Capital punishment in Georgia (U.S. state)

Capital punishment is legal in the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia reintroduced the death penalty in 1973 after Furman v. Georgia ruled all states' death penalty statutes unconstitutional. The first execution to take place afterwards occurred in 1983.

54 people in total have been executed since then.^[1] As of August 1, 2014, 87 people are on death row awaiting execution.^[2]

Capital crimes in Georgia

The following are the current capital crimes in the state of Georgia:^[3]

• Aircraft hijacking
• Treason
• Murder with the following aggravating circumstances:
  • Offender has a prior capital conviction.^{[nb 1][4]}
  • Offender was in the process of committing another capital crime, aggravated battery, burglary, or arson.^{[nb 1][4]}
  • Offender used or possessed a weapon or device capable of causing significant harm to more than one person simultaneously.^{[nb 1][4]}
  • Offender committed offense for monetary gain.
  • The victim was or had been a judicial officer, district attorney, or solicitor general, and was murdered for reasons relating to their employment as such.
  • Murder-for-hire
  • The victim was tortured.^{[nb 1][4]}
  • The victim was a law enforcement officer or firefighter and was performing his/her official duties.
  • The offender was in the custody of, or had escaped from, law enforcement or a correctional facility.
  • The offender was resisting arrest.
  • The offender had a prior conviction for rape, aggravated sodomy, aggravated child molestation, or aggravated sexual battery.^{[nb 1][4]}

History

The first execution in Georgia was in 1735. The offender was indentured servant Alice Wyley, who had murdered her master. From 1735 to 1924, the method of execution was hanging. The last hanging occurred in 1931. Between 1735 and 1931, over 500 hangings occurred in Georgia. In August, 1924, the Georgia General Assembly outlawed hanging and introduced electrocution instead. Georgia then used this method until 1972, when Furman v. Georgia declared capital punishment unconstitutional. Electrocution was re-instated, along with the death penalty, in 1976 as a result of Coker v. Georgia. In 2000, the General Assembly passed a new law instituting lethal injection instead of electrocution.^[5]

Overall, 1,004 executions have occurred in Georgia since 1735.^[1]

See also

• List of people executed in Georgia (U.S. state) - since 1983

Notes

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "State by State Database". Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved 16 August 2014. 
2. ↑ Inmate Statistical Profile - Under Death Sentence (PDF). Atlanta: Georgia Department of Corrections. 2014. p. 5. Retrieved 16 August 2014. 
3. ↑ "17-10-30. Procedure for imposition of death penalty generally". Official Code of Georgia Annotated - 2014 Edition. LexisNexis. Retrieved 16 August 2014. 
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Kennedy v. Louisiana, 554 U.S. 407 (2008)
5. ↑ A History of the Death Penalty in Georgia (PDF). Atlanta: Georgia Department of Corrections. 2014. pp. 2–3.