Death Sentences in the United States From 1977 By State and By Year

Alaska (1957)
Connecticut (2012)*
Delaware (2016)#
Hawaii (1957)
Illinois (2011)
Iowa (1965)
Maine (1887)
Maryland (2013)**
Massachusetts (1984)

¥ In March 2009, New Mexico voted to abolish the death penalty. However, the repeal was not retroactive, leaving two people on the state's death row.

* In April 2012, Connecticut voted to abolish the death penalty. However, the repeal was not retroactive, leaving 11 people on the state's death row. In August 2015, the Connecticut Supreme Court declared that the death penalty violated the state's constitution, and the court reaffirmed that ruling in May 2016, meaning that all prisoners remaining on death row would be resentenced to life without possibility of parole. 

** In May 2013, Maryland abolished the death penalty. However, the repeal was not retroactive, leaving 5 people on the state's death row. In January 2015, Gov. Martin O'Malley commuted the death sentences of the 4 prisoners who were still on death row at that time.

*** In 2015 Nebraska voted to abolish the death penalty, overriding the governor's veto. However, the repeal has been suspended pending the outcome of a Nov. 2016 referendum on whether to rescind the legislature's repeal law. Should the repeal survive the referendum vote, the retroactivity of the repeal on existing death sentences is unclear. 

^ In 1979, the Supreme Court of Rhode Island held that a statute making a death sentence mandatory for someone who killed a fellow prisoner was unconstitutional. The legislature removed the statute in 1984.

# In August 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court held that the state's death-sentencing procedures were unconstitutional. The state legislature has not attempted to reinstate the death penalty, leaving the state without an enforceable capital punishment statute.

## In 2004, the New York Court of Appeals held that a portion of the state's death penalty law was unconstitutional.  In 2007, they ruled that their prior holding applied to the last remaining person on the state's death row.  The legislature has voted down attempts to restore the statute.