What happened to bounties in the wild west?
<p>Few things are more emblematic of the wild west era that a wanted poster. Today such a thing is unheard of. I know today there are rewards for information leading to capture of fugitives and bail bondsmen take bail jumpers. I'm sure a straight up dead or alive bounty today would be political suicide (or maybe not), but I am interested in what happened to their legal status. I can image there may be due process issues for dead, but captured alive doesn't seem inherently prohibited.</p>

<p>What is the legal status of the formerly common "dead or alive bounties"? Are they still on the books? were they repealed?, ruled unconstitutional?, limited?, etc....?  </p>

<p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/oD0Pz.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/oD0Pz.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<h2>They never legally existed</h2>

<p>According to <a href="https://truewestmagazine.com/i-read-somewhere-that-no-legal-agency-ever-put-out-wanted-posters-that-stated-dead-or-alive-whats-the-truth/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">True West</a> magazine, no government ever issued a wanted poster containing the phrase “dead or alive”.  The iconic posters were promulgated by private organisations railroads, Wells Fargo, Pinkerton etc.</p>

<p>No doubt, if challenged, those organisations would argue that they were simply stating the terms under which the reward would be paid, not encouraging or condoning <em>unlawful</em> killing.</p>

<p>Pre-modern societies had the legal concept of the “outlaw” which meant someone who was outside the protection of the law - they had no rights and anyone could do literally anything to them  without legal consequence. It was effectively a death sentence. The legal use of outlaw is different from the colloquial use meaning a criminal.</p>

<p>However, it had disappeared from use under English law (even if it was still theoretically possible) before the split with America and the due process clause would likely prevent its return. It was reintroduced in the Australian colonies to deal with frontier <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushranger" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bushrangers</a> where a magistrate could issue a warrant requiring a person to present themselves by a stated date or be declared outlaw. Even so, in practice most outlaws were apprehended and tried rather than shot on sight.</p>

united-states criminal-law due-process