Capital punishment in Wyoming
Encyclopedia
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...

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