Now that there is a global movement against the death penalty, let’s take a look at the states that allow death penalty and had executions in 2019. Go back over a hundred years and the death penalty was followed by nearly every country. Go back even further and the death penalty wasn’t just present, but was the preferred form of punishment for even minor crimes. In fact, the first established death penalty law can be found back in 18th century BC in Babylon; it was the preferred form of punishment for 25 crimes! And back then, there was no such thing as a humane execution; some of the forms of execution used in 16th century in England include beheading, hanging, burning at the stake and even boiling alive! And in the 1700s, you could be sentenced to death for simply cutting down a tree, one of 222 crimes which could see you being killed, signifying the lackadaisical attitude shown towards human life.
As times progressed, nations started realizing that maybe killing someone for crimes committed is perhaps not as important as giving them a chance at reformation and rehabilitation. However, this mindset is generally only seen in advanced nations, including most developed Western nations. In fact, unsurprisingly, the US is the only developed Western country in the world to still practice the death penalty. Even the father of the guillotine, France, banned the death penalty in 1981. Altogether, of the 195 members of the United Nations, only 55 nations still practice the death penalty. These nations are generally present in Asia; in fact, of the 11 nations ranked ‘very high’ in the Human Development Index and still practicing the death penalty, 9 are present in Asia. While some of these countries practice death penalties because it is part of tradition and they are steeped in tradition such as Japan, other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and Pakistan have kept the practice in place because of religious inclinations.
In the United States, executions are at an all time low, especially when compared to 1999, where 98 executions took place. While the federal government still has the death penalty, many states have sought to abolish it. As of 2020, only 28 states still have the death penalty, of which seven still practiced 22 executions in 2019, figures we obtained courtesy of the Death Penalty Information Center. If you want to learn about the 10 states with the lowest murder rates and no death penalty, you can head on over here, but keep reading to find out the states which carried out executions in 2019:
7. Missouri
Missouri carried out a grand total of one execution in 2019, where 51 year old Russel Bucklew was executed via lethal injection. Bucklew was convicted of first degree murder, kidnapping and first degree burglary back in 1997. It took 12 years from conviction to execution which many would consider cruel and inhumane punishment on its own.
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6. South Dakota
South Dakota’s only execution of 2019 was also one of the most controversial executions to take place, with Charles Rhine being sentenced to death for stabbing to death a witness to his burglary. However, subsequent to his conviction, there has been a lot of possibly legitimate doubt that he was sentenced to death rather than life imprisonment not just because of his crime, but because of his sexual orientation, with jurors considering that he might actually benefit from being in a prison with men for life.
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5. Florida
With two executions in 2019, Florida finds a place in the list of states that allow death penalty and had executions in 2019 with two serial killers meeting their demise. Gary Bowles was a serial killer who killed 6 men and was popularly known as the I-95 killer. Meanwhile, Bobbly Joe Long was convicted of the murder of one women, even though he killed at least 10 in an eight month period. These are the sort of people who lend credence to the continuance of the death penalty.
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4. Tennessee
Tennessee saw three convicts being executed in 2019, with Donnie Johnson having been convicted of killing his wife, Stephen West earning two death sentences for killing a 51 year old woman and her 15 year old daughter, and Lee Hall, executed for killing his ex-girlfriend in 1991. Tennessee is the only state where electrocution was used; every other states used lethal injection.
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3. Alabama
Another state with three executions, Alabama has the highest per capita sentencing rate in the entire country, and this is from a country which has Texas as a state. While nearly 800 people have been put to death by the government, there are a further 175 inmates on death row, which means this number could increase significantly in the coming years.
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2. Georgia
3 executions also took place in Georgia, taking its total tally to 1,022 which is the 5th highest in the entire union. Like all other states except for Tennessee, Georgia used the lethal injection on its convicts when administering the death sentence.
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1. Texas
It comes as no surprise that Texas, with 9 executions (nearly half the total executions in 2019) tops the list of states that allow death penalty and had executions in 2019. Of the 9 people executed, all were men, five were white, three were black and one was Latino. Billie Coble was perhaps the most notorious of all the men executed, as at the age of 70, he was the oldest man in Texas history to be put to death, having killed three of his wife’s relatives over 30 years ago.
