List of people executed in the United States in 1985

Eighteen people, all male, were executed in the United States in 1985, eleven by electrocution, and seven by lethal injection.^[1]^[2] Charles Rumbaugh became the first of 22 juvenile offenders to be executed in the United States in the modern era before the Supreme Court banned capital punishment for juvenile offenders under Roper v. Simmons in 2005.

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[2]

No.	Date of execution	Name	Age of person			Gender	Ethnicity	State	Method	Ref.
No.	Date of execution	Name	At execution	At offense	Age difference	Gender	Ethnicity	State	Method	Ref.
1	January 4, 1985	David Dene Martin	32	25	7	Male	White	Louisiana	Electrocution	^[3]
2	January 9, 1985	Roosevelt Green Jr.	28	20	8		Black	Georgia		^[4]
3	January 11, 1985	Joseph Carl Shaw	29	22	7		White	South Carolina		^[5]
4	January 16, 1985	Doyle Edward Skillern	48	38	10			Texas	Lethal injection	^[6]
5	January 30, 1985	James David Raulerson	34	25	9			Florida	Electrocution	^[7]
6	February 20, 1985	Van Roosevelt Solomon	41	35	6		Black	Georgia		^[8]
7	March 6, 1985	Johnny Paul Witt	42	30	12		White	Florida		^[9]
8	March 13, 1985	Stephen Peter Morin	34	30	4		White	Texas	Lethal injection	^[10]
9	March 20, 1985	John C. Young	28	18	10		Black	Georgia	Electrocution	^[11]
10	April 18, 1985	James Dyral Briley Jr.	28	23	5		Black	Virginia	Electrocution	^[12]
11	May 15, 1985	Jesse Sandoval De La Rosa	24	18	6		Hispanic	Texas	Lethal injection	^[13]
12	May 29, 1985	Marvin Francois	39	31	8		Black	Florida	Electrocution	^[14]
13	June 25, 1985	Charles Milton	34	26	8			Texas	Lethal injection	^[15]
14	June 25, 1985	Morris Odell Mason	31	24	7			Virginia	Electrocution	^[16]
15	July 9, 1985	Henry Martinez Porter	43	33	10		Hispanic	Texas	Lethal injection	^[17]
16	September 11, 1985	Charles Francis Rumbaugh	28	17	11		White	Texas	Lethal injection	^[18]
17	October 16, 1985	William Earl Vandiver	37	34	3			Indiana	Electrocution	^[19]
18	December 6, 1985	Carroll Edward Cole	47	39	8			Nevada	Lethal injection	^[20]
		Average:	35 years	27 years	8 years

Gender
Male	18	100%
Female	0	0%
Ethnicity
White	9	50%
Black	7	39%
Hispanic	2	11%
State
Texas	6	33%
Florida	3	17%
Georgia	3	17%
Virginia	2	11%
Indiana	1	6%
Louisiana	1	6%
Nevada	1	6%
South Carolina	1	6%
Method
Electrocution	11	61%
Lethal injection	7	39%
Month
January	5	28%
February	1	6%
March	3	17%
April	1	6%
May	2	11%
June	2	11%
July	1	6%
August	0	0%
September	1	6%
October	1	6%
November	0	0%
December	1	6%
Age
20–29	6	33%
30–39	7	39%
40–49	5	28%
Total	18	100%

Number of executions
1986	18
1985	18
1984	21
Total	57

v t e Capital punishment in the United States
Jurisdictions	Federal government Military Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming American Samoa Guam Puerto Rico Washington, D.C.
People executed by state	Federal government Military Alabama (pre-1972) Arizona (pre-1972) Arkansas (pre-1972) California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida (pre-1972) Georgia (pre-1972) Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky (pre-1972) Louisiana (pre-1972) Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi (pre-1972) Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina (pre-1972) North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma (pre-1972) Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina (pre-1972) South Dakota Tennessee Texas 2020–present Utah Vermont Virginia (pre-1972) Washington (pre-1972) West Virginia Wyoming Washington, D.C.
People executed by year	1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965–1972 1976–1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 Scheduled executions
Issues and ethics	Botched executions Death-qualified jury Debate Dual sovereignty doctrine Execution drug shortage Exonerations Juveniles Last meal Participation of medical professionals Race and capital punishment White defendants executed for killing a black victim Wrongful executions
Other	Death row inmates Death row inmates who have exhausted their appeals Death Penalty Information Center Most recent executions by state National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty Supreme Court decisions on capital punishment Women executed since 1976 Women on death row

List of people executed in the United States in 1985

Demographics

Executions in recent years

References

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