Death Penalty
Also known as capital punishment, the death penalty is when someone commits a crime and is then sentenced to death.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, there are 5 methods of execution currently on the books in the United States; lethal injection, electrocution, lethal gas, hanging, and firing squad. Going further back in history methods such as hanging was much more common. According to KTRE, there hasn’t been a hanging in the United States since 1996. Of course, beheadings were a somewhat common thing many years ago, just not here in the United States.
Death Penalty in Maine
Maine was one of the first states in the country to abolish the death penalty, not once, but twice. First in 1876 and then it was reestablished in 1883 for murder and then was gone for good by 1887, according to Maine.gov.
Now, this does not mean a Mainer can’t be sentenced to death as this can still be carried out federally.
Mainers Killed By Capital Punishment
There have been 21 people executed here in Maine dating back before Maine was even established as a state, beginning in 1644.
Death Penalty USA lists all 21. 2 female and 19 male. All but one committed murder.
The first was a woman described as a housewife only known as Mrs. Cornish her crime? Murder. It is not known what area she lived in.
There were 4 from Cumberland County.
2 from York County including a 23-year-old Native American woman for murder.
3 from Knox county including a man by the name of Jeremiah Baum for…
