When is death penalty used

Kennedy on May 22, ; similar statute upheld in State v. Wilson, So. Victim under age 13, rather than 12, was added more recently Acts , Sentences overturned by U. X, Rule c 9 ; id. Supreme Court concluded that military law does not impact the evaluation of the national consensus regarding the death penalty for child rape under civilian law.

Sexual battery or attempted sexual battery with injury of a child under 12; Fla. Buford v. State, So. Statute has not been repealed but appears unconstitutional. See Welsh v. The purple states only have a single method: lethal injection and blue states have both a primary and a secondary method. Click on those states to display details on specific methods. Over the past decade, several U. The court has abolished the death penalty for mentally disabled offenders Atkins v. Virginia , , juvenile offenders Roper v.

Simmons , , and for those convicted of raping a child where death was not the intended or actual result Kennedy v. Louisiana , — each ruling states that the execution of such individuals is unconstitutional, violating cruel and unusual punishment.

In addition, the court has required that juries and not judges find facts that make a defendant eligible for capital punishment Ring v. Arizona , , and impose a sentence of death Hurst v. Florida, State courts have also had an impact. Supreme Court decision Hurst v. According to Amnesty's figures, China consistently executes more people than any other country. Amnesty collects its statistics using official figures, media reports and information passed on from individuals sentenced to death and their families and representatives.

Saudi Arabia was the only country to list beheading as the method of execution. Other methods included hanging, lethal injection and shooting. In the US, six states carried out executions by lethal injection in , and one state Tennessee used electrocution.

In total 25 people were executed in the US in , and for the 11th consecutive year it was the only country in the Americas to implement the death penalty. About half of all death penalty states include the murder of a child as an aggravating circumstance that can subject a defendant to the death penalty.

All of the prisoners currently on death row and all of those executed in the modern era of the death penalty were convicted of murder. Historically, the death penalty was widely used for rape, particularly against black defendants with white victims. When the death penalty was reinstated in , the Supreme Court left open the possibility of imposing the death penalty for offenses other than murder, such as rape or even armed robbery. However, the Court soon ruled that the death penalty would be unconstitutional for the rape of an adult where no death had occurred.