Capital punishment in Maine
Capital punishment has been abolished in the U.S. state of Maine since 1887. There are twenty-one recorded people executed in the state of Maine between the years of 1644 and 1885. Ten of these executions were carried out before statehood (gained on March 15, 1820), and eleven after. Hanging was the only method of execution carried out in the state. All but two executed people were males, sixteen were white, two were Native American, and three were African American. Twenty of the twenty-one people executed were convicted of murder with only one man being executed for treason. 40-year-old escaped convict, Daniel Wilkinson, was the last person executed in Maine. He was hanged on November 21, 1885 for the murder of police constable William Lawrence. The death penalty in Maine was officially abolished in 1887 after his slow strangulation gave the anti-death penalty movement in Maine enough support. History of capital punishment in Maine The first execution took place in Maine in 1644. In 1876 the Maine legislature abolished the death penalty by a vote of 75 to 68, but it was then reestablished in Maine in 1883. Maine abolished the death penalty a second time in 1887 mainly due to