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List of individuals executed by the federal government of the United States


Capital punishment is a legal penalty under the United States federal government criminal justice system.

It can be handed down for treason, espionage, murder, large-scale drug trafficking, or attempting to kill a witness, juror, or court officer in certain cases; but all inmates currently under federal death sentences were condemned for aggravated murder. Executions performed by the federal government are infrequent compared to those performed by state governments.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons manages the housing and execution of federal death row prisoners. As of January 1, 2017, 62 offenders were on the federal death row, most of them at Federal Correctional Complex in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The Crimes Act of 1790 created some capital offenses: treason, murder, robbery, piracy, mutiny, hostility against the United States, counterfeiting, and aiding the escape of a capital prisoner. The first federal execution was that of Thomas Bird on June 25, 1790 due to his committing "murder on the high seas".

The use of the death penalty in U.S. territories was handled by federal judges and the U.S. Marshal Service.

Historically, members of the U.S. Marshalls Service conducted all federal executions. Pre-Furman executions by the federal government were normally carried out within the prison system of the state in which the crime was committed. Only in cases where the crime was committed in a territory, the District of Columbia, or a state without the death penalty was it the norm for the court to designate the state in which the death penalty would be carried out, as the federal prison system lacked an execution facility.

Capital punishment was halted in 1972 after the Furman v. Georgia decision, but was once again permitted under the Gregg v. Georgia decision in 1976.


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