List of people executed by the United States federal government
The following is a list of people executed by the United States federal government.
Post-Furman executions
Six executions (none of them military) have occurred in the modern post-Gregg era. This list only includes those executed under federal jurisdiction. Since 1963, six people have been executed by the federal government of the United States. All were executed by lethal injection at USP Terre Haute.
# | Executed person | Ethnicity | Age | Sex | Date of execution | Method of execution | Crime | State where crime occurred | Presiding President |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Timothy McVeigh | White | 33 | M | June 11, 2001 | Lethal injection | Murder of eight federal law enforcement officers through the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The bombing killed 168 people and injured over 680 others. | George W. Bush | |
2 | Juan Raul Garza | Hispanic | 44 | M | June 19, 2001 | Murder of Thomas Albert Rumbo, ordering the murders of Gilberto Matos and Erasmo De La Fuente in conjunction with a drug-smuggling ring. Also a supect in the murders of Antonio Nieto, Bernabe Sosa, Diana Flores Villareal, Oscar Cantu, and Fernando Escobar Garcia. | |||
3 | Louis Jones, Jr. | Black | 53 | M | March 18, 2003 | Rape and murder of Pvt. Tracie McBride, USA. | |||
4 | Daniel Lewis Lee | White | 47 | M | July 14, 2020 | Murder of William Mueller, his wife, and his 8-year-old step-daughter. Mueller was a local gun dealer and Lee and his co-defendant planned to use stolen merchandise from Mueller to set up a white ethnostate in Spokane, Washington. | Donald Trump | ||
5 | Wesley Ira Purkey | White | 68 | M | July 16, 2020 | Raped, kidnapped, and murdered 16-year-old Jennifer Long. Purkey then dismembered and burned her body and scattered the remains into a septic pond. He was also convicted of the murder of 80-year-old polio patient, Mary Ruth Bales. | |||
6 | Dustin Lee Honken | White | 52 | M | July 17, 2020 | Murdered five people in Iowa in 1993 in an attempt to hide his methamphetamine drug dealing operation. | |||
Earlier non-military executions
From 1790 to 1963, there were 340 Federal, 271 Territorial and 40 Indian Tribunal executions according to the most complete records.[1] One of those was the execution of James Arcene on June 18, 1885, at the age of 23 for his role in a robbery and murder committed when he was 10 years old.
26 federal (including military) executions have been carried out since 1950.[2][3] Between 1950 and 1963, 13 people were executed (not counting those executed under military law):[2][3]
Executed person | Method of execution | Offense | Date of Execution | Location | Note | Presiding President |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
James Alderman | Hanging | Murder on the high seas | August 17, 1929 | Broward County Jail, Fort Lauderdale, Florida | Killed two US coastguardsmen and a Secret Service agent. | Herbert Hoover |
Carl Panzram | Hanging | Murder | September 5, 1930 | United States Penitentiary (USP), Leavenworth, Kansas | Killed a Federal Penitentiary employee. Linked to 4 other murders; claimed to have killed 22 people. | |
George Barrett | Hanging | Murder | March 24, 1936 | Marion County Jail, Indiana | The first person to receive the death penalty by hanging under a congressional act that made it a capital offense to kill a federal agent. | Franklin D. Roosevelt |
Arthur Gooch | Hanging | Kidnapping | June 19, 1936 | Oklahoma State Penitentiary, McAlester, Oklahoma | Only person ever executed under the federal Lindbergh kidnapping law. | |
Earl Gardner | Hanging | Murder | July 12, 1936 | Gila County Jail, Arizona | ||
Anthony Chebatoris | Hanging | Attempted bank robbery and murder | July 8, 1938 | Federal Correctional Institution (FCI), Milan, Michigan | Only person ever to be executed from the State of Michigan since its admission to the Union. | |
Henry Seadlund | Electrocution | Kidnapping | July 14, 1938 | Cook County Jail, Illinois | ||
Robert Suhay | Hanging | Murder | August 12, 1938 | United States Penitentiary (USP), Leavenworth, Kansas | ||
Glenn Applegate | Hanging | Murder | August 12, 1938 | United States Penitentiary (USP), Leavenworth, Kansas | ||
James Dalhover | Electrocution | Bank robbery and murder | November 18, 1938 | Indiana State Prison, Michigan City, Indiana | ||
Nelson Charles |
Hanging | Murder | November 10, 1939 | Federal Jail, Juneau, Alaska | ||
Herbert Hans Haupt, Richard Quirin, Heinrich Heinck, Edward Kerling, Herman Neubauer, Werner Thiel |
Electrocution | Espionage and attempted sabotage for Nazi Germany | August 8, 1942 | D.C. Jail, Washington, D.C. | Tried on July 8, 1942, by a military commission appointed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt for their role in Operation Pastorius during World War II. | |
Clyde Arwood | Electrocution | Murder | August 14, 1943 | Tennessee State Prison, Nashville, Tennessee | Convicted of killing a federal agent during a moonshine raid. | |
Henry Ruhl | Gas inhalation | Murder on a government reservation | April 27, 1945 | Wyoming State Penitentiary, Rawlins, Wyoming | Harry S. Truman | |
Austin Nelson | Hanging | Murder | March 1, 1948 | Federal Jail, Juneau, Alaska | ||
David Joseph Watson | Electrocution | Murder on the high seas | September 15, 1948 | Florida State Prison, near Raiford, Florida | ||
Samuel Richard Shockley | Gas inhalation | Murder | December 3, 1948 | California State Penitentiary, San Quentin, California | Convicted for their roles role in the Battle of Alcatraz. | |
Miran Edgar Thompson | Gas inhalation | Murder | ||||
Carlos Romero Ochoa | Gas inhalation | Murder | December 10, 1948 | California State Penitentiary, San Quentin, California | ||
Eugene LaMoore | Hanging | Murder | April 14, 1950 | Federal Jail, Juneau, Alaska | ||
Fred Pritchertt | Electrocution | Murder | February 15, 1952 | Washington, D.C. | ||
William Tyler Jr. | Electrocution | Murder | July 25, 1952 | Washington, D.C. | ||
Albert Allen | Electrocution | Murder and robbery | March 20, 1953 | Washington, D.C. | Dwight D. Eisenhower | |
Julius Rosenberg | Electrocution | Espionage | June 19, 1953 | New York State Prison, Sing Sing, Ossining, New York | Convicted for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union and leaking American military secrets, including nuclear weapons designs. | |
Ethel Rosenberg | ||||||
Carl Austin Hall | Gas inhalation | Kidnapping and murder | December 18, 1953 | Missouri State Penitentiary, Jefferson City, Missouri | Convicted for the kidnapping and murder of Bobby Greenlease. | |
Bonnie Brown Heady | Murder | |||||
Gerhard Puff | Electrocution | Murder | August 12, 1954 | New York State Prison, Sing Sing, Ossining, New York | Convicted for killing an FBI Special Agent. | |
Arthur Ross Brown | Gas inhalation | Kidnapping | February 24, 1956 | Missouri State Penitentiary, Jefferson City, Missouri | ||
Robert Carter | Electrocution | Murder | April 26, 1957 | Washington, D.C. | Convicted of robbery and murder of an off-duty Washington D.C. police officer who attempted to apprehend Carter after the robbery. | |
George Krull | Electrocution | Kidnapping and rape | August 21, 1957 | Georgia State Prison, Reidsville, Georgia | Convicted for the kidnapping and rape of a woman from Chattanooga, Tennessee. | |
Michael Krull | ||||||
Victor Feguer | Hanging | Kidnapping and murder | March 15, 1963 | Iowa State Penitentiary, Fort Madison, Iowa | Convicted for kidnapping and murdering a physician from Dubuque, Iowa. | John F. Kennedy |
Military executions
The United States military has executed 135 people since 1916. The most recent person to be executed by the military is U.S. Army Private John A. Bennett, executed on April 13, 1961 for rape and attempted murder. Since the end of the Civil War in 1865, only one person has been executed for a purely military offense: Private Eddie Slovik, who was executed on January 31, 1945 after being convicted of desertion.
See also
References
- 340 Federal, 271 Territorial and 40 Indian Tribunal Executions 1790 to 1963 Archived 2003-04-13 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved on 20 October 2008.
- Federal Executions 1927–2003. Death Penalty Information Center. Retrieved on 16 October 2008.
- The Federal Death Penalty. Death Row Speaks. Retrieved on 20 October 2008.