Capital punishment in Massachusetts

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev inside the holding cell of a federal courthouse.

Capital punishment in Massachusetts was a legal form of punishment from 1620 to 1984.

The first recorded execution in Massachusetts was John Billington. He was executed by hanging on September 30, 1630, in Plymouth for murder.

The last executions were gangsters Philip Bellino and Edward Gertson on May 9, 1947, for the murder of Robert Williams, a former U.S. Marine. Both were executed via electric chair.

In 1982, Massachusetts people approved a legislatively referred constitutional amendment providing that no constitutional provision shall be construed as prohibiting the death penalty, with 60 % of voters in favor.[1]

Nevertheless, Massachusetts capital punishment statute was struck down in 1984 as violation of due process, because it allowed a death sentence only when the defendant had pleaded not guilty. The state legislature never passed a statute to reinstate capital punishment, despite support from then-governor Michael Dukakis.

In 2018, Governor Charlie Baker made calls for the death penalty to be imposed on convicted cop killers.[2][3] [4]

Federal crimes committed in Massachusetts may still be subject to the death penalty. For example, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was sentenced to death by a federal court on May 15, 2015, for his role in the Boston Marathon bombing.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "Massachusetts Death Penalty Constitutional Status, Question 2 (1982)". ballotpedia.org. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  2. ↑ http://www.bostonherald.com/news/local_politics/2018/07/charlie_baker_backs_death_penalty_for_cop_killers_more_police_training
  3. ↑ http://www.golocalprov.com/news/ma-gov.-baker-calls-for-death-penalty-for-cop-killers-raimondo-opposed
  4. ↑ https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/07/discussion_of_death_penalty_fo.html
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