Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have abolished the death penalty: Michigan (1847), Wisconsin (1853), Maine (1887), Minnesota (1911), Alaska (1957), Hawaii (1957), 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), Washington (2018), New Hampshire (2019), Colorado (2020), and Virginia (2021). In states with no death penalty, life without the possibility of parole is the standard maximum sentence for the crimes that would previously have carried execution. A handful of other states keep capital punishment on the books but have paused executions by governor’s order.
How Each State Reached Abolition
Abolitionist states arrived at the same result through two different routes, and the route matters if you want to know how settled the policy is.
Some states abolished through legislation. Virginia’s 2021 law, Senate Bill 1165, eliminated the death penalty and barred any future death sentences from being imposed or carried out.{mfn}Virginia General Assembly. SB 1165 Death Penalty; Abolition of Current Penalty[/mfn] Colorado’s legislature passed a similar repeal in 2020.{mfn}Colorado General Assembly. SB20-100 Repeal The Death Penalty[/mfn] A legislative repeal rewrites the criminal code, so bringing capital punishment back would require a future legislature to pass an entirely new law.
Other states lost the death penalty through court rulings. The Washington State Supreme Court struck down the state’s death penalty in 2018 in State v. Gregory, finding it was imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.{mfn}Washington State Courts. State v. Gregory – No. 88086-7[/mfn] Delaware’s high court invalidated the state’s capital sentencing scheme in 2016 because it allowed judges, rather than juries, to determine the facts needed for a death sentence. New York’s Court of Appeals gutted the state’s death penalty statute in People v. LaValle, ruling that instructions given to deadlocked juries were unconstitutional, and the legislature never fixed the problem.{mfn}Justia. People v Stephen LaValle[/mfn] A court ruling strikes down a specific statute on constitutional grounds, so capital punishment could theoretically return if legislators rewrote the law to address the flaw the court identified. None of these states have attempted that.
What Happened to People Already on Death Row
Abolition does not automatically empty a state’s death row. Whether existing sentences survive depends entirely on how the abolition was written, and the answers differ sharply from state to state.
Virginia’s 2021 law applied retroactively, commuting the death sentences of the two men still on the state’s death row to life without parole.{mfn}Virginia General Assembly. SB 1165 Death Penalty; Abolition of Current Penalty[/mfn] Oregon took a different path. In December 2022, Governor Kate Brown used her clemency power to commute the sentences of all seventeen people on the state’s death row to life without parole.{mfn}Office of the Governor of Oregon. Governor Kate Brown Commutes Oregon’s Death Row[/mfn]
Colorado’s 2020 repeal did not convert existing death sentences on its own. The law stated that any death sentence in effect on July 1, 2020, remained valid.{mfn}Colorado General Assembly. SB20-100 Repeal The Death Penalty[/mfn] The governor separately commuted the sentences of the three men on death row, but that required an independent executive action rather than flowing automatically from the legislation. New Hampshire’s 2019 repeal was explicitly prospective, applying only to crimes committed after the effective date, which is why one individual remains on the state’s death row years after abolition.
To understand a specific state’s situation, look at whether the abolition bill included language commuting existing sentences or only barred future ones, and whether a governor separately exercised clemency.
States With Execution Moratoriums
A moratorium is different from abolition. The death penalty stays on the books, but a governor’s order halts executions. California, Oregon, and Pennsylvania each operate under formal moratoriums, and Ohio has maintained an unofficial pause since 2019 over concerns about its lethal injection protocol.
California’s is the most prominent. In 2019, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order halting all executions, withdrawing the state’s lethal injection protocol, and closing the execution chamber at San Quentin State Prison.{mfn}Office of Governor Gavin Newsom. Executive Order N-09-19[/mfn] Oregon’s moratorium dates to 2011, and Governor Kotek continued it after taking office in 2023. Pennsylvania’s moratorium has been in place since 2015, with Governor Shapiro continuing the policy of his predecessor.
The practical difference between a moratorium and abolition is durability. A moratorium lasts only as long as the sitting governor wants it to; a new governor could lift it on the first day in office. Prosecutors in moratorium states can still seek death sentences, and juries can still impose them. People continue to be sentenced to death in these states even though no execution date will be scheduled while the moratorium holds. Death row grows while the execution chamber stays dark.
What Replaces the Death Penalty
Life without the possibility of parole is the standard replacement sentence in every state that has abolished capital punishment in recent decades. The revised criminal code writes it in as the maximum penalty for the crimes that would previously have qualified for execution. A person sentenced to life without parole will spend the rest of their life in prison with no opportunity for a release hearing.
A smaller number of states allow life sentences with parole eligibility after a long mandatory minimum, typically ranging from twenty to thirty years depending on the jurisdiction and the severity of the offense. These sentences still carry the real possibility that a person will die in prison. Parole eligibility does not guarantee release; a parole board reviews the case, considers the inmate’s conduct and risk level, and can deny release indefinitely.
Whether a judge has any sentencing discretion depends on the state. In most abolitionist states, life without parole is mandatory for first-degree murder convictions that would previously have qualified for execution, and the judge cannot impose a shorter sentence. In a few states, the sentencing framework gives judges limited discretion between life without parole and life with parole eligibility, depending on the specific circumstances and degree of the offense.
Federal Death Penalty Still Applies
State abolition does not block federal prosecution. The federal government maintains its own authority to pursue the death penalty under the Federal Death Penalty Act of 1994.{mfn}Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. Chapter 228 – Death Sentence[/mfn] A person convicted of a qualifying federal crime can face execution even if the crime took place in a state that has abolished capital punishment. Federal jurisdiction covers offenses such as treason, espionage, and large-scale drug trafficking operations.
A federal death sentence requires a separate sentencing hearing after conviction, where a jury must unanimously find that the defendant intentionally killed or created a grave risk of death.{mfn}Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. Chapter 228 – Death Sentence[/mfn] The jury then weighs statutory aggravating factors, which include committing a murder during an act of terrorism, using a weapon of mass destruction, or killing a member of Congress, a Cabinet officer, or a Supreme Court justice.{mfn}Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S.C. 3592 – Mitigating and Aggravating Factors[/mfn]
The federal position has shifted significantly in recent years. President Biden commuted thirty-seven of the forty federal death sentences to life without parole before leaving office, and in April 2026 the Justice Department rescinded the Biden-era federal execution moratorium and directed the Bureau of Prisons to reinstate its execution protocol.{mfn}United States Department of Justice. The Justice Department Takes Actions to Strengthen the Federal Death Penalty[/mfn] Living in a state with no death penalty protects you from state execution, not from federal charges that carry the possibility of a death sentence.