DPI Report — Lethal Election: How the U.S. Electoral Process Increases the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty

Electoral pol­i­tics dis­tort the fair­ness and accu­ra­cy of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, as evi­denced by new data and analy­sis on appel­late rul­ings and clemen­cy decisions Lethal Election: How the U.S. Electoral Process Increases the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty

Broken Promises: How a History of Racial Violence and Bias Shaped Ohio’s Death Penalty

In January 2024 , Ohio law­mak­ers announced plans to expand the use of the death penal­ty to per­mit exe­cu­tions with nitro­gen gas, as Alabama had just done a week ear­li­er. But at the same time the Attorney General and the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys Association are cham­pi­oning this leg­is­la­tion, a bipar­ti­san group of state leg­is­la­tors has intro­duced a bill to abol­ish the death penal­ty based on ​ “ sig­nif­i­cant con­cerns on who is sen­tenced to death and how that sen­tence is car­ried out.” READ MORE

The Death Penalty in 2023 : Year End Report

Only 5 states car­ried out exe­cu­tions and 7 states imposed new death sen­tences in 2023 , as more Americans say the death penal­ty is applied unfair­ly, rather than fairly. READ MORE

DPI Report — Compromised Justice: How A Legacy of Racial Violence Informs Missouri’s Death Penalty Today

Missouri is one of a hand­ful of states that has con­sis­tent­ly exe­cut­ed peo­ple in the last five years. Understanding the his­tor­i­cal appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty in Missouri helps our under­stand­ing of how cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is used today. READ MORE

New Resource: Updated Death Penalty Census

DPI’s data­base of more than 9 , 800 death sen­tences imposed between the Supreme Court rul­ing strik­ing down U.S. death penal­ty laws in 1972 and January 1 , 2024 details the sys­temic arbi­trari­ness, bias, and error of the mod­ern U.S. death penalty. READ MORE

DPI Report — Doomed to Repeat: The Legacy of Race in Tennessee’s Contemporary Death Penalty

The his­tor­i­cal use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in Tennessee shows a clear con­nec­tion between the extra­ju­di­cial lynch­ings of the 1800 s and 1900 s and the state sanc­tioned death penal­ty prac­tices of today. READ MORE

News & Developments

St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Concedes Constitutional Errors in Marcellus Williams’ Conviction and Death Sentence, Urges the Court to Vacate His Conviction

On August 28 , 2024 , a St. Louis County Circuit Court judge held an evi­den­tiary hear­ing for Marcellus Williams (pic­tured), who has long main­tained his inno­cence in the 1998 mur­der of Felicia Gayle. At this hear­ing, the office of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney ( PA ) Wesley Bell con­ced­ed that the pri­or admin­is­tra­tion, under Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCullogh, com­mit­ted con­sti­tu­tion­al errors con­tribut­ing to Mr. Williams’ unre­li­able con­vic­tion and death sen­tence. These errors include the…

Research Roundup: Revisiting David Baldus’s Study to Examine Modern Day Use of the Death Penalty

DPI ’s new series focus­es on aca­d­e­m­ic research and arti­cles in the field of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. This month’s arti­cle is ​ “ Sacred Victims: Fifty Years of Data on Victim Race and Sex as Predictors of Execution,” in The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, co-authored by Professors Scott Phillips (Department of Sociology & Criminology), Justin Marceau, Sam Kamin, and a J.D. pro­gram alum­na, Nicole King, from the Sturm College of Law at the University of…

Worldwide Wednesday International Roundup: China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, and Somalia

The Aprajita Woman and Child (West Bengal Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, which out­lines the death penal­ty for rape result­ing in the victim’s death or ​ “ veg­e­ta­tive state,” was adopt­ed by the West Bengal gov­ern­ment in east­ern India on September 3 , 2024 . Under inter­na­tion­al law, it is unlaw­ful to pre­scribe the death penal­ty for a crime not meet­ing the ​ “ most seri­ous” crime (e.g., inten­tion­al murder)…

Articles of Interest: The New York Times Editorial Board Argues United States ​ “ Does Not Need the Death Penalty”

In an August 31 , 2024 , edi­to­r­i­al from The New York Times, the newspaper’s edi­to­r­i­al board writes that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment is ​ “ immoral, uncon­sti­tu­tion­al and use­less as a deter­rent to crime,” and asserts that President Joseph Biden should fol­low through with his cam­paign pledge to end the fed­er­al death penal­ty. The Times believes ​ “ it would be an appro­pri­ate and humane finale to his pres­i­den­cy for Mr. Biden to ful­fill that pledge and try to elim­i­nate the death penal­ty for federal…

Articles of Interest: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Editorial Board Argues that Death Penalty Will Not Bring Justice for Leon Katz

In a new edi­to­r­i­al, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette argues that the death penal­ty is ​ “ nev­er the jus­tice that is called for” and achieves ​ “ noth­ing of val­ue except the sat­is­fac­tion of vengeance.” The Post-Gazette describes the death of 6 ‑week-old Leon Katz in June as an ​ “ almost unfath­omable” crime and a ​ “ vio­la­tion of pri­mor­dial inno­cence” — but argues that Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr.’s deci­sion to seek the death penal­ty against Nicole Virzi, Leon’s alleged…

Website Guide

An introduction to the navigation system, features, and terminology of DPI's website.

Upcoming Executions

Information about scheduled executions around the country

Innocence

For every 8.2 peo­ple exe­cut­ed in the Unit­ed States in the mod­ern era of the death penal­ty, one per­son on death row has been exon­er­at­ed.

State-By-State

States With and Without the Death Penalty

DPI Fact Sheet

PDF handout with facts about the Death Penalty