What crimes get the death penalty?

In the late 1980s, Senator Alfonse D'Amato, from New York State, sponsored a bill to make certain federal drug crimes eligible for the death penalty as he was frustrated by the lack of a death penalty in his home state. read more

In this case, aircraft hijacking is a crime punishable by the death sentence even if no one is murdered, however only in Georgia and Missouri. While this is not a federal crime punishable by the death sentence, it is a state crime punishable by the death sentence in those two states. read more

The death penalty in the United States is used almost exclusively for the crime of murder. Although state and federal statutes contain various capital crimes other than those involving the death of the victim, only two people were on death row for a non-murder offense (Patrick Kennedy and Richard Davis in Louisiana) when the U.S. Supreme Court addressed this issue in 2008. read more