Which states still have the death penalty?
America's largest death row is now stopped cold after California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order granting reprieve to the more than 700 condemned inmates in the state. It's a big blow to the death penalty, and continues a recent trend of more states halting or abolishing it.
But the death penalty is still alive in most of the United States — at least, on paper.
There are 30 states where the death penalty is still legal, with about 2,000 prisoners in those states awaiting execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. (Until Newsom's order, California had the most inmates set for death, comprising nearly one-fourth of the nation's entire death row population.) The death penalty has been flatlining, though, even in many states that still technically allow it.
About 10 states have abolished it or had the governor put a moratorium on it in the past decade. Others have no scheduled executions due to legal challenges. Some states with a death penalty have gone a decade or longer without an execution. New Hampshire and Kansas haven't had one in more than 50 years.
The number of executions nationwide keeps falling, too, according to Death Penalty Information Center data. The peak came in 1999, with 98 executions. The numbers have fallen in most years since then, and they are now at the lowest levels in three decades. There were 25 executions in 2018, and have been three so far this year.
This is how the death penalty breaks down across America:
States that have the death penalty
*Alabama
*Arizona
*Arkansas
*California (moratorium from Gov. Newsom, no executions since 2006)
*Colorado (no executions since 1997)
*Florida
*Georgia
*Idaho
*Indiana (no executions since 2009)
*Kansas (no executions sine 1965)
*Kentucky (no executions since 2008)
*Louisiana
*Mississippi
*Missouri
*Montana (no executions since 2006)
*Nebraska
*Nevada (no executions since 2006)
*New Hampshire (no executions since 1939)
*North Carolina (no executions since 2006)
*Ohio
*Oklahoma
*Oregon (moratorium since 2011, no executions since 1997)
*Pennsylvania (moratorium since 2015, no executions since 1999)
*South Carolina
*South Dakota
*Tennessee
*Texas (holds the record for the most executions —560 since 1976)
*Utah
*Virginia
*Wyoming (no executions since 1992)
The U.S. military also has a death penalty, though there have been no military executions since 1961.
States without a death penalty (and year it was stopped)
*Alaska (1957)
*Connecticut (2012)
*Delaware (2016)
*Hawaii (1957)
*Illinois (2011)
*Iowa (1965)
*Maine (1887)
*Maryland (2013)
*Massachusetts (1984)
*Michigan (1846)
*Minnesota (1911)
*New Jersey (2007)
*New Mexico (2009)
*New York (2007)
*North Dakota (1973)
*Rhode Island (1984)
*Vermont (1964)
*Washington (2018)
*West Virginia (1965)
*Wisconsin (1853)
Washington, D.C. eliminated its death penalty in 1981.
