How Many States Do Not Have the Death Penalty?

Twenty-three states have abolished the death penalty, and the District of Columbia has as well. Another three states keep capital punishment on their books but have halted executions through governor-imposed moratoriums. So if you are asking how many states do not have the death penalty in any practical sense, the answer sits somewhere between 23 and 26, depending on whether you count moratoriums.

The 23 States That Have Abolished the Death Penalty

The 23 states, in roughly the order they abolished:

Michigan (1846)
Wisconsin (1853)
Maine (1887, after a brief reinstatement in 1883)
Minnesota (1911)
Alaska (1957, before statehood)
Hawaii (1957, before statehood)
Iowa (1965)
West Virginia (1965)
Vermont (1972)
North Dakota (1973)
Massachusetts (1984)
Rhode Island (1984)
New Jersey (2007)
New York (2007)
New Mexico (2009)
Illinois (2011)
Connecticut (2012)
Maryland (2013)
Delaware (court ruling in 2016; statute formally removed in 2023)
Washington (court ruling in 2018; statute formally removed in 2023)
New Hampshire (2019)
Colorado (2020)
Virginia (2021)

Michigan was the first, abolishing capital punishment for ordinary crimes like murder in 1846.¹² Virginia was the most recent and the first Southern state to abolish, despite having executed more people than nearly any other state in American history.³

Most of these states abolished through the legislature, with lawmakers passing a repeal bill and replacing the death penalty with mandatory life imprisonment without parole. Two reached the same result through their state supreme courts. Washington’s court ruled in 2018 that the death penalty was imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner, violating the state constitution.⁴ Delaware’s court struck down that state’s death penalty in 2016, finding that the statute violated defendants’ right to a jury trial.⁵ In both states, the legislature later removed the dead statute from the books.

In all 23 states, life imprisonment without parole has replaced death as the maximum punishment. Prosecutors can no longer seek a death sentence in new cases under state law, regardless of the crime’s severity.

Three More States With No Executions Under a Moratorium

Three states keep active death penalty statutes but have governors who refuse to let executions proceed. Prosecutors can still seek death sentences in these states, judges can still impose them, and death row still exists. No one actually gets executed.

California has the largest death row in the country. Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order in 2019 halting all executions and closing the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison.⁶ As of early 2025, roughly 589 people remained under condemned sentences in California. The moratorium does not release anyone from prison or change existing convictions.⁷

Oregon’s moratorium has run since 2011, when Governor John Kitzhaber declared that the death penalty as practiced in the state was “neither fair nor just.” Governor Kate Brown continued the pause after taking office in 2015.⁸ Oregon has not executed anyone since 1997 and has only two people on death row.⁹

In Pennsylvania, Governor Tom Wolf imposed a moratorium in 2015, calling the system “an endless cycle of court proceedings” that was “ineffective, unjust, and expensive.” Governor Josh Shapiro, who took office in 2023, has continued the pause and said he will sign a reprieve every time an execution warrant reaches his desk.¹⁰ Pennsylvania has not executed anyone since 1999.

A moratorium lasts only as long as the governor who issued it. A new governor can lift the pause on day one, which makes these states fundamentally different from states that have abolished by statute or court ruling.

States That Keep the Death Penalty but Rarely or Never Use It

Several more states have the death penalty on the books but have not carried out an execution in over a decade. As of early 2026, that list includes Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Nevada, North Carolina, and Wyoming, in addition to the three moratorium states.⁹ Kansas has not executed anyone since before the U.S. Supreme Court temporarily halted all executions nationwide in 1972. Wyoming’s last execution was in 1992.

Ohio is another case worth noting. Governor Mike DeWine has maintained a de facto moratorium since 2019, repeatedly postponing execution dates for more than 100 death row inmates without issuing a formal moratorium order.

The reasons vary. Some states face legal challenges to their execution protocols, others struggle to obtain lethal injection drugs, and in some the political will to schedule executions simply does not exist. The practical effect is the same in each: the death penalty operates as a theoretical maximum rather than a working punishment.

D.C., Territories, Federal Law, and the Military

The District of Columbia has abolished the death penalty for all local crimes.¹ Puerto Rico abolished capital punishment in 1929 and wrote the prohibition into its 1952 constitution: “the death penalty shall not exist.”¹¹

Here is the catch. State abolition does not block federal prosecutors. Under the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994, federal prosecutors can seek death sentences for crimes including treason, espionage, and certain large-scale drug trafficking offenses involving murder, and they can do it even when the crime occurred in a state that has abolished capital punishment.¹²

Federal policy has swung with changing administrations. The Biden administration imposed a moratorium on federal executions in 2021. In January 2025, President Trump reversed that moratorium by executive order, directing the Attorney General to “pursue the death penalty for all crimes of a severity demanding its use.”¹³ In September 2025, Trump directed the Attorney General and the U.S. Attorney for D.C. to “fully enforce Federal law with respect to capital punishment in the District of Columbia” and to pursue federal jurisdiction over local D.C. crimes whenever the death penalty is available under federal statute.¹⁴ D.C. residents accused of certain serious crimes can now face federal capital charges even though D.C.’s own laws prohibit the death penalty.

The U.S. military operates its own capital punishment system under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which lists 15 offenses punishable by death. Many of those offenses, including desertion and disobeying a superior officer’s orders, carry the death penalty only during wartime.¹⁵ No military execution has been carried out since 1961.

Abolition Is Not Always Permanent

Nebraska is the clearest recent example of reversal. In 2015, the state legislature voted to repeal the death penalty and overrode the governor’s veto to do it, with 30 of 49 senators in support. The repeal lasted barely a year. In November 2016, voters approved a referendum reinstating capital punishment by a margin of roughly 61% to 39%. The death penalty remains on Nebraska’s books today.

Maine went through a similar cycle in the nineteenth century, abolishing in 1876, reinstating for murder in 1883, and permanently abolishing in 1887.² Moratorium states face an even simpler reversal path, since a new governor can restart executions without any legislative action at all.

What Happens to People on Death Row After a State Abolishes

Abolition does not automatically resentence the people already on death row. What happens depends on the specific abolition law and the state’s clemency process. Some recent repeal laws apply retroactively and convert existing death sentences to life without parole. Virginia’s 2021 law eliminated the death penalty for future cases and commuted existing sentences.³

Where the repeal law does not address existing sentences, the governor’s clemency power fills the gap, and the mechanics vary widely. In states like Colorado and Virginia, the governor holds sole commutation authority. In Delaware, the governor needs a recommendation from an advisory board. In Connecticut, the governor has no commutation power at all, and a separate clemency board makes the decision.¹⁶

California shows how messy this gets in moratorium states. Despite the halt on executions, hundreds of people still carry active death sentences. Some have been resentenced through individual court proceedings, but the process is slow and case-by-case.

1
Death Penalty Information Center. State and Federal Info – State by State
2
Maine State Legislature. Capital Punishment in Maine
3
Virginia Legislative Information System. HB 2263 Death Penalty – Abolition of Current Penalty
4
Washington Courts. Washington State Supreme Court – State v Gregory
5
Death Penalty Information Center. Delaware Officially Removes Death Penalty From State Statutes Eight Years After State Supreme Court Finds It Unconstitutional
6
Governor of California. Governor Gavin Newsom Orders a Halt to the Death Penalty in California
7
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. California Capital Punishment
8
Death Penalty Information Center. Statements From Governors Imposing Moratoria on Executions
9
Death Penalty Information Center. States With No Recent Executions
10
Death Penalty Information Center. Pennsylvania Governor Issues Reprieve for Richard Laird Continuing States Execution Moratorium
11
Death Penalty Information Center. Puerto Rico
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC Ch 228 – Death Sentence
13
The White House. Restoring the Death Penalty and Protecting Public Safety
14
The White House. Enforcing the Death Penalty Laws in the District of Columbia to Deter and Punish the Most Heinous Crimes
15
Death Penalty Information Center. The Militarys Death Penalty System
16
Death Penalty Information Center. Clemency Procedures by State