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Capital punishment, or the death penalty, was legalized at the federal level by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 (Gregg v. Georgia ) after having been temporarily suspended since 1972. Most states, including Missouri, use capital punishment but only for particularly heinous crimes involving murder. But the exoneration of several death row inmates through DNA evidence and concerns over lethal injection drugs have prompted some states to institute moratoriums or bans on the practice.

Missouri capital punishment laws restrict the sentence to those 16 and older who have committed a capital homicide. In Missouri, a capital homicide includes one committed by an individual with a prior conviction for first-degree murder; committed while attempting to escape arrest; or committed while engaged in another felony offense, to give a few examples. The state also has the authority to sentence a convict to death if a murder was part of a pattern of criminal street gang activity.

Missouri is one of only six states that uses the gas chamber for executions, but only if the inmate chooses this method (or if lethal injection cannot be administered for some reason). As with most other states that have use capital punishment, Missouri's primary method is through lethal injection.

Learn more about Missouri capital punishment laws below. See FindLaw's Death Penalty section for additional articles and resources.