Capital punishment

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

is legal in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

.

Current development

Wyoming Legislature

Wyoming Legislature

The Wyoming State Legislature is the legislative branch of the U.S. State of Wyoming. It is a bicameral state legislature, consisting of a 60 member Wyoming House of Representatives, and a 30 member Wyoming Senate. The legislature meets at the Wyoming State Capitol in Cheyenne...

 passed a new and current death penalty statute on February 28, 1977, due to eliminating all previous statutes across the country by the 1972 United States Supreme Court Furman v. Georgia

Furman v. Georgia

Furman v. Georgia, was a United States Supreme Court decision that ruled on the requirement for a degree of consistency in the application of the death penalty. The case led to a de facto moratorium on capital punishment throughout the United States, which came to an end when Gregg v. Georgia was...

 decision.

Capital crimes

First-degree murder is the only capital crime in Wyoming. There are 11 aggravating factors.

Life in prison without parole is an option.

As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime or mentally retarded are constitutionally precluded from being executed.

Death row and clemency process

Male death row

Death row

Death row signifies the place, often a section of a prison, that houses individuals awaiting execution. The term is also used figuratively to describe the state of awaiting execution , even in places where no special facility or separate unit for condemned inmates exists.After individuals are found...

 is located in Rawlins

Rawlins, Wyoming

Rawlins is a city in Carbon County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 8,538 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Carbon County...

 (for females in Lusk

Lusk, Wyoming

Lusk is a town in Niobrara County, Wyoming, United States. The population was 1,447 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Niobrara County. The town was laid out in June 1886 by engineers working on the Wyoming Central Railway. It was named after Frank S...

). Currently 1 man and no women are awaiting execution.

The Governor of Wyoming has a sole right to grant commutation of the death sentence. Since 1977 no commutation was granted.

Method of executions

Lethal injection

Lethal injection

Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...

 is the sole method of execution. Gas chamber

Gas chamber

A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...

, however, is a backup method if injection would ever be found unconstitutional.

Executed individuals

Only one individual has been executed in the state of Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

 since 1976:

	Executed person	Date of execution	Method	Murder victim(s)	Under Governor
1	Mark Hopkinson Mark Hopkinson Mark A. Hopkinson was a convicted murderer who was executed by the U.S. state of Wyoming in 1992 for the murders of Vincent Vehar, Beverly Vehar, John Vehar, and Jeffrey Green...	22 January 1992	lethal injection Lethal injection Lethal injection is the practice of injecting a person with a fatal dose of drugs for the express purpose of causing the immediate death of the subject. The main application for this procedure is capital punishment, but the term may also be applied in a broad sense to euthanasia and suicide...	Vincent Vehar, Beverly Vehar, John Vehar, and Jeffrey Green	Mike Sullivan

Historical

Wyoming has executed 22 men between 1884 and 1965. 5 of these execution were prior to Statehood, and 17 since.

Until 1937 hanging

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

 was the only used method. Later the gas chamber

Gas chamber

A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...

 was introduced. A total of 17 convicted people were hanged and 5 gassed..

Wyoming has never executed a woman or anyone for a crime other than murder

Murder

Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...

, although several were executed for murder in the course of robbery (what is now known as capital or felony murder, in which another serious felony was a germane element of the murder), although they were executed for the murder and not the robbery.

Federal death penalty

One federal (outside state juridsiction) execution, not listed here, took place on April 26, 1945, when Henry Ruhl

Henry Ruhl

Henry Ruhl was the only person executed in Wyoming by the United States Federal Government. This was also the second-to-last pre-Furman execution in the state and third-to-last ....

 was gassed for a murder committed on a Government Reservation.

No one was convicted by federal courts in Wyoming and sentenced to death after 1988 (date of federal death penalty reintroduction).

List of executions until 1965

Prior to Wyoming becoming a State:

	Executed person	Date of execution	Method	Crime
1	John Boyer	21 April 1871	hanging Hanging Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...	murder
2	William Tousant Kensler	19 November 1874	hanging	murder
3	Leroy Donovan	18 January 1884	hanging	murder and robbery
4	George Cooke	12 December 1884	hanging	murder
5	John Owens	5 March 1886	hanging	murder and robbery
6	Benjamin Carter	26 January 1888	hanging	murder
7	George Black	26 February 1890	hanging	murder

Wyoming became a state July 10, 1890. A total of 18 individuals were executed in the state of Wyoming

Wyoming

Wyoming is a state in the mountain region of the Western United States. The western two thirds of the state is covered mostly with the mountain ranges and rangelands in the foothills of the Eastern Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie known as the High...

 prior to the 1972 Supreme Court

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 capital punishment ban.

	Executed person	Date of execution	Method	Crime
1	Charles Miller	22 April 1892	hanging	murder and robbery
2	Frank Howard	7 December 1894	hanging	murder
3	James Keffer	24 September 1902	hanging	murder and robbery
4	Thomas Horn Tom Horn Thomas "Tom" Horn, Jr. was an American Old West lawman, scout, soldier, hired gunman, detective, outlaw and assassin. On the day before his 43rd birthday, he was hanged in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the murder of Willie Nickell.-Early life:Born to Thomas S. Horn, Sr...	20 November 1903	hanging	murder
5	Joseph Seng	24 May 1912	hanging	murder
6	Warren Jenkins	14 November 1913	hanging	murder
7	Willard Flanders	16 June 1916	hanging	murder
8	Wilmer Palmer	11 August 1916	hanging	murder
9	Oscar White	20 January 1916	hanging	murder
10	Yee Geow	11 March 1921	hanging	murder
11	George Brownfield	10 March 1930	hanging	murder
12	Charles Aragon	14 May 1930	hanging	murder
13	Talton Taylor	11 May 1933	hanging	murder
14	Perry Carroll	13 August 1937	gas chamber Gas chamber A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...	murder
15	Stanley Lantzer	19 April 1940	gas chamber	murder
16	Cleveland Brown, Jr.	17 November 1944	gas chamber	murder and rape
17	Andrew Pixley Andrew Pixley Andrew Pixley was a convicted murderer from Dallas, Oregon. He was executed December 10, 1965 in Wyoming for the murder of two young girls in August 1964....	10 December 1965	gas chamber	murder

One federal execution took place:

Executed person	Date of execution	Crime	Method	Under President
Henry Ruhl Henry Ruhl Henry Ruhl was the only person executed in Wyoming by the United States Federal Government. This was also the second-to-last pre-Furman execution in the state and third-to-last ....	April 27, 1945	Murder on a Government Reservation	Gas chamber	Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...