Capital punishment

Capital punishment

Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...

has been illegal in the U.S. State

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

 since 1846, making Michigan's death penalty history unusual in contrast to other States. Michigan was the first English-speaking government in the world to abolish totally the death penalty for ordinary crimes. The Michigan State Legislature

Michigan Legislature

The Michigan Legislature is the legislative assembly of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is organized as a bicameral body consisting of the Senate, the upper house, and the House of Representatives, the lower house. Article IV of the state's Constitution, adopted in 1963, defines the role of the...

 voted to do so on May 18, 1846, and this has remained in law since. Although the death penalty was retained on the books for treason until 1963, Michigan has not executed any person since statehood.

History

With one exception, all executions in areas which are now part of the State of Michigan were performed before the state was admitted to the Union. Michigan became the 26th State on January 26, 1837.

Approximately a dozen people are known to have been executed from 1683 to 1836, although before 1783 the area of the state was outside U.S. jurisdiction (French, then British) and it was under de facto British jurisdiction until 1796. In this early period, there were a number of cases where persons who had committed a capital crime in Detroit were transported to Montreal for trial and execution.

The first person known to be executed in Michigan was a Native American

Native Americans in the United States

Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 named Folle-Avoine. The first person executed under U.S. jurisdiction was another Native American named Buhnah. Two females were put to death in Michigan - an unnamed slave (owned by a man named Clapham) in 1763, and an African American named Ann Wyley in 1777. By race, seven of 15 were Native Americans, another seven white and only one black.

Although Michigan had abolished the death penalty, one execution took place after Michigan's statehood, when Anthony Chebatoris was hanged in Milan in 1938, for a murder he had committed while robbing a bank in Midland. This was a federal execution, outside of the state's jurisdiction, and the last execution to be performed in Michigan.

The death penalty has been constitutionally prohibited in Michigan since the 1963 constitution became effective in 1964.

Methods

The legal method of executions in Michigan was hanging

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

, although two people were executed by shooting, one was bludgeoned and the method of one more execution remains unknown.

Lists of individuals executed

Source:

Before U.S. juridiction

Executed person	Date of execution	Crime	Method	Race
French jurisdiction
Folle-Avoine	November 29, 1683	Murder Murder Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human being, and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...	Shot	Native American
Unknown	November 29, 1683	Murder	Shot	Native American
Pierre Berge (or Boucher) dit La Tulipe	November 26, 1705	Assault	Hanged (in Montreal)	White
Bartellemy Pichon dit La Roze	November 7, 1707	Desertion	Hanged	White
British jurisdiction
Unknown female slave (whose owner's name was Clapham)	April, 1763	Murder	Hanging	Native American
Michael Dué	late 1760s	Murder	Hanging	White
Joseph Hecker	December 1775	Murder	Hanging	White
Jean Baptiste Contincineau	March 26, 1777	Robbery Robbery Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take something of value by force or threat of force or by putting the victim in fear. At common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the person of that property, by means of force or fear....	Hanging	White
Ann Wyley or Wiley	March 26, 1777	Robbery	Hanging	Black

Under U.S. Jurisdiction (territorial)

Executed person	Date of execution	Crime	Method	Race
Buhnah	1819	Murder	Unknown method	Native American
Ketauka	December 27, 1827	Murder	Hanging	Native American
Kewaubis	December 27, 1827	Murder	Hanging	Native American
James Brown	February 1, 1830	Murder	Hanging	White
Stephens Simmons	September 24, 1830	Murder	Hanging	White
Wau-Bau-Ne-Me-Mee	July 1836	Murder	Hanging	Native American

After statehood (federal)

Executed person	Date of execution	Crime	Method	Race
Anthony Chebatoris Tony Chebatoris Anthony Chebatoris , was the only person executed for a capital crime in Michigan since it became a state in 1837. He was tried and executed by the federal authorities...	July 8, 1938	Murder	Hanging	White