Capital Punishment - Key Events

1851 — Legal executions authorized under the Criminal Practices Act of 1851.

1872 — February 14—Capital punishment authorized in Penal Code.

1891 — Amendments provided for capital punishment to occur inside state prisons. Until 1891, executions were conducted by county sheriffs. No compilation of California executions before 1891 is known to exist.

1893 — March 3—First state-conducted execution. Jose GABRIEL, convicted of murdering an aged farm couple, was hanged at San Quentin. Executions (by hanging) were conducted at both existing state prisons - San Quentin and Folsom.

1937 — Legislature replaces hanging with lethal gas as execution method, effective August 27, 1937.

1937 — December 3—Final execution by hanging at Folsom State Prison. A total of 92 inmates were executed by hanging at Folsom.

1938 — Gas chamber installed at San Quentin.

1938 — December 2—First executions by lethal gas at San Quentin. Robert Lee CANNON and Albert KESSEL were convicted of the murder of Warden Clarence Larkin. Four other inmates were also executed in connection with this murder, three within two weeks.

1941 — November 21—First woman, Eithel Leta Juanita SPINELLI, executed by lethal gas in California.

1942 — May 1—Final execution by hanging at San Quentin. A total of 215 inmates were executed by hanging at San Quentin.

1962 — August 8—Elizabeth Ann DUNCAN, the last woman to date to be executed by lethal gas.

1967 — April 12—Aaron MITCHELL, convicted of killing a peace officer during robbery, executed by lethal gas. A total of 194 had been executed by lethal gas, 190 men and 4 women.

1972 — Death sentence declared unconstitutional. 107 taken off condemned status.

1976 — Death sentence declared unconstitutional. 68 taken off condemned status.

1977 — California State Legislature reenacted the death penalty statute.

1978 — November—California voters approve Proposition 7 reaffirming the death penalty.

1992 — April 21—Robert Alton HARRIS, convicted of killing two teenagers in San Diego, executed by lethal gas—the first California execution in 25 years.

1993 — January 1—California law changed to allow condemned inmates to choose lethal injection or lethal gas as method of execution.

1995 — October 4. U.S. District Judge, Northern District, ruled the gas chamber was cruel and unusual punishment. The ruling upheld by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals February 21, 1996.

1996 — February 23—Serial killer William George BONIN, convicted of sexually assaulting and killing 14 boys in Los Angeles and Orange Counties, was the first California inmate executed by lethal injection.