Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Georgia. Georgia reintroduced the death penalty in 1973 after Furman v. Georgia ruled all states' death penalty statutes unconstitutional. The first execution to take place afterwards occurred in 1983. 76 people in total have been executed since 1983 as of January 30, 2020. As of December 31, 2022, 37 men and 1 woman are on death row awaiting execution. History The first execution in Georgia was in 1735. The offender was a white female indentured servant Alice Riley, who had murdered her master. From 1735 to 1924, the method of execution was hanging. The last hanging occurred in 1931. Between 1735 and 1931, over 500 hangings occurred in Georgia. In August, 1924, the Georgia General Assembly outlawed hanging and introduced electrocution instead. Georgia then used this method until 1972, when Furman v. Georgia declared the capital punishment procedures unconstitutional. Electrocution was re-instated, along with the death penalty, in 1976 as a result of Gregg v. Georgia. In 2001, the General Assembly passed a new law instituting lethal injection instead of electrocution. Overall, 1,022 executions have occurred in Georgia since 1735, the fifth highest total in the union. Legal process When the prosecution seeks the death penalty, the sentence is decided by the jury and must be unanimous. In case of a hung jury during the punishment phase of the trial, a life sentence is issued, even if a single juror opposed death (there is no retrial). The power of clemency belongs to the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, which consists of five members appointed by the governor with advice and consent of the state senate. Lethal injection is the only method of execution authorised by statutes, after electrocution was abolished in 2001. Capital crimes The following are the current capital crimes in the state of Georgia: Treason Aircraft hijacking Murder with one of the following aggravating circumstances: The offender has a prior record of conviction for a capital felony; The offender was in the process of committing another capital felony or aggravated battery, or the offense of murder was committed while the offender was engaged in the commission of burglary in any degree or arson in the first degree; The offender knowingly created a great risk of death to more than one person in a public place by means of a weapon or device which would normally