Since 1912, voters in 18 states have decided 41 total ballot measures related to the death penalty.

Measures that would permit the death penalty were more common than measures that would abolish it. Out of the 41 measures, 11 were designed to abolish the death penalty, while 22 measures proposed reinstating, permitting, or requiring the death penalty for certain crimes. Eight other measures addressed various aspects of the death penalty process, including the appeals process and methods of execution.

Voters approved a higher share of measures permitting the death penalty than measures abolishing it. Of 11 measures in six states that proposed abolishing the death penalty, three (27.2%) were approved and eight (72.3%) were rejected. Of 22 measures in 12 states that proposed permitting or requiring the death penalty, 20 (90.9%) were approved and two (9.1%) were rejected.

California saw the highest number of death penalty measures, with voters deciding nine of them in that state’s history. The first California measure was approved by voters in 1972, which reinstated the death penalty in the state after the U.S. Supreme Court Furman v. Georgia ruling found the death penalty unconstitutional.

The first death penalty measures appeared on statewide ballots in the 1910s. Prior to 1910, at least three states—Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin—had abolished the death penalty. The 1910s saw several states consider changes to the death penalty. Arizona, Oregon, and Ohio placed measures on their ballots to abolish it, and voters in Ohio and Oregon approved abolition after first rejecting similar proposals. By 1920, however, five of the six states that had abolished the death penalty had reinstated it in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution.

The 1930s recorded more executions than any other decade. Several states adopted changes to execution methods and policies between the 1930s and 1950s. In 1933, Arizona voters approved an amendment permitting the death penalty by lethal gas. By 1950, 26 states had electrocution as the prevalent method of execution, and by 1955, 11 states introduced death by lethal gas. Between 1957 and 1969, 10 states—Hawaii, Alaska, Delaware, Michigan, Oregon, Iowa, New York, West Virginia, Vermont, and New Mexico—abolished the death penalty.

In 1972, existing death penalty statutes were found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court for being applied arbitrarily or as a mandatory sentence, which resulted in a moratorium on the death penalty nationwide. This prompted states to put measures on the ballot to permit the death penalty again within the confines of the Court’s ruling. Florida was the first state to pass new death penalty laws following the Furman ruling, and between 1972 and 1975, voters in California, Rhode Island, Colorado, and Washington passed amendments permitting the death penalty under certain guidelines or for certain crimes.

By 1975, 30 states again passed death penalty laws to resume capital punishment but requiring bifurcated trials, clearer standards, appellate reviews, and other reforms. In 1976, the Gregg v. Georgia ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, upholding the constitutionality of new state statutes.

Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, more states put measures on the ballot to reinstate or permit the death penalty for certain crimes. In the 1990s, voters in three states—California, Florida, and New Jersey—approved ballot measures permitting the death penalty, while in the 2000s, California, Florida, and Wisconsin voters all passed amendments permitting the death penalty for certain crimes.

The last time voters approved a ballot measure that would abolish the death penalty was in 1964, in Oregon (other following measures were rejected by voters). The last time voters decided on a measure to abolish the death penalty was in California in 2016, but voters rejected this measure.

Meanwhile, the majority of measures that would permit or reinstate the death penalty were approved by voters. The latest was approved by voters in Oklahoma in 2016.

There were also eight other death penalty measures on the ballot unrelated to abolishing or permitting capital punishment. These measures were related to other aspects of the death penalty policy, including the method of execution, the appeals process, pardons, and other procedures. All of these measures were approved by voters.