Capital Punishment Chronology

Francisco Maldonado da Silva Solis Peruvian poet, burned at stake.

Ref: 5

1641

May 12

The chief advisor to Charles I, Thomas Wentworth, is beheaded in the Tower of London, at age 48.

Ref: 2

1645

The Archbishop of Canterbury, William Laud, 71, is beheaded on Tower Hill, accused of acting as an enemy of the Parliament (treason).

Ref: 2

1649

(or 31st) King Charles of England (1625-42) is beheaded at age 48 in London by order of the Rump Parliament by the executioner Richard Brandon. [Bonnie Prince Charles]

Ref: 2

1650

May 21

James G Marquis of Montrose, Scottish general, hanged.

Ref: 5

1659

Oct 27

William Robinson and Marmaduke Stevenson, two Quakers who came from England in 1656 to escape religious persecution, are executed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony for their religious beliefs.

Ref: 3

1661

Andres Malong Philippines rebel leader, executed.

Ref: 5

Mar 24

William Leddra, last Quaker, hanged in Boston.

Ref: 5

May 27

Archibald Campbell Scottish politician, beheaded at about 53.

Ref: 5

1671

Apr 30

Péter Zrinyi Hungarian banished to Croatia, beheaded at 49.

Ref: 5

Jun 16

Stenka Razin Cossack rebel leader, tortured, executed in Moscow.

Ref: 5

1676

Jul 16

Marie deBrinvilliers is executed for murdering nearly 100 people, including her father and two brothers with poison.

Ref: 52

1683

Dec 25

Kara Mustapha Turkish grand-vizier (1676-83), executed.

Ref: 5

1685

Jul 15

James, Duke of Monmouth, is executed for treason at Tower Hill, London.

Ref: 2

1688

Feb 17

Reverend James Renwick hanged in Scotland for being a Presbyterian.

Ref: 5

1691

May 16

America's first accused spy, Jacob Leisler, hanged for treason after unfair trial.

Ref: 5

May 26

Jacob Leiser, leader of the popular uprising in support of William and Mary's succession to the throne, is executed for treason.

Ref: 2

1695

Feb 22

Robert Southwell English poet, hanged for becoming a Catholic priest.

Ref: 5

1699

Feb 04

350 rebellious Streltsi executed in Moscow.

Ref: 5

1712

Jul 04

12 slaves are executed for starting a uprising in New York that killed nine whites.

Ref: 2

1717

Jan 14

German mob leader "Sjako" sentenced to death in Amsterdam.

Ref: 5

1721

Dec 22

Nathaniel Hawes tortured & executed in England for robbery.

Ref: 5

1722

Apr 22

19 VOC "komplotteurs" in Batavia executed.

Ref: 5

1739

Apr 07

Richard (Dick) Turpin, highwayman, is executed at York.

Ref: 62

Apr 10

Dick Turpin executed in England for horse stealing.

Ref: 5

1747

Apr 09

Simon Fraser (Lord Lovat), 12th baron Lovat Jacobite, last man beheaded in England.

Ref: 5

1751

Aug 24

Thomas Colley is executed in England for drowning a supposed witch.

Ref: 5

1757

Mar 14

British Admiral John Byng is executed by a firing squad on board HMS Monarch for neglect of duty at age 52.

Ref: 2

1760

Laurence 4th Earl Ferrers, executed for murder of his steward.

Ref: 5

1772

May 11

Joseph Kerckhoff Limburg surgeon/robber captain, hanged.

Ref: 5

1775

Jan 11

Yemelyan Pugachov Don Cossack rebel, executed by tsarist Russia.

Ref: 5

9 old women burnt as witches for causing bad harvests, Kalisk, Poland.

Ref: 5

1776

Jun 28

Thomas Hickey American sergeant convicted of treason, hanged.

Ref: 5

1777

Dec 12

Reverend Benjamin Russen executed at Tyburn, England for rape.

Ref: 5

1783

Nov 07

Last public hanging at Tyburn near Marble Arch, London; public executions moved to Newgate.

Ref: 10

Dec 09

First execution at English Newgate-jail.

Ref: 5

1790

Jan 21

Joseph Guillotine proposes a new, more humane method of execution: a machine designed to cut off the condemned person's head as painlessly as possible.

Ref: 2

1792

Mar 20

In Paris, the Legislative Assembly approves the use of the guillotine.

Ref: 2

Apr 25

Highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier became the first person under French law to be executed by the guillotine at age 54.

Ref: 70

1794

Apr 05

Georges-Jacques Danton, French revolutionary leader, guillotined at 34.

Ref: 5

May 08

Antoine Lavoisier, 50, the father of modern chemistry who defined the role of oxygen and named it, is executed on the guillotine during France's Reign of Terror.

Ref: 70

May 10

Elizabeth, the sister of King Louis XVI, is beheaded.

Ref: 2

Jul 28

Maximilian Robespierre, French Jacobin leader and a principal figure in the French Revolution (along with 19 others), is executed by guillotine at age 36.

Ref: 4

1795

May 20

Ignác Martinovics Hungarian physicist/revolutionary, beheaded.

Ref: 5

1800

May 19

French Bosbeeck veterinarian/robber, hanged.

Ref: 5

1803

Feb 21

Edward Despard is executed. He is the last person to be drawn & quartered in England.

Ref: 5

1807

Feb 24

17 die & 15 wounded in a crush to witness execution of Holloway, Heggerty & Elizabeth Godfrey in England.

Ref: 5

1810

Feb 20

Andreas Hofer military leader (fought Napoleon's France), executed at 42.

Ref: 5

1811

Mar 01

Egyptian king Muhammad Ali Pasha oversees ceremonial murder of 500.

Ref: 5

Jul 30

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Mexican hero priest, executed by Spanish.

Ref: 5

Jul 31

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Mexican hero priest, executed by Spanish.

Ref: 5

1815

Dec 22

José Maria Morelos Mexican revolutionary priest executed by Spaniards.

Ref: 5

1817

Dec 16

Leaders of Molukkas uprising hanged in Ambon.

Ref: 5

1822

Feb 24

Bluebeard is executed for burning ten of his wives.

Ref: 62

Jul 02

Denmark Vesey is executed in Charleston, South Carolina, for planning a massive slave revolt.

Ref: 2

1826

Dec 15

William Browser revolting slave, executed in New York NY.

Ref: 5

1829

Jan 28

William Burke murderer/body snatcher, executed in Edinburgh.

Ref: 5

1842

Dec 01

Midshipman Philip Spencer, son of Secretary of War John C. Spencer, is hanged for mutiny from the yardarm of the U.S.S. Somers. He is the first US Navy officer executed for mutiny.

Ref: 3

1846

May 04

Michigan becomes first U.S. State to abolish capital punishment.

Ref: 5

1847

Jan 01

Michigan is first state to abolish capital punishment.

Ref: 5

Mar 01

Michigan becomes first English-speaking jurisdiction to abolish the death penalty (except for treason against the state).

Ref: 5

1850

Jul 09

Mirza Ali Muhammed (the Bab) is executed in Tabriz, Iran.

Ref: 10

1851

Apr 15

Earl G Andrássy sentenced to death in Hungary.

Ref: 5

Jun 12

Victor Hugo fined and imprisoned for writing an article condemning capital punishment.

Ref: 62

1859

Dec 02

John Brown, militant abolitionist who led the attack on Harper's Ferry, is hung for treason, murder and conspiracy in Charlestown, Virginia at age 59.

Ref: 70

1865

Nov 10

Henry Wirz, Confederate prison at Andersonville superintendent is executed for excessive cruelty.

Ref: 5

1866

Feb 27

Edward Green is executed for the murder of a bank clerk during the first bank robbery which occurred on December 15, 1863.

Ref: 52

1867

Jun 19

Maximilian, Mexican emperor, is executed at age 34; Mexican republic restored.

Ref: 5

1868

May 26

Last public execution in England; Michael Barrett hanged outside Newgate Prison for bombing.

Ref: 5

1870

May 20

Second Chamber abolishes capital punishment.

Ref: 5

1873

Oct 03

Captain Jack and three other Modoc Indians are hanged in Oregon for the murder of General Edward Canby.

Ref: 2

1876

Dec 20

Hannah Omish at 12 is youngest person ever hung in US .

Ref: 5

1877

Mar 23

Mormon fanatic John Doyle Lee was executed by a firing squad for masterminding the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1857, a wagon train of 127 Arkansas Methodist emigrants, bound for California, were killed by a party of Mormon settlers and Paiute Indians at Mountain Meadows (near Cedar ity), Utah.

Ref: 5

1885

Jan 26

Charles George Gordon, British Governor-General, executed (slain with troops by Sudanese in Khartoum) at 51.

Ref: 5

Feb 23

John Lee survives three attempts to hang him in Exeter Prison, as the trap fails to open.

Ref: 2

Nov 16

Louis Riel French rebel who fought against Canada, executed at 41 for high treason.

Ref: 5

1887

Jan 11

At Fort Smith, Arkansas, hangman George Maledon dispatches four victims in a multiple hanging.

Ref: 2

Nov 11

Four labor activists accused of murdering eight Chicago police officers at the Haymarket Square Riot are executed by hanging in Illinois.

Ref: 3

1889

Jan 01

New York State introduces the electric chair for capital punishment.

Ref: 17

1890

Aug 06

Convicted murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in the electric chair as he was put to death at Auburn State Prison in New York. (TWA, 1958)

Ref: 95

1899

Mar 20

Martha M. Place of Brooklyn, New York, becomes the first woman to be executed in the electric chair as she was put to death at Sing Sing for the murder of her stepdaughter.

Ref: 39

1901

Feb 26

Boxer Rebellion leaders Chi-Hsin and Hsu-Cheng-Yu are publicly executed (beheaded) in Peking.

Ref: 2

1902

Gideon Scheepers South African Boer leader, executed.

Ref: 5

1903

Dec 14

William Ennis is the first cop to die in the electric chair.

Ref: 5

1906

Feb 23

Johann Hoch US murderer, executed.

Ref: 5

1912

Oct 04

Nicaraguan Gen Zeledon, opponent of US occupation, is executed.

Ref: 5

1915

Oct 12

Despite international protests, Edith Cavell, an English nurse in Belgium, is executed by Germans for aiding the escape of over 200 Allied prisoners.

Ref: 68

Nov 19

Joe Hill, Labor leader, executed for murder.

Ref: 5

1916

Apr 01

Gabrielle Petit Belgian resistance fighter, executed.

Ref: 5

May 03

Irish nationalist Padraic Pearse and two others are executed by the British for their roles in the Easter Rising.

Ref: 68

Aug 03

Sir Roger Casement, Irish nationalist leader in the Easter Rebellion, is hanged in London for treason.

Ref: 17

1918

Sep 03

5 soldiers hanged for alleged participation in Houston riot of 1917.

Ref: 5

1920

Feb 07

Alexander Koltsjak Admiral/leader Russian counter-revolutionary, executed.

Ref: 5

Dec 29

Syd Dernley, hangman, is born.

Ref: 5

1921

French rapist-murderer Henri-Désiré Landru sentenced to death.

Ref: 5

May 08

Sweden abolishes capital punishment

Ref: 2

May 14

Florence Allen is first woman judge to sentence a man to death.

Ref: 5

1922

Feb 23

Henri Landru executed for having 11 wives, in France.

Ref: 5

Feb 25

Henri-Désiré Landru "Bluebeard", French sex murderer, guillotined at 52.

Ref: 5

1924

Feb 08

Tong Lee, a member of a Chinese gang convicted of murdering a rival gang member, becomes the first person executed by lethal gas in American history, in Carson City, Nevada.

Ref: 3

1928

Jan 12

Ruth Snyder first woman to die in electric chair.

Ref: 5

1933

Jul 27

Circuit Court of Kansas City mandates death penalty for kidnapping.

Ref: 10

Dec 23

Marinus van der Lubbe sentenced to death.

Ref: 5

1934

Marinus van der Lubbe Dutch communist, beheaded in Berlin at 24.

Ref: 5

1935

Dec 02

Albert Kessel becomes the first person to die in the California gas chamber.

Ref: 5

1936

Mar 08

Peter H J "Piet" van Doorne director BOVA Red Peppers, executed at 52.

Ref: 5

Aug 14

Rainey Bethea hung for the murder of a 70 year old woman at 5:45 a.m., last US public execution.

Ref: 5

1939

Jan 16

Albert Fish mass murderer, executed.

Ref: 5

Jun 17

Last public guillotining in France; Eugene Weidmann dies for murder of American female dancer.

Ref: 5

1941

Isaak E Babel Russian writer (Zakat, Marija), executed at 46.

Ref: 5

Mar 17

Isaak Emmanuilovich Babel Russian writer (Crvena Konjica), executed at 46.

Ref: 5

Aug 14

Last execution in Tower of London-8 man firing squad kills German spy.

Ref: 10

Nov 21

Juanita Spellini becomes the first woman executed in California.

Ref: 5

1942

Dec 26

Bosinier de la Chapelle French murderer of Admiral Darlan, executed at 24.

Ref: 5

1944

Jan 07

J Verleun Dutch resistance fighter, executed.

Ref: 5

Feb 29

5 leaders of Indonesia Communist Party sentenced to death.

Ref: 5

Mar 16

Vichy Internal minister Pucheu sentenced to death.

Ref: 5

Apr 20

Dutch Communist Party-resistance fighter John Postma sentence to death.

Ref: 5

1945

Helmuth J Moltke German politician ("July 20th Plot"), executed at 37.

Ref: 5

Jan 31

Private Eddie Slovik (age 25) becomes the 1st American executed for desertion since the Civil War.

Ref: 5

Feb 19

Wim Speelman Dutch resistance fighter, executed at 26.

Ref: 5

Apr 17

Hannie Schaft "Girl with red hair", executed.

Ref: 5

Dec 12

Special Court of justice convicts NSB-leader Mussert to death.

Ref: 5

1946

Mar 16

Marius HLW "Max" Blokzijl Dutch Nazi propagandist, executed at 61.

Ref: 5

Jul 17

Mikhailovich resistance leader, executed by Tito regime.

Ref: 5

1947

Mar 01

J Boogaard Nazi collaborator, executed.

Ref: 5

May 01

Sanner, leader of Norger blood bath, executed.

Ref: 5

1948

Jan 08

Queen Wilhelmina signs death sentence against Ans van Dijk for treason.

Ref: 5

May 06

43 communist rebels executed in Athens.

Ref: 5

1949

Sutan Ibrahim gelor Datuk Tan Malaka Indon communist, executed at 54.

Ref: 5

Dec 14

Bulgarian ex-Premier Traicho Kostov is sentenced to die for treason in Sofia.

Ref: 2

Dec 16

Traitsjo Kostov, Bulgarian communist vice-premier, executed.

Ref: 5

1950

Jan 12

USSR re-introduces death penalty for treason, espionage & sabotage.

Ref: 5

Mar 28

George Kelly is hanged for the shooting death of a Liverpool theater manager in 1949. His conviction is overturned in June of 2003 after a confession of another man was found in the files. The confession was never presented at Kelly's trial, nor shown to Kelly's lawyer. No explanation was given. (USA Today, p 9A, 6/11/2003)

Ref: 13

1951

Jan 18

Hermann Flake sentenced to death due to "hate campaign against German Democratic Republic".

Ref: 5

Mar 08

The Honeymoon Killers (Martha Beck & Raymond Fernandez) die in electric chair.

Ref: 5

1953

Dec 23

Lavrenti P Beria, Soviet minister of internal security, is executed at age 54.

Ref: 5

1955

Abdullah Seif el-Islam brother of Yemenite king Ahmed, beheaded.

Ref: 5

1956

Feb 16

Britain abolishes the death penalty.

Ref: 5

Apr 03

Traitsjo Kostov, Bulgarian vice-premier, executed.

Ref: 5

1958

Ahmed Mukhtar Baban premier of Iraq, is sentenced to death. The death sentence was later commuted to life in prison, ans was pardoned in 1963. He died in Bonn, Germany in 1977. (Re: email from his grandson, Mohammed H. Al-Naib, 4/09/2003)

Barhanuddin Bashajan Iraqi minister of Foreign affairs, executed.

Ref: 5

Rafiq Aref Iraqi chief-staff Arabs Statenbond, executed.

Ref: 5

Ahmed Mukhtar Baban premier of Iraq, executed.

Ref: 5

1959

Jan 13

De Gaulle grants amnesty to 130 to Algerian death row convicts.

Ref: 5

Jun 25

Charles Starkwether is executed

Ref: 5

Aug 18

Harvey Glatmin executed.

Ref: 5

1960

Mar 26

Iraq executes 30 after attack on President Kassem.

Ref: 5

May 02

Convicted sex offender and best-selling author (wrote four books while on death row) Caryl Chessman was executed at age 38 at San Quentin Prison in CA, after 12 years of appeals.

Ref: 70

1962

Jun 15

South Africa passes a bill setting death penalty for many crimes.

Ref: 5

1963

Mar 04

Six people get the death sentence in Paris plotting to kill President Charles de Gaulle.

Ref: 2

Jun 20

Joseph Self murderer, executed; last Wash state execution in 25 yrs.

Ref: 5

1964

Aug 13

Last two executions of murderers in Britain: Walton prison, Liverpool and Strangeways, Manchester.

Ref: 10

Dec 21

Great Britain's House of Commons votes to ban the death penalty.

Ref: 2

1965

Nov 09

Death penalty for murder abolished in Britain.

Ref: 10

1966

Apr 12

Sumokil President of Republic South Moluccas, executed.

Ref: 5

1967

Congo sentences ex-premier Moïse Tsjombe to death.

Ref: 5

Mar 29

In Los Angeles, California, cult leader Charles Manson is sentenced to death, along with followers Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkle, of the brutal 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others.

Ref: 3

Jun 05

Murderer Richard Speck sentenced to death in the electric chair.

Ref: 5

1969

Nov 27

14 spies hung in Baghdad.

Ref: 5

Nov 27

9 Jews publicly executed in Damascus Syria.

Ref: 5

Dec 16

British House of Commons votes 343-185 abolishing the death penalty

Ref: 5

Dec 18

Britain's Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.

Ref: 70

1971

Jul 13

The Army of Morrocco executes 10 leaders accused of leading a revolt.

Ref: 2

1972

Feb 18

The California Supreme Court declares the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state constitution. 107 inmates were taken off death row. Among those spared by the ruling was Charles Manson.

Ref: 4

1974

The U.S. Senate votes 54-33 to restore the death penalty.

Ref: 2

1975

May 16

Michael X [Abdul Malik] hanged in Trinidad, for murder.

Ref: 5

1976

Nov 10

Utah Supreme Court OKs execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore.

Ref: 5

1977

Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, was shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first U.S. execution in a decade. Utah Corrections Department official Ken Shulsen.

Ref: 70

Sep 10

In France, Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant and a convicted murderer, became the last person executed with the guillotine.

Ref: 5

1978

Mar 18

Pakistani former premier Ali Bhutto sentenced to death.

Ref: 5

1979

Feb 06

Supreme court of Lahore affirms death sentence against premier Bhutto.

Ref: 5

Feb 15

Mehdi Rahimi Iran General/military Governor of Tehran, executed.

Ref: 5

Feb 16

Nematullah Nassiri Iran General/head of Savak, executed.

Ref: 5

Apr 04

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, 51, the deposed prime minister of Pakistan, was hanged after he was convicted of conspiring to murder a political opponent.

Ref: 70

May 13

Shah & family sentenced to death in Teheran.

Ref: 5

Oct 22

Jesse Bishop, murderer, dies in Nevada gas chamber.

Ref: 5

1980

Jan 09

Saudi Arabia beheaded 63 people for their involvement in the November 1979 raid on the Grand Mosque in Mecca.

Ref: 5

Feb 09

63 beheaded in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

Ref: 5

1981

Under international pressure, opposition leader Kim Dae Jung's death sentence is commuted to life imprisonment in Seoul.

Ref: 2

Jan 25

Mao's widow Jiang Qing sentenced to death.

Ref: 5

Sep 18

France abolishes the guillotine.

Ref: 10

1982

Wilfred Hawker, Suriname Sergeant-Major, executed.

Ref: 5

Apr 15

5 Muslim extremist murderers of Egyptian President Sadat executed.

Ref: 5

Sep 15

Iran's former foreign minister, Sadegh Ghotbzadeh, was executed after he was convicted of plotting against the government.

Ref: 70

Dec 06

First execution by lethal injection;murderer Charles Brooks in Huntsville, TX.

Ref: 10

Dec 07

Charles Brooks, Jr., convicted of murdering an auto mechanic, becomes the first man executed by lethal injection which takes place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.

Ref: 68

1983

Jan 25

China's supreme court commutes Chiang Ch'ing's death sentence to life.

Ref: 5

1984

Nov 02

In North Carolina, Margie Velma Barfield, a convicted murderer, becomes the first woman to be executed in the modern era of the death penalty. The fifty-two-year-old private nurse and former Sunday school teacher, who became known as "Death Row Granny" while in prison, was convicted of lacing her fiancée's food with rat poison, and later admitted to poisoning three others, including her mother.

Ref: 3

1985

Jan 18

Mahmoud Taha Sudanese Moslem leader, hanged at 76.

Ref: 5

May 14

Mohammed Munir Indonesian worker's union leader, executed.

Ref: 5

1988

Apr 25

John Demjanjuk (Ivan the Terrible, Nazi prison guard), sentenced to death in Jerusalem.

Ref: 5

1989

Jan 24

Ted Bundy, confessed serial murderer of over 21 (possibly as many as 100) women during a period of 15 years, was executed

Ref: 5

Dec 25

Ousted Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu (age 71) and his wife, Elena, were executed in Bucharest following a popular uprising.

Ref: 70

1990

Supreme Court rejects appeal from retarded man, Dalton Prejean, condemned to death for murdering a Louisiana state trooper in 1977.

Ref: 5

1992

Mar 14

Steven Brian Pennell first execution in Delaware in 45 years, at 34.

Ref: 5

Apr 21

Robert Alton Harris became the first person executed by the state of California in 25 years as he was put to death in the gas chamber for the 1978 murder of two teenage boys.

Ref: 70

Apr 22

Billy Wayne White murderer, executed in Texas at 34.

Ref: 5

1993

Jan 07

The state of Washington executed Westley Allan Dodd, an admitted child sex killer, in America's first legal hanging since 1965.

Ref: 70

Noorjahan Begum "adulterous" wife in Bangladesh, stoned to death.

Ref: 5

1994

Feb 15

Andrei Tsjikatilo [Rostov Ripper], Russian mass murderer, executed.

Ref: 5

Apr 20

Danny Harold Rolling, sentenced to death in Florida, for killing 5.

Ref: 5

Apr 27

Timothy Spencer is executed in the Greenville Correctional Center for the rape and strangulation of four women in 1987. He is the first person to be executed solely on the basis of DNA evidence. (TWA, 1995)

Ref: 95

May 10

The state of Illinois executed convicted serial killer John Wayne Gacy, 52, for the murders of 33 young men and boys.

Ref: 70

May 11

6 white racists sentenced to death in South Africa

Ref: 5

1995

Mar 07

New York becomes 38th state to have the death penalty.

Ref: 5

1996

Sep 26

Richard Allen Davis, the killer of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, was sentenced to death in San Jose, CA.

Ref: 70

1997

Jan 08

The state of Arkansas put three men to death in the second triple execution since capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

Ref: 64

A judge in Fairfax, Va., sentenced Mir Aimal Kasi to death for an assault rifle attack outside CIA headquarters in 1993 that killed two men and wounded three other people.

Ref: 70

Randy Greenawalt convicted killer, executed by injection at 47.

Ref: 5

Jan 29

Eric Schneider murderer of 2 teachers, executed in MO at 35.

Ref: 5

Jun 13

A jury voted unanimously to give Timothy McVeigh the death penalty for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Ref: 70

Aug 14

An unrepentant Timothy McVeigh is formally sentenced to death for the Oklahoma City bombing. (XDG p 4A, 8/14/2002)

Ref: 83

1998

Ricky Sanderson stabbed 16-year old girl in NC, executed at 38

Ref: 5

Feb 03

Texas executed Karla Faye Tucker, age 38, for the pickax killings of two people in 1983; she was the first woman executed in the United States since 1984.

Ref: 70

Feb 17

Diane Zamora, 20, Naval Academy cadet is convicted of capital murder (killing a 16-year old romantic rival).

Ref: 5

Mar 30

Murderess Judy Buenoano electricuted by Florida's "Old Sparky", first woman executed since 1848.

Ref: 10

Dec 18

South Carolina carries out the 500th execution since capital punishment resumed in 1977. (XDG, p 4A, 12/18/2003)

Ref: 83

1999

Jan 28

Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan honored a personal request for mercy from Pope John Paul II, sparing triple murderer Darrell Mease from execution.

Ref: 70

2000

May 02

Former nurse Christina Marie Riggs was executed by injection in Arkansas for smothering her two young children.

Ref: 6

Jun 01

With about half an hour to spare, TX Governor George W. Bush blocked the scheduled execution of convicted killer Ricky McGinn so that possibly exculpatory DNA evidence could be reviewed. (The DNA tests failed to establish McGinn's innocence, and he was put to death by injection the following September.)

Ref: 6

Jun 22

The state of TX executed Gary Graham for the 1981 killing of a man in a holdup outside a Houston supermarket; Graham insisted to the end that he was innocent. (TWA, 2001)

Ref: 95

Jun 28

Bert Hunter, 53, was apparently the first inmate in Missouri history put to death without a jury trial. When his case came to trial in 1989, Hunter was clinically depressed and suicidal. He pleaded guilty and asked the judge for the death sentence. (CNN, 6/28/2000)

Ref: 9

2001

May 11

Attorney General John Ashcroft delayed Timothy McVeigh's execution from May 16 to June 11 because of FBI mishandling of documents.

Ref: 70

Jun 11

Timothy McVeigh was executed by injection for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people.

Ref: 70

2002

With just three left in office, Illinois Gov George Ryan pardons four death row inmates he sadi had been tortured by Chicago police inot falsely confessing to murders in the 1980s. (XDG, p 4A, 1/10/2004)

Ref: 83

May 09

Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening suspended all executions in his state while a study was done on whether the death penalty was being meted out in a racially discriminatory way.

Ref: 70

Oct 16

Turks and Caicos Islands abolishes death penalty; Now no one on British soil can be sentenced to death.

Ref: 10

2003

Jan 03

The Ohio Supreme Court announces that David L Myers will be executed on March 13th, 2003 for the August 4, 1988 murder of Amanda Maher. (XDG, p 1A, 1/04/2003)

Ref: 83

Jan 03

The Ohio Supreme Court announces that James Taylor will be executed on March 20th, 2003 for the February 14, 1998 murder of Ronald and Carolyn Rihm. (XDG, p 1A, 1/04/2003)

Ref: 83

Jan 13

Illinois' new Governor Rod Blagojevich states that he will not carry out the state's death penalty until Illinois' capital punishment laws are overhauled. (USA Today, p 3A, 1/14/2003)

Ref: 13

Jan 21

Mexico is challenging the sentences of 51 Mexicans on US death rows in the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the grounds that American officials failed to tell the condemned men of their right to consular assistance at the time of their arrests, which is guaranteed under international law. (NY Times, p A8, 1/17/2003)