1960s
Growing doubts about the death penalty lead to a decline in executions.

June 2, 1967
After Luis Jose Monge dies in the gas chamber at Colorado State Penitentiary, an unofficial moratorium on executions begins.

1970s
An eventful decade for capital punishment sees the death penalty invalidated and then reinstated.

June 29, 1972
Supreme Court rules in Furman v. Georgia that the death penalty amounts to cruel and unusual punishment because juries impose sentences arbitrarily. The decision overturns all existing death penalty laws and death sentences

July 2, 1976
The Supreme Court holds in Gregg v. Georgia that under the state's new two-stage trial system, the death penalty no longer violates the Eighth Amendment.

January 17, 1977
A Utah firing squad makes Gary Gilmore the first person executed in the U.S. in almost 10 years.

1977
Oklahoma becomes the first state to adopt lethal injection.

1980s
The Supreme Court further clarifies its views on the death penalty. And every major country in Western Europe had stopped executing criminals.

Nov. 2, 1984
Velma Margie Barfield is executed in N. Carolina the first woman to be executed in U.S. since 1962 and first since the re-introduction of the death penalty in 1976. She was also the first woman to be executed by lethal injection.

1986
Supreme Court bars executing insane persons in Ford v. Wainwright.

1989
In Penry v. Lynaugh, the Supreme court holds that executing mentally retarded persons does not violate the Eighth Amendment.
"I like it the way it is." Comment by Governor George W. Bush of Texas at the time that a law prohibiting execution of the mentally disadvantaged was defeated. This man is now the President of the United States.

1990s
Death Penalty provisions in anti-crime bills stir sharp debate in Congress.

Sept. 13, 1994
President Clinton signs crime bill making dozens of federal crimes subject to death penalty.

Feb. 8, 1995
The House votes 297-132 to limit inmate appeals of death sentences to one year in state cases.

Feb. 3, 1998
Karla Faye Tuckeris the first woman executed in Texas, (which is responsible for about a third of the executions nationwide) since the Civil War, when Chipita Rodriguez was hanged for killing a horse trader.

2000
72 countries no longer authorized the death penalty for any crimes. Another 13 countries authorized capital punishment only for exceptional crimes, such as crimes under military law and crimes committed in exceptional circumstances, such as during wartime. According to Amnesty International, a private organization working to abolish the death penalty, another 23 other nations have not conducted an execution in at least a decade or have made an international commitment not to carry out executions.

May 10, 2002
Lynda Lyon Last Person executed in the Electric Chair in U.S. First woman executed in Alabama in 45 years and ninth woman executed in U.S. since 1976. Read about her magazine Liberatus

21st century
The death penalty is considered by most civilized nations as cruel and inhuman. However, the death penalty continues to be commonly used. China, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United States and Iran are the most prolific executioners in the world. The US is one of six countries (including also Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen) which executes people who were under 18 years-old at the time they committed their crimes.

June of 2002
In Atkins vs Virginia The Supreme Court abolished the execution of mentally retarded offenders, imposing one of the most significant restrictions on who could be given the death penalty since the court permitted states to resume capital punishment in 1976.

January 11, 2003
Calling the death penalty process "arbitrary and capricious, and therefore immoral," Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of 167 condemned inmates Saturday, clearing Illinois' death row in a move unprecedented in scale in U.S. history.