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    • What You Need to Know About the Death Penalty in Wisconsin
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    What You Need to Know About the Death Penalty in Wisconsin

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    Missouri on Tuesday sentenced a 55-year-old black man to death, even though the prosecutor handling the case and the victim’s family said his life should be spared.

    Marcellus “Khaliifah” Williams was convicted of the 1998 murder of a former newspaper reporter, Lisha Gayle. He has always maintained his innocence.

    Gayle was murdered in her suburban St. Louis home during a burglary, stabbed 43 times with a kitchen knife taken from the couple’s home.

    No DNA has ever linked Williams to the crime scene. In recent months, a prosecutor in the case said the execution should have been stopped, and in a petition for clemency, Gayle’s family said they “define closure as allowing Marcellus to live.”

    “The execution of Marcellus is not necessary,” they said.

    Despite this, Missouri Republican Governor Mike Parson and the Missouri Supreme Court on Monday refused to pardon Williams.

    And on Tuesday, with less than an hour before the execution, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop it, even though the court’s three liberal justices said they would have granted Williams a stay. The high court offered no explanation for the decision.

    Williams was executed by lethal injection at 6:10 p.m. Tuesday. His son, Marcellus Williams Jr., told KSDK-TV, “This is murder.”

    Currently, 21 states have the death penalty or the death penalty. Public polls suggest that the majority of American adults support the death penalty for people convicted of murder.

    Opponents of government executions are concerned about the way the death penalty is carried out. They question whether the death penalty deters people from committing serious crimes.

    The American Civil Liberties Union calls this practice “barbaric, unfair and unjust.”

    Wisconsin was the first state to abolish the death penalty for all crimes. Here’s what you need to know about the history of the death penalty in Wisconsin and more.

    Does Wisconsin have the death penalty?

    No. Wisconsin abolished the death penalty in 1853, after only one execution.

    John McCaffrey of Kenosha was hanged after being convicted of murdering his wife in Kenosha in 1850.

    What led to the abolition of the death penalty in Wisconsin?

    Public reaction to McCaffrey’s execution helped fuel a movement to abolish the death penalty in Wisconsin less than two years after his death, making the state the first to permanently abolish the death penalty for all crimes, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

    Christopher Latham Sholes, editor of the Kenosha Telegraph and politician, personally witnessed McCaffrey’s execution. He “remained at the forefront of the fight” to abolish the death penalty in Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Magazine of History.

    In January 1852, Sholes was elected to the state Assembly, where lawmakers passed a bill to abolish the death penalty in March 1853. The state Senate passed the bill in July 1853, and Governor Leonard Farwell signed it that same month, ending the death penalty in Wisconsin.

    According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Rhode Island temporarily abolished the death penalty in 1852 but later reinstated it. In 1847, Michigan abolished the death penalty for all crimes except treason.

    Have there been any attempts to reinstate the death penalty in Wisconsin?

    There have been several attempts to bring back the death penalty in Wisconsin, including when details of the crimes of Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer became known to the public. More than 20 bills to reinstate the death penalty were introduced by state legislatures between 1991 and 1996, but none made it out of legislative committees.

    In 2006, an advisory referendum showed that 56 percent of Wisconsin voters favored reinstating the death penalty. The state legislature did not implement the popular vote. In 2013, a Marquette Law School poll showed that 47 percent of Wisconsin voters favored reinstating the death penalty, while 51 percent were opposed.

    In which states does the death penalty exist?

    Twenty-one states still have the death penalty as a punishment for crimes. They are Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.

    Another six states have the death penalty, but executions are not taking place because the governor has banned it by executive order or the attorney general has temporarily halted it. These include: Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.

    The U.S. government can also propose the death penalty for certain federal crimes, including murder, treason, and espionage. The U.S. military court also has 15 crimes that are punishable by death.

    How often are people executed?

    According to the Death Penalty Information Center, the United States, with more than 1,590 executions in the past 50 years, is a rarity among developed countries when it comes to the ultimate punishment. Worldwide, more than 70% of countries have banned the practice.

    In 2020, for example, only five other countries executed more citizens than the U.S.: China, Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the center said. Globally, the number of death row inmates rose 30% in 2023, making it the deadliest year in nearly a decade, according to a report released Tuesday by Amnesty International.

    Williams became the 15th person to be sentenced to death in the United States in 2024. In 2023, 24 people were executed for their crimes.

    What are the means of execution?

    Lethal injection is the preferred method of execution, but historically hanging, firing squad, lethal gas, and electrocution have also been used.

    Five states still use firing squads when lethal injection drugs are not available, including Mississippi, Oklahoma, Utah, South Carolina and Idaho, which reinstated the firing squad last year. The last inmate to be put to death by firing squad was in Utah in 2010.

    In which states does the death penalty not exist?

    Twenty-three states have abolished the death penalty. They are Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

    As an alternative to the death penalty, many states have mandatory life sentences for certain serious crimes. In Wisconsin, Class A felonies are punishable by life in prison, including first-degree intentional homicide.

    USA Today and the Appleton Post-Crescent contributed to this report.

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