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Massachusetts Death Penalty Almanac
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Date | Event |
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January 1, 1900 | Electric chair installed at the State Prison, Charlestown. |
January 29, 2004 | Gary Lee Sampson was sentenced to death in US District Court in Boston, for the carjacking an d murder of Philip McCloskey and Jonathan Rizzo. This was the first death sentence imposed in Mas sachusetts in over three decades and the first federal death sentence in the Commonwealth since t he 19th century. |
March 12, 2001 | The Massachusetts House fails on a 94-60 vote to reinstate the death penalty. |
March 14 (24?), 1661 | William Leddra hanged on Boston Common for heresy (profession of Quakerism) and violation of banishment.
Read about William Leddra. |
March 26, 2001 | At the federal Court House in Springfield, U.S. District Judge Michael A. Ponsor imposes four consecutive life sentences on Kristen Gilbert after the jury deadlocked on whether to sentence her to death. Gilbert was convicted of murdering Henry Hudon, Kenneth Cutting, Edward Skwira, and Stanley Jagodowski and assaulting two others at the VA Medical Center in Northampton. This was the first capital trial in Massachusetts for decades and the first federal capital trial ever in Massachusetts. |
March 29, 1999 | The Massachusetts House fails on a 80-73 vote to reinstate the death penalty. |
May 9, 1947 | The last judicial executions are held in Massachusetts, when Phillip Bellino and Edward Gertson, both convicted of murdering Robert William, were electrocuted at Charlestown State Prison. |
June 1, 1660 | Mary Dyer hanged on Boston Common for heresy (profession of Quakerism) and violation of banishment.
Read about Mary Dyer. |
June 10, 1692 | Bridget Bishop hanged in Salem Village for witchcraft.
Salem Witch Trials Memorial |
June 29, 1972 | US Supreme Court rules on Furman v. Georgia, finding that the death penalty is applied in an arbitrary and capricious manner. Death sentences across the country are overturned. |
July 2, 1976 | US Supreme Court rules on Gregg v. Georgia, which allows executions to resume in the United States. |
July 19, 1692 | Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth Howe, Susannah Martin, Sarah Good, and Rebecca Nurse hanged in Salem Village for witchcraft.
Salem Witch Trials Memorial |
August 19, 1692 | George Burroughs, Martha Carrier, George Jacobs, John Proctor, and John Willard hanged in Salem Village for witchcraft.
Salem Witch Trials Memorial |
August 23, 1927 | Execution by electrocution of Nicola Sacco, Bartolomeo Vanzetti and Celestino Madeiros |
September 19, 1692 | Giles Corey pressed to death in Salem Village for witchraft.
Salem Witch Trials Memorial |
September 22, 1692 | Martha Corey, Mary Easty, Alice Parker, and Mary Parker hanged in Salem Village for witchraft.
Salem Witch Trials Memorial |
September (30?), 1630 | First recorded execution in Massachusetts: John Billington, who had arrived on the Mayflower, hanged at Plymouth for the murder of John Newcomen. |
October 18, 1984 | Commonwealth v. Colon-Cruz, 393 Mass. 150 The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules that, despite Article 116, the state's revised death penalty law is unconstitutional because it encourages defendants in murder cases to plead guilty rather than face a jury trial, in order to avoid the possibility of the death sentence. This conflicts with the right against self-incrimination and the right to trial by jury. |
October 27, 1659 | William Robinson and Marmaduke Stephenson hanged on Boston Common for heresy (profession of Quakerism) and violation of banishment. Read the testimony of Marmaduke Stevenson. |
November 2, 1982 | Constitutional amendment approved by the voters of the Commonwealth, Art. 116, which states that "no provision of the Constitution. . . shall be construed as prohibiting the imposition of the death penalty." |
November 4, 1646 | Massachusetts Bay Colony passes a law making it a capital offense to deny the divine origin of the Bible. |
November 6, 1997 | Massachusetts House fails on a 80-80 tie vote to reinstate the death penalty. |
December 17, 1901 | First execution by electrocution in Massachusetts, of Luigi Storti, for murder. |