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death penalty

The death penalty—also known as capital punishment—refers to the process of state and federal courts sentencing persons convicted of the most serious criminal offenses (capital offenses or capital crimes) to death. The specific crimes and circumstances for which the death penalty is a potential punishment (usually murder) are defined by state and federal statutes enacted by state legislatures and the United States Congress, respectively.

These death penalty or capital punishment statutes are often located in the penal or criminal code, and often in the same statute that defines a criminal offense such as murder. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia do not have the death penalty as a potential punishment for any criminal offense.

In West Virginia, the death penalty is not a legal form of punishment. West Virginia abolished capital punishment in 1965, making it one of the states that do not have the death penalty as a potential punishment for any criminal offense. The last execution in the state took place in 1959. Since the abolition, life imprisonment without the possibility of parole has been the most severe sentence imposed for capital offenses such as murder. This change in the state's approach to capital punishment reflects a broader trend in the United States, where a growing number of states have moved away from the death penalty either through legislative action or court rulings.

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Criminal procedure

death penalty

Individual & Family Legal Plan

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West-Virginia State Code

West-Virginia State Code

Criminal procedure

death penalty

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