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List of people executed by the United States federal government

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 27, 2026
Entity authorityQ24883258 ↗
Source-derived summary

The following is a list of people executed by the United States federal government.

Post-Gregg executions

Sixteen executions (none of them military) have occurred in the modern post-Gregg era. Since 1976, 16 people have been executed under federal jurisdiction by the United States federal government. All were executed by lethal injection at the United States Penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.

Demographics

Earlier non-military executions, 1895 to 1963

From 1790 to 1963, there were at least 332 Federal, 271 Territorial and 40 Indian Tribunal executions according to the most complete records. The youngest person sentenced to death and subsequently executed was James Arcene, who was executed at the age of 23 on June 18, 1885, for his role in a robbery and murder committed when he was 10 years old.

Military executions

Between 1942 and 1961, a total of 160 soldiers convicted of criminal offences were executed by the U.S. military, most of them during World War II. This figure does not include individuals executed by the U.S. military for varied contraventions of the laws of war during wartime. The most recent person to be executed by the military is U.S. Army Private John A. Bennett, executed on April 13, 1961, for rape and attempted murder. On January 31, 1945, Private Eddie Slovik was the last American soldier to be executed for the military offence of desertion.

Editorial summary

“List of people executed by the United States federal government” enters the record as wikimedia list article. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what List, people and executed can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1976, 1895, 1963, 1790—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its strongest next move is a source search built around List, people and executed.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“List of people executed by the United States federal government” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, List, people and executed provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q24883258. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1976, 1895, 1963 and 1790.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “List of people executed by the United States federal government”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow List of people executed by the United States federal government primary sources, List of people executed by the United States federal government archive and List research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “List of people executed by the United States federal government”?
  2. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
  3. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “List of people executed by the United States federal government” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.