Capital punishment in Nevada

A hanging that took place in Nevada. Hanging was the method used for most executions before that of Gee Jon in 1924.

Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment in the U.S. state of Nevada. The first recorded execution in the area that is now Nevada was the hanging of John Carr for murdering Bernhard Cherry of Carson City on November 30, 1860 and the first record execution in the Nevada Territory was the hanging of Allen Milstead outside Dayton for killing Lyon County Commissioner T. Varney at Ragtown. These were the first of 60 executions from 1860 to the present. Since 1976, 12 people have been executed by the state. As of May 12, 2013 there were 83 people on Death Row.

Elizabeth Potts, who was hanged in 1890, was the only woman legally executed in the state.^[1]

Process

The jury decides the sentence in a capital cases. It decides if aggravating and mitigating circumstances raised by the prosecution and defense are true. If aggravating circumstances outweigh the mitigating circumstances, the sentences that could be made include death, life imprisonment without parole, life imprisonment with parole in twenty years at a minimum or imprisonment for fifty years with parole in twenty years at a minimum. The amount of aggravating circumstances and the amount of mitigating circumstances equal, if no mitigating or aggravating circumstances exist or mitigating circumstances outweigh aggravating circumstances, the sentences that could be made include death, life imprisonment without parole, life imprisonment with parole in twenty years at a minimum or imprisonment for fifty years with parole in twenty years at a minimum. The Governor of Nevada sits on a board that determines clemency.

As in any other state, people who are under 18 at the time of commission of the capital crime^[2] or mentally retarded^[3] are constitutionally precluded from being executed.

Method

Andriza Mircovich was the only inmate in Nevada to be executed by shooting.

Hanging was the method prescribed by law from 1860 to 1921. The venue of executions moved from the counties to Nevada State Prison in 1903. In response to Mormon preferences,^[4] the Nevada State Legislature passed a statute in 1910 that became effective in January 1911,^[5] allowing condemned prisoners to choose between execution by shooting or hanging.^[6] On May 14, 1913, Andriza Mircovich became the only inmate in Nevada to be executed by shooting.^[7] After the warden of Nevada State Prison was unable to find five men to form a firing squad,^[8] a shooting machine was built to carry out Mircovich's execution.^[9] A law in 1921 replaced hanging with the gas chamber, which was used from the 1924 execution of Gee Jon to the 1979 execution of Jesse Bishop, both at Nevada State Prison. Lethal injection remains the sole method of execution in Nevada.

The men's death row in Nevada is located at Ely State Prison.^[10] The death row for women is in the Florence McClure Women's Correctional Center (previously Southern Nevada Women's Correctional Center).^[11] Executions by the state of Nevada are still carried out at Nevada State Prison.^[12]

Capital offenses

• First Degree Murder
  • Murder perpetrated by means of poison, lying in wait or torture, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate and premeditated killing.
  • Murder committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of sexual assault, kidnapping, arson, robbery, burglary, invasion of the home, sexual abuse of a child, sexual molestation of a child under the age of 14 years or child abuse.
  • Murder committed to avoid or prevent the lawful arrest of any person by a peace officer or to effect the escape of any person from legal custody.
  • Murder committed on the property of a public or private school, at an activity sponsored by a public or private school or on a school bus while the bus was engaged in its official duties by a person who intended to create a great risk of death or substantial bodily harm to more than one person by means of a weapon, device or course of action that would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person.
  • Murder committed in the perpetration or attempted perpetration of an act of terrorism.
  • When these aggravating factors exist:
    • The murder was committed by a person under sentence of imprisonment.
    • The murder was committed by a person who, at any time before a penalty hearing is conducted for the murder pursuant to NRS 175.552, is or has been convicted of:
      • Another murder and the provisions of subsection 12 do not otherwise apply to that other murder; or
      • A felony involving the use or threat of violence to the person of another and the provisions of subsection 4 do not otherwise apply to that felony.
    • The murder was committed by a person who knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person by means of a weapon, device or course of action which would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person.
    • The murder was committed while the person was engaged, alone or with others, in the commission of, or an attempt to commit or flight after committing or attempting to commit, any robbery, arson in the first degree, burglary, invasion of the home or kidnapping in the first degree, and the person charged:
      • Killed or attempted to kill the person murdered; or
      • Knew or had reason to know that life would be taken or lethal force used.
    • The murder was committed to avoid or prevent a lawful arrest or to effect an escape from custody.
    • The murder was committed by a person, for himself or another, to receive money or any other thing of monetary value.
    • The murder was committed upon a peace officer or firefighter who was killed while engaged in the performance of his official duty or because of an act performed in his official capacity, and the defendant knew or reasonably should have known that the victim was a peace officer or firefighter. For the purposes of this subsection, "peace officer" means:
      • An employee of the Department of Corrections who does not exercise general control over offenders imprisoned within the institutions and facilities of the Department, but whose normal duties require him to come into contact with those offenders when carrying out the duties prescribed by the Director of the Department.
      • Any person upon whom some or all of the powers of a peace officer are conferred pursuant to NRS 289.150 to 289.360, inclusive, when carrying out those powers.
    • The murder involved torture or the mutilation of the victim.
    • The murder was committed upon one or more persons at random and without apparent motive.
    • The murder was committed upon a person less than 14 years of age.
    • The murder was committed upon a person because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, gender identity or expression or sexual orientation of that person.
    • The defendant has, in the immediate proceeding, been convicted of more than one offense of murder in the first or second degree. For the purposes of this subsection, a person shall be deemed to have been convicted of a murder at the time the jury verdict of guilt is rendered or upon pronouncement of guilt by a judge or judges sitting without a jury.
    • The person, alone or with others, subjected or attempted to subject the victim of the murder to nonconsensual sexual penetration immediately before, during or immediately after the commission of the murder. For the purposes of this subsection:
      • "Nonconsensual" means against the victim’s will or under conditions in which the person knows or reasonably should know that the victim is mentally or physically incapable of resisting, consenting or understanding the nature of his conduct, including, but not limited to, conditions in which the person knows or reasonably should know that the victim is dead.
      • "Sexual penetration" means cunnilingus, fellatio or any intrusion, however slight, of any part of the victim’s body or any object manipulated or inserted by a person, alone or with others, into the genital or anal openings of the body of the victim, whether or not the victim is alive. The term includes, but is not limited to, anal intercourse and sexual intercourse in what would be its ordinary meaning.
    • The murder was committed on the property of a public or private school, at an activity sponsored by a public or private school or on a school bus while the bus was engaged in its official duties by a person who intended to create a great risk of death or substantial bodily harm to more than one person by means of a weapon, device or course of action that would normally be hazardous to the lives of more than one person. For the purposes of this subsection, "school bus" has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 483.160.
    • The murder was committed with the intent to commit, cause, aid, further or conceal an act of terrorism. For the purposes of this subsection, "act of terrorism" has the meaning ascribed to it in NRS 202.4415.

List of individuals executed between 1861 and 1903

Between late 1861, when Nevada Territory was organized, and 1903, executions by hanging were conducted at the county seats in which the person was convicted.

There has not been a definitive compilation of legal executions conducted in Nevada prior to 1903, however there are 20 known legal executions between 1861 and 1903:^[13]

1903–1921: Individuals executed at the state capital (Carson City) and type of execution

The 1901 state legislature required that all executions be conducted at the State Prison in Carson City beginning in 1903.

The 1911 state legislature provided that a death row inmate could elect to die by shooting or hanging.

1921–1976: Nevada State Prison gas chamber

Prior to January 1, 1912 the law prescribed hanging as the means of carrying out the death sentence in the State of Nevada, however, upon revision of the statutes in 1911 the condemned were allowed a choice between the gallows and the firing squad. This remained the law until March 28, 1921 when an amendment was adopted providing for execution by means of lethal gas. Nevada was the first state to sanction the use of the gas chamber.

The first execution by use of lethal gas took place in February 1924 and has been used as the means of carrying out the death sentence a total of thirty-one times. The last execution was held October 22, 1979.^[14]

List of individuals executed after 1976

A total of 12 individuals convicted of murder have been executed by the state of Nevada since 1976. The first execution was carried out by gas chamber; subsequent executions were carried out by lethal injection. All but one waived their appeals and asked that the execution be carried out.

See also

• Capital punishment in the United States
• List of wrongful convictions in the United States
• List of exonerated death row inmates
• List of death row inmates in the United States

References

External links

• First Degree Murder
• Sentence of Death
• Nevada execution chamber