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What are the guidelines for when a person is eligible for capital punishment in the US?

A link would be great. I have searched and cannot find the federal guidelines. Are there other crimes other than murder that capital punishment can be used?

Public Comments

1. McVey Oklahoma was put to death by Federal I think. Usually capitol punishment is done by States.
2. Check out http://www.megalaw.com/top/deathpenalty.php I typed "capital punishment law" in my search and came up with a lot of web sites. Keep in mind that capital punishment laws are governed individually by each state. Good luck.
3. I am Canadian, so I am no expert on American law. However, I have studied capital punishment in the U.S. so I know a little. Murder is obviously the main offence for capital punishment in every state that has has brought back the death penalty. Otherwise, it varies from state to state. Some states still have laws that allow capital punishment for such crimes as committing perjury leading to another person's execution, hijacking airplanes, aggravated sexual assault, and conspiracy (with respect to murder or drug-trafficking). Federally, it is available in cases of treason, drug trafficking, expionage, conspiracy to murder and some other offences. It is also available in military justice cases for such wartime offences as desertion, though I don't think there has been a military execution since WW2. It is pretty much exclusively for murder now. I doubt that there has been an execution for anything except murder in many decades. We haven't had capital punishment on the books for murder in Canada since 1976. I believe that it was still on the books for military offences until a few years back, but even that has since been repealed. Now, we have no capital punishment, though it is still a subject of occasional debate.
4. Each State has its own guidelines for capital punishment. But for the Federal guidelines- there are many- some of which are not murder - although most of them are circumstances that require a death result (such as kidnapping where a death results; attack on an airline where a death results) but there are some like treason, or related to drug kingpins, etc. Here is a link- it's pretty dense- but it's all there: http://www.usembassy.it/pdf/other/RL30962.pdf
5. Each state within the US have thier own laws and rules. You would have to search each state laws and find what that state has. Normally about the only crime that will use the death penalty is murder, and often only 1st degree or when a police officer is killed
6. State cases are governed by state law that can be found in the penal codes. For federal sentencing guidelines look at: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?scid=29&did=192