A history of California's death penalty

March 27, 2001
Robert Lee Massie is executed. Massie voluntarily ended his appeals process after nearly 30 years on Death Row.

March 15, 2000
Darrell Keith Rich is executed for the 1981 murders of three young women and an 11-year-old girl. As he was strapped into the death chamber, Rich's last word was "Peace."

May 4, 1999
Manual Babbit is executed.

Feb. 9, 1999
Jaturun Siripongs, a Thai national, is executed.

July 14, 1998
Thomas Martin Thompson is executed.

May 3, 1996
Keith "Danny" Williams is executed.

Feb. 23, 1996
William Bonin becomes the first prisoner executed by lethal injection in California.

Oct. 4, 1994
Gas chamber is ruled cruel and unusual punishment and therefore unconstitutional. Lethal injection becomes the sole method of execution.

Aug. 24, 1993
David Mason is executed after he forfeits his appeals.

Aug. 27, 1992
Lethal injection added as a method of execution. Inmates may choose between injection and lethal gas.

April 21, 1992
California resumes capital punishment with the execution of Robert Alton Harris.

Nov. 4, 1986
Chief Justice Rose Bird and two other members of the California Supreme Court are voted out of office, primarily for their unpopular votes reversing death penalty cases. They are later replaced by conservative justices appointed by Gov. George Deukmejian.

Nov. 7, 1978
California voters pass the Briggs Initiative, greatly expanding the number of crimes punishable by death. The broader death penalty law replaces the 1977 statute.

Aug. 11, 1977
Legislature re-enacts the death penalty.

Feb. 18, 1972
California Supreme Court declares the death penalty cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the state constitution. More than 100 inmates are taken off Death Row and resentenced. A similar decision is rendered in 1976.

April 8, 1967
Aaron Mitchell becomes the 194th prisoner executed in California's gas chamber and the last executed until 1992.

Aug. 8, 1962
Elizabeth Ann Duncan becomes the fourth and most recent woman to be executed.

November 1961
Richard Arlen Lindsey becomes the last defendant tried in Kern County to be executed by the state. Lindsey was convicted of kidnapping, raping and murdering a 6-year-old girl. He was sentenced to die just 18 days after the murder -- and was executed less than 10 months later.

May 1, 1942
The 215th and last hanging is carried out at San Quentin.

Nov. 21, 1941
Ethel Leta Juanita Spinelli becomes the first woman executed in California.

Dec. 2, 1938
Robert Lee Cannon and Albert Kessel are the first to be executed in the San Quentin gas chamber.

Aug. 27, 1937
The Legislature mandates lethal gas be used as the state's new mode of execution. However, the law did not affect executions for those already sentenced. As a result, executions by hanging continued until 1942.

March 3, 1893
Jose Gabriel is hanged at San Quentin State Prison in the first state-conducted execution. Hangings are carried out at San Quentin and Folsom prisons.

1891
California law is amended allowing for executions to take place inside state prisons only. Previous executions were conducted by county sheriffs.

1872
Capital punishment is authorized in state penal code.

1851
Legislation authorizes executions under Criminal Practices Act.

SOURCES: Death Penalty Focus, California Department of Corrections and The Californian