ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the most basic geography of capital punishment—states with and states without capital punishment. A total of 31 states have laws that permit the death penalty as a punishment for capital murder and 19 do not. The federal government and United States (US) military also maintain capital punishment systems, although they rarely administer the death penalty. The chapter describes the geography of guided discretion statutes in states' capital punishment laws. Guided discretion statutes ostensibly govern how jurors are to go about making sentencing decisions in capital cases. Political leaders in several states explicitly cited the high cost of capital punishment as a primary impetus for repeal. In 2007, New Jersey became the first of these states to abolish capital punishment. In most all jurisdictions around the United States, the decision to charge defendants with capital murder and seek the death penalty lies with local prosecutors.
