Death Penalty in the U.S.

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January 8, 2003: The University of Maryland study indicating that race affects the way that death penalty cases are handled in Maryland is made available online.

January 21, 2003: The University of Cincinnati College of Law posts video of a press conference at which law students announce the results of a study indicating that death penalty convictions in Ohio suffer from the same problems as those recently commuted by Governor George Ryan in Illinois.

January 30, 2003: Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. announces that he has called for the abolition of the death penalty in Maryland.

March 6, 2003: The Illinois General Assembly Judiciary Committee approves a controversial bill that would abolish the Illinois death penalty.

April 3, 2003: The Arizona Supreme Court rules that it would review the death sentences of 27 inmates to determine whether the men should be resentenced. The Court declined to throw out their convictions in the wake of a US Supreme Court ruling from 2002 that found Arizona's death sentencing law unconstitutional because judges, not jurors, decided the sentence.

April 11, 2003: Amnesty International releases a report on use of the death penalty worldwide in 2002.

October 28, 2003: USA Today reports that the United States Supreme Court is granting fewer stays of execution than it granted almost a decade ago.

November 10, 2003: A report released by the US Department of Justice shows that in 2002 the number of executions in the US rose for the first time in three years.

November 19, 2003: The Illinois state House of Representatives overrides Governor Blagojevich's veto of a death penalty reform bill designed to limit the number of innocent men and women sentenced to death.

November 21, 2003: A Texas judge holds that the state may proceed with the execution of James Lee Clark holding that Clark is only mildly retarded and thus eligible for execution.

November 25, 2003: The ACLU releases a study criticizing Virginia's death penalty system.

January 21, 2004: Amnesty International releases a report documenting executions of child offenders that have occurred in the international community, including the US, since 1990.

February 3, 2004: The New Jersey Supreme Court holds that grand juries, not county prosecutors, must decide whether to seek the death penalty.

February 9, 2004: The Colorado Supreme Court holds that the defense bears the burden of proving mental retardation at a pretrial hearing to avoid the death penalty.

March 3, 2004: The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals overturns a controversial lower court ruling by a Vermont federal judge that the federal death penalty was unconstitutional.

April 19, 2004: The Supreme Court takes a death penalty case from Arizona and will hear arguments to clear up confusion over the impact of its 2002 ruling in Ring v. Arizona that juries, not judges, must have the final say in who receives the death penalty.

May 24, 2004: In a unanimous decision, the US Supreme Court holds that a convicted death row inmate can properly pursue an appeal claiming that lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

June 24, 2004: The Supreme Court holds that its 2002 decision in Ring v. Arizona does not apply retroactively, thereby upholding death sentences against inmates in those states prior to 2002.

June 29, 2004: The US Supreme Court stays the execution of a Texas man four hours before he was due to receive a lethal injection. Mauro Barraza was convicted of bludgeoning a woman to death when he was 17 years old.

August 11, 2004: The US Supreme Court vacates a stay of execution for a Virginia man who argued that execution by lethal injection constituted cruel and unusual punishment and was therefore unconstitutional.

September 16, 2004: The Death Penalty Information Center reports that the number of people receiving the death penalty has fallen substantially over the past several years.

November 15, 2004: The US Justice Department reports that the number of people sentenced to death in the United States reached a 30-year low in 2003.

March 1, 2005: CBS News reports that the US Supreme Court strikes down the possibility of the death penalty for juvenile killers in Roper v. Simmons.

April 12, 2005: The New York State Assembly Codes Committee defeats a bill to reinstate New York's death penalty by a vote of 11-7.

April 26, 2005: The number of death sentences handed down in 2004 was the lowest since 1976, according to new statistics released by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

June 13, 2005: In a 6-3 decision the US Supreme Court overturns the conviction of a black inmate on death row who claimed that Texas prosecutors purposely eliminated black jurors to fill the jury with whites.

July 14, 2005: A federal jury in Vermont recommends the death penalty for Donald Fell, convicted of kidnapping and murdering a supermarket worker in 2000. Vermont hasn't executed a convict since 1954, and the state formally abolished the death penalty in 1987.

August 8, 2005: In a speech to the American Bar Association annual meeting in Chicago, US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens notes "serious flaws'' in the American capital punishment system, though he stops short of saying it should be completely done away with.

September 22, 2005: According to a new study to be published in the Santa Clara Law Review, more prisoners are on California's death row for murdering whites than for killing people of any other race, despite the fact that there were more black and Hispanic murder victims during the same time period.

September 28, 2005: The Judicial Conference of the United States, the policy making body for federal judges, and the American Bar Association send a letter to US Senate Judiciary Chairman Sen. Arlen Specter opposing proposed legislation that would limit death penalty appeals.

October 10, 2005: The Council of Europe, Europe's top human rights organization, calls for the United States and Japan to set an example for other countries by abolishing capital punishment.

November 14, 2005: Both the number of people sentenced to death and the number executed declined in 2004, according to newly released US Justice Department statistics.

December 2, 2005: Kenneth Lee Boyd becomes the 1,000th person executed since the US Supreme Court reinstated the country's capital punishment program in 1977 after a 10-year moratorium.

December 3, 2005: The European Union releases a statement criticizing the death penalty after North Carolina executed Kenneth Lee Boyd, saying that "We consider this punishment cruel and inhuman."

January 9, 2006: The New Jersey Legislature passes a bill to suspend executions and create a New Jersey Death Penalty Study Commission to examine all aspects of the death penalty, including its fairness and costs.

January 11, 2006: The US Supreme Court rules 5-4 that a death sentence can stand in some circumstances even when the sentencing jury relied in part on a factor later found invalid.

January 13, 2006: New Jersey Gov. Richard J. Codey signs several bills, including one which creates a special commission on the death penalty and places a moratorium on capital punishment until at least 60 days after the task force releases its findings.

January 23, 2006: The US Army issues new regulations governing the military death penalty. What the Army is calling a "major revision", however, raises questions whether the military is considering its first execution since 1961.

January 27, 2006: Marvin Bieghler is executed in Indiana after the US Supreme Court overturned a stay ordered by the US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Bieghler had appealed his death sentence to the US Supreme Court, challenging Indiana's use of lethal injection as cruel and unusual punishment.

January 31, 2006: As many as 10 percent of prisoners executed in the US over the past 30 years suffered from some form of mental illness, according to a report issued by Amnesty International.

February 21, 2006: The execution of Michael Angelo Morales is delayed after the two anesthesiologists on hand to ensure that Morales would not suffer excessive pain during the process refused to participate due to ethical concerns.

April 24, 2006: Human Rights Watch calls the use of lethal injections by US authorities "incompetent, negligent, and irresponsible" in a report urging the federal government and the 37 out of 38 death penalty states that use that method of execution to suspend injections pending an assessment of alternatives that do not put prisoners at needless risk of excruciating pain.

May 18, 2006: The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals lifts its stay of execution for Derrick S. O'Brien, citing insufficient factual or scientific evidence proving that lethal injection causes suffering and leads to a painful death.

June 9, 2006: Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry signs SB 1800, a law which enlarges the scope of the death penalty to cover a second or subsequent sexual offense against a child under the age of 14. Similar child molestation statutes have been enacted by Florida, Louisiana, and Montana, and the South Carolina governor has signed a similar bill.

June 11, 2006: The American Bar Association death penalty assessment team recommends a moratorium on the death penalty in Alabama in a report that cited major flaws in the state's administration of capital punishment.

June 12, 2006: The US Supreme Court hands down its decision in Hill v. McDonough, holding that a death row inmate can challenge the constitutionality of a state's method of lethal injection under 42 USC 1983 even when all other appeals have been exhausted.

June 15, 2006: The Kentucky Supreme Court rules that, despite a 2005 US Supreme Court ruling barring the death penalty for juveniles, the mental age of a death row inmate cannot be invoked to stop the state from carrying out an execution.

June 28, 2006: Terry Collins, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, sets forth several changes in Ohio's lethal injection protocol in a report and letter addressed to Ohio Governor Bob Taft.

October 17, 2006: A federal judge rejects Missouri's lethal injection protocols as unconstitutional for the second time. One month prior, US District Judge Fernando Gaitan ordered Missouri to submit new protocols for carrying out the state death penalty.

October 24, 2006: The New Jersey Supreme Court holds that mental retardation, like insanity, is a condition to be affirmatively proved by the defense in state death penalty cases.

November 6, 2006: Mohammad Munaf, a US citizen convicted and sentenced to death by an Iraqi judge, asks the US Supreme Court to delay his transfer to Iraqi custody while US courts consider his case.

November 13, 2006: The US Supreme Court upholds California's "catch-all" jury instruction for death penalty cases, ruling that the instructions provide adequate opportunity for jurors to weigh evidence that favors the defendant.

Also,the US Supreme Court denies an application by US citizen Mohammad Munaf for a temporary injunction postponing his transfer to Iraqi custody where he faces the death penalty for his involvement in a 2005 kidnapping in Iraq.

December 15, 2006: Florida Governor Jeb Bush suspends all executions in the state after a medical examiner said that the execution of Angel Diaz earlier in the week was botched.

January 2, 2007: A New Jersey state commission recommends that the state abolish the death penalty, replacing it with a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

January 5, 2007: The number of death sentences issued in 2006 reached the lowest level in 30 years, according to a 2006 year-end report issued by the Death Penalty Information Center.

January 23, 2007: Thirty Democratic members of the North Carolina General Assembly urge Gov. Mike Easley to implement an immediate suspension of all state executions until an investigation shows that the state's execution protocol meets constitutional standards so as not to amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

January 25, 2007: A North Carolina state judge issues an injunction blocking two executions until Gov. Mike Easley issues new procedures to execute capital defendants without the presence of doctors. The new execution protocol is required after the North Carolina Medical Board last week changed their capital punishment policy, taking the position that "physician participation in capital punishment is a departure from the ethics of the medical profession."

February 2, 2007: Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen issues an executive order directing the Tennessee Commissioner of Corrections to conduct a "comprehensive review of the manner in which death sentences are administered... and provide new protocols and related written procedures in administering death sentences in Tennessee" no later than May 2, 2007.

February 15, 2007: The judiciary committee of the Montana Senate endorses a bill that would abolish the death penalty, voting to send SB 306 to the full state senate for consideration.

February 22, 2007: The new governor of Maryland testifies before legislators that the state's death penalty should be abolished because it is "inherently unjust," ineffective as a deterrent, and a drain on resources.

February 24, 2007: The Democratic-controlled Montana Senate votes to give second-reading approval to a bill that would eliminate the death penalty in Montana.

February 26, 2007: US District Judge Benson Legg suspends a requirement that the Maryland Attorney General submit proposals for using medical professionals to conduct lethal injections until such time as the controversy over the status of the state's capital punishment is resolved.

March 7, 2007: The North Carolina State Department of Corrections files a lawsuit against the North Carolina Medical Board alleging that recent policy changes preventing doctors' participation in lethal injections prevent the corrections department from carrying out executions.

March 16, 2007: A bill to repeal the Maryland death penalty fails in the Maryland Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee when the committee members tie in a 5-5 vote.

March 26, 2007: Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine announces that he has vetoed five bills promoting the death penalty.

March 27, 2007: The New Hampshire House of Representatives rejects proposed legislation which would effectively end the death penalty in the state.

April 24, 2007: A study published by PLoS Medicine says that the lethal injection “cocktail” can fail, leading to a potentially painful death. Such an execution would violate the 8th Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.

April 25, 2007: The U.S. Supreme Court hands down decisions in two Texas cases regarding death penalty jury instructions.

May 1, 2007: Tennessee's moratorium on executions is set to expire the next day after Gov. Phil Bredesen accepts revised death penalty protocols.

May 9, 2007: Tennessee executes its first death row inmate after the moratorium on executions imposed by the governor in February expires.

June 19, 2007: A Republican-sponsored amendment to a North Carolina bill aimed at allowing capital punishment to resume in the state fails when state House Democrats strike down language that would have forbidden the North Carolina Medical Board from disciplining a doctor for participating in an execution.

June 28, 2007: The Supreme Court holds that lower courts had improperly determined that a death row inmate with a delusion about the actual reason he faced execution, despite being factually aware of the reason, was competent to be executed.

July 3, 2007: Missouri Governor Matt Blunt announces the signing of a bill intended to protect the identities of individuals who provide direct support for the administration of the death penalty, formally prohibiting the disclosure of executioners' identities.

Also, the mother of Joseph Lewis Clark, a convicted murderer whose 2006 execution took approximately 90 minutes, files a federal lawsuit against Director Terry Collins of the OH Dept. of Rehabilitation and Correction, arguing that the lethal injection was unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.

July 6, 2007: South Dakota prepares to hold its first execution in 60 years, which had been halted by Governor Mike Rounds prior to the passage of new lethal injection protocols.

July 12, 2007: South Dakota holds its first execution in 60 years, putting to death 25-year-old Elijah Page.

July 18, 2007: A warrant signed by Florida Governor Charlie Crist profile ends the state's temporary suspension on executions, instituted by then-Governor Jeb Bush after a botched execution.

August 16, 2007: The Tennessee Supreme Court rules that the state can execute a defendant who begins to exhibit symptoms comparable with mental retardation after the age of 18.

August 21, 2007: The European Union urges Texas Gov. Rick Perry to halt all executions in the state and to consider introducing a moratorium on death sentences in Texas.

August 22, 2007: Texas Gov. Rick Perry rejects a call by the European Union to halt all executions in the state, saying that while Texans appreciate the EU’s interest in their laws, “Texans are doing just fine governing Texas.”

August 29, 2007: Lawyers for the North Carolina Medical Board argue that a lawsuit filed against them by the NC State Department of Corrections was filed prematurely and should be dismissed. The lawsuit alleges that recent medical board policy changes preventing doctors' participation in lethal injections impede the corrections department in carrying out executions.

September 11, 2007: A Florida Fifth Judicial Circuit judge rules that the December 2006 execution of Angel Diaz was not "botched," as previously alleged by a medical examiner.

Also, the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upholds a death sentence, ruling that a jury foreman's reliance on Biblical scripture had no "substantial and injurious effect" on the jury's sentencing decision.

September 12, 2007: Tennessee executes a condemned man by electric chair, the first execution by electrocution in the state since 1960.

September 19, 2007: A federal judge rules that Tennessee's execution procedures constitute "cruel and unusual" punishment, derailing plans to execute a death row inmate the following week.

September 21, 2007: Wake County Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens holds that NC state requirements that a physician be in attendance during the lethal injection execution of condemned inmates trump a medical board policy that forbids doctors from participating in executions.

September 24, 2007: The ABA death penalty assessment team recommends a moratorium on the death penalty in Ohio in a report citing major flaws in the state's administration of capital punishment.

September 26, 2007: Texas continues with the lethal injection execution of a convicted murderer, despite the US Supreme Court's grant of certiorari in a case reviewing whether the method is cruel and unusual and therefore unconstitutional.

September 28, 2007: The US Supreme Court issues a stay of execution for a Texas inmate just hours before his scheduled execution. Earlier in the week the Court granted certiorari in Baze v. Rees, where the Court will consider whether lethal injections of death row inmates constitute cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

October 3, 2007: A Texas court stays the lethal injection execution of an inmate who was scheduled to be put to death that week, giving state officials 30 days to answer questions about whether lethal injection constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

October 12, 2007: The Arizona Supreme Court indefinitely stays the execution of a man on death row, saying it will wait until the US Supreme Court reviews whether lethal injection is unconstitutional under the Eighth Amendment.

October 16, 2007: The Nevada Supreme Court issues a stay of all executions pending the US Supreme Court ruling on whether lethal injection is unconstitutional.

October 17, 2007: The US Supreme Court issues an order staying the execution of Virginia death row inmate Christopher Scott Emmett "pending final disposition of the appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit or further order of this Court."

October 19, 2007: The Georgia Supreme Court grants a stay of execution to convicted killer Jack Alderman pending the US Supreme Court ruling in Baze v. Rees.

October 24, 2007: The highest court in New York state narrowly ruled against overturning state precedent holding the state's death penalty law unconstitutional.

October 29, 2007: The ABA says there are serious flaws in the fairness and accuracy of several state death penalty systems, and calls for a nationwide moratorium on executions.

October 31, 2007: California State Judge Lynn O'Malley Taylor issues a ruling invalidating revisions to the state lethal injection protocol, saying that the proposed changes qualified as a regulation and thus do not conform to the California Administrative Procedure Act.

November 1, 2007: The Florida Supreme Court issues a unanimous decision upholding the state's lethal injection procedures and rejecting the assertion that the state's protocol constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment."

November 5, 2007: Florida death row inmate Ian Deco Lightbourne asks the state supreme court to reconsider its decision that Florida's revised lethal injection protocols do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment, arguing that the FL Dept. of Corrections has not properly addressed the fact that trained medical professionals do not monitor the administration of lethal injections.

Also, the US Supreme Court grants certiorari in Arave v. Hoffman to consider whether a death row inmate in Idaho should be able to accept a plea bargain after his conviction based on an argument that the deal was rejected because of bad advice from his lawyer.

November 7, 2007: The Florida Supreme Court issues an order denying a stay of execution for death row inmate Mark Dean Schwab after previously finding that Florida's revised lethal injection protocol does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

November 10, 2007: New Jersey Assembly speaker Joseph Roberts, Jr. announces that the State Assembly will vote on a proposal to abolish the death penalty.

November 15, 2007: The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit issues a per curiam opinion overturning a district court order to stay the execution of Florida death row inmate Mark Dean Schwab. The US Supreme Court later that day stays the execution "pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari.

November 19, 2007: CA Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George proposes a constitutional amendment designed to expedite death penalty appeals.

November 20, 2007: Pennsylvania lawyer David Rudovsky files suit in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, saying PA's lethal injection protocol creates an "unnecessary risk of pain and suffering" in violation of the Eighth Amendment.

November 30, 2007: Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen says that the state will wait until the US Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of lethal injections before modifying the state's execution protocols in accordance with a September federal court ruling. Tennessee Attorney General Bob Cooper plans to appeal the September court decision.

December 4, 2007: The NJ Senate Budget Committee passes a bill designed to replace capital punishment with life in prison, paving the way for New Jersey to abolish the death penalty all together, with a vote on the bill scheduled for the following week.

December 10, 2007: The NJ Senate passes a bill that would abolish the death penalty in the state. The New Jersey Assembly is scheduled to vote on the bill later that week.

December 13, 2007: The NJ Assembly passes the bill replacing the state's current death penalty with life imprisonment, sending it to New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine for signature.

December 17, 2007: NJ Governor Jon Corzine signs into law a bill ending the use of capital punishment, making NJ the first state to abolish the death penalty since the US Supreme Court reinstated it nationally in 1976.

December 19, 2007: According to a 2007 year-end report issued by the Death Penalty Information Center, the number of executions in the US in 2007 reached the lowest level in 13 year.

January 7, 2008: The US Supreme Court hears oral arguments in Baze v. Rees on whether the three-drug lethal injection cocktail now used in over 30 states violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment.

January 9, 2008: A US District Court judge in Arkansas rules that journalists and the public do not have the right to view every part of the execution process under the First Amendment.

January 31, 2008: The US Supreme Court stays the execution AL death row inmate James Harvey Callahan "pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari."

February 8, 2008: The NE Supreme Court rules that execution by electric chair is "cruel and unusual" punishment and therefore prohibited by the NE constitution.

February 20, 2008: NE AG Jon Bruning files a motion for rehearing asking the NE Supreme Court to reconsider its recent decision banning the use of the electric chair.

February 25, 2008: CA Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald George tells the state's Judiciary Council that the Supreme Court is withdrawing a proposed constitutional amendment aimed at expediting death penalty appeals.

March 26, 2008: The MD General Assembly passes legislation to establish the MD Commission on Capital Punishment to study the implementation and execution of the death penalty in that state.

Also, a NE bill that would have banned the death penalty fails in the NE Legislature.

April 2, 2008: VA Gov. Timothy Kaine issues a stay of all executions until the US Supreme Court rules in Baze v. Rees.

April 4, 2008: MT death row inmate Ronald A. Smith files a lawsuit asserting that the lethal injection protocol used by MT's Department of Corrections constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.

April 7, 2008: Anesthesiologist Dr. Mark Heath says at a court hearing that OH's lethal injection method does not comport with the Eighth Amendment of the US Constitution.

April 9, 2008: The NE Supreme Court rejects a motion for rehearing to reconsider its ruling that execution by electric chair is "cruel and unusual" punishment and therefore prohibited by the NE constitution.

April 16, 2008: The US Supreme Court decides Baze v. Rees, ruling that lethal injection does not violate the Eighth Amendment's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment.

Following the decision, several US states announce that they would resume executions by lethal injection.

April 21, 2008: Following the decision in Baze v. Rees, the Supreme Court denies petitions for certiorari filed by 10 death row inmates seeking to have their executions blocked.

April 24, 2008: A GA court schedules the execution of convicted killer William Earl Lynd after the US Supreme Court decision in Baze v. Rees, ending a de facto national moratorium on the death penalty.

May 1, 2008: US District Judge Beverly Martin rejects a challenge to Georgia's lethal injection protocol.

May 7, 2008: Georgia carries out the first execution in the US since the US Supreme Court’s decision in Baze v. Rees, ending a de facto national moratorium on the death penalty.

May 12, 2008: The US Supreme Court grants limited certiorari in the death row case of Bell v. Kelly.

May 21, 2008: The US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals rejects a Georgia death row inmate's challenge to the state's method of execution.

June 6, 2008: Mexico urges the ICJ to stay the US executions of Mexican citizens until the Court can rule on the applicability of its holding in Mexico v. United States of America.

June 12, 2008: Convicted rapist and murderer Karl Eugene Chamberlain is executed by lethal injection at a Texas prison, the state's first execution since Baze v. Rees.

July 22, 2008: LA state prosecutors petition the US Supreme Court to reconsider its June decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana, where it found that imposing the death sentence for child rape where the victim was not killed constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. The Court had noted incorrectly in that ruling that there were no federal laws allowing the punishment for rape, but a 2006 amendment to the Uniform Code of Military Conduct does in fact allow the death penalty at court-martial for rape and child rape.

July 29, 2008: President Bush approves the death sentence of US Army private Ronald A. Gray, marking the first time a president has approved a military execution since 1957.

July 30, 2008: The DOJ files a motion with the US Supreme Court requesting permission to petition for rehearing in Kennedy v. Louisiana.

July 31, 2008: The AL Supreme Court indefinitely stays the execution of Thomas Arthur, sentenced to death by lethal injection, after lawyers for Arthur filed an affidavit in which another prisoner, Bobby Ray Gilbert, confessed to the murder of which Arthur was convicted.

August 6, 2008: Texas executes Mexican national Jose Ernesto Medellin after the US Supreme Court narrowly refuses to stay his sentence following an order ICJ.

August 7, 2008: Convicted murderer and Honduran national Heliberto Chi becomes the second foreign national to be put to death in Texas since the ICJ ordered the US to stay such executions.

September 24, 2008: The US Supreme Court stays the execution of Georgia death row inmate Troy Anthony Davis "pending the disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari."

December 11, 2008: The Death Penalty Information Center reports that US executions are at a 14-year low and death sentences have dropped 60% since the 1990s.