
- Torture resulting in death
- Treason
- War crimes resulting in death
[edit] Method
Federal law requires that the method of execution is the one used by the state the crime is committed in. The judge may select the method used by another state if the capital offense was committed in a state without the death penalty. All of the executions since 1976 under federal law have been by lethal injection.
[edit] Recent civilian executions
Only 26 federal (including military) executions have been carried since 1950. Only 3 of those (none of them military) have occurred in the modern post-Gregg era. This list only includes those executed under federal jurisdiction. Since 1963, three people have been executed by the federal government of the United States. All were executed by lethal injection.
Executed person | Date of execution | Crime | State | Under President | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Timothy McVeigh | June 11, 2001 | murder of eight federal employees through the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. (See Oklahoma City bombing.) | Oklahoma | G. W. Bush |
2 | Juan Raul Garza | June 19, 2001 | murder of Thomas Albert Rumbo, ordering the murders of Gilberto Matos, Erasmo De La Fuente, Antonio Nieto, Bernabe Sosa, Diana Flores Villareal, Oscar Cantu, and Fernando Escobar Garcia in conjunction with a drug-smuggling ring | Texas | G. W. Bush |
3 | Louis Jones, Jr. | March 18, 2003 | rape and murder of Pvt. Tracie McBride | Texas | G. W. Bush |
[edit] Earlier civilian executions
Between 1950 and 1963, 13 people were executed (not counting those executed under military law):
From 1790 to 1950, there were 327 Federal, 271 Territorial and 40 Indian Tribunal executions according to the most complete records.[1] One of those was the execution of James Arcene on June 18, 1885, when he probably was only 10 or 11 years old, for his role in a robbery and murder committed when he was 10 years old.
[edit] Presidential assassins
Executed person | Date of execution | Method | President Assassinated | Under President |
---|---|---|---|---|
George Atzerodt | 7 July 1865 | hanging | Abraham Lincoln | Andrew Johnson |
David Herold | 7 July 1865 | hanging | Abraham Lincoln | Andrew Johnson |
Lewis Powell | 7 July 1865 | hanging | Abraham Lincoln | Andrew Johnson |
Mary Surratt | 7 July 1865 | hanging | Abraham Lincoln | Andrew Johnson |
Charles J. Guiteau | 30 June 1882 | hanging | James Garfield | Chester A. Arthur |
[edit] Military executions
The United States military has executed 135 people since 1916. The last execution was in 1961.
Since 1865 (American Civil War) only one person has been executed for a purely military offense.
- Private Eddie Slovik, January 31, 1945, convicted of desertion
[edit] See also
[edit] Text of Laws
- Using a chemical weapon where the use causes death
- Killing a member of the congress, the cabinet or Supreme Court, Kidnapping a member of the congress, the cabinet or Supreme Court resulting in death and Conspiracy to kill a member of the congress, the cabinet or Supreme Court resulting in death
- Espionage
- Using an explosive device to knowingly kill a person
- Causing death using an illegal firearm
- Genocide where death results
- First Degree Murder
- Murder by a federal prisoner
- Killing persons aiding Federal investigations or State correctional officers
- Murdering the president or his staff and Kidnapping the president or his staff resulting in death
- Sexual abuse resulting in death
- Sexual exploitation of children resulting in death
- Torture resulting in death
- Treason
- War Crimes Resulting in death
|