List of people executed in Florida (pre-1972)

The following is a list of people executed by the U. S. state of Florida (or in Florida prior to statehood) before 1972, when capital punishment was briefly abolished by the Supreme Court's ruling in Furman v. Georgia. For people executed by Florida after capital punishment was restored by the Supreme Court's ruling in Gregg v. Georgia (1976), see List of people executed in Florida.

Colonial period
The following persons were executed under British rule (1763-1783):


 * Hannon, a white male, hanged in St. Augustine in 1769. Hannon, a mason, had killed his wife and child after she came to the city with his brother from New York but Hannon had become "familiar with another woman"; Hannon's brother forced him to acknowledge his marital status, however, after which he killed her.
 * A male "cracker", presumably white, hanged in St. Augustine on January 16, 1769. He and a fellow "cracker" met the son of a Creek warrior named Nipke on the St. Johns River, killed him, and took his property. Governor Grant, upon learning of this, had both arrested and brought to St. Augustine, where both were tried and the one executed for the act to avoid "the bad consequences of such outrages".
 * Charles Holmes and Innis Hooper, both white males, hanged in Pensacola in May 1774. Holmes and Hooper had robbed a boat on the Mississippi and killed its five crew (three Frenchmen and two blacks).

Hanging (1822-1923)
In 1822, the Legislative Council declared murder, rape, and arson to be capital crimes. During this period, executions were carried out by hanging locally in the county where the defendants were convicted. From 1847 to 1872, executions were required to be public, but were mostly moved to jail facilities afterwards. County sheriffs were also required to act as executioners.

1845-1861
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Civil War
The following hangings took place from January 10, 1861 to June 25, 1868, when Florida seceded to the Confederacy during the Civil War. {{legend|#DCDCDC|Executions by shooting under military authority}}

Electrocution (1924-1972)
In 1923, the state legislature passed a new laws switching the official execution method from hanging to electrocution. This new method required executions to be moved from local jails to a permanent execution chamber in state prison facilities. Despite an early challenge in July 1929 by the circuit court of Union County over the prison superintendent being named a secondary executioner (as he was not elected or appointed), the electrocution law was held up by the state supreme court in November 1930. Sheriffs were still required to perform as primary executioners during this period until 1941, when a new law designated the state prison's first assistant engineer as the executioner.

Although hanging had been abolished as an execution method, two more executions by hanging would occur during this period:

Executions 1 through 198 were performed at Union Correctional Institution, but 199 through 206 were performed at Florida State Prison due to the electric chair being moved to the latter facility in 1962.
 * Charlie Browne, a white male, was hanged at DeLand, Volusia for the murder of Howard Usher (also white) on April 18, 1927. Convicted in 1922 when hanging was still sole method of execution; Browne appealed his conviction after the introduction of the electrocution law and state court decided he would still be hanged.
 * James Alderman, a 50-year-old white male, was hanged under the martial authority of the Coast Guard in Broward County for shooting two persons on August 17, 1929.