‘76
‘77
‘78
‘79
‘80
‘81
‘82
‘83
‘84
‘85
‘86
‘87
‘88
‘89
‘90
‘91
‘92
‘93
‘94
‘95
‘96
‘97
‘98
‘99
‘00
‘01
‘02
‘03
‘04
‘05
‘06
‘07
‘08
‘09
‘10
‘11
‘12
‘13
‘14
‘15
‘16
‘17
‘18
‘19
‘20
‘21
'22
'23
'24
13
24
18
11
17
22
25
23
20
28
35
39
43
43
46
52
37
42
53
60
59
65
71
66
85
98
68
74
45
56
31
38
31
14
23
16
11
25
18
18
21
5
2
1
0
2
0
1
0
Updated: August 30, 2024
NUMBER OF EXECUTIONS
SINCE 1976: 1595
Other
1.9%
White
55.7%
Latino/a
8.4%
Black
33.9%
Other
2%
White
75%
Latino/a
7%
Black
16%
• White: 889
• Black: 541
• Latino/a: 134
• Other: 31
More than 75% of the murder victims in cases
resulting in an execution were white, even
though nationally only 50% of murder victims
generally are white.
RACE OF DEFENDANTS EXECUTED
RACE OF VICTIMS IN DEATH PENALTY CASES
DEATH PENALTY INFORMATION CENTER
Facts about the Death Penalty
1701 K St. NW, Suite 750
Washington, DC 20006
www.deathpenaltyinfo.org
dpic@deathpenaltyinfo.org
@DPInfoCtr
facebook.com/DeathPenaltyInfo
Persons Executed for Interracial Murders
Other
3%
Latino/a
14%
Black
41%
White
42%
Race of Death Row Prisoners and Death Row Prisoners by State Source: The Legal Defense Fund, “Death Row USA”
(July 1, 2024). The combined state totals are slightly higher than the reported national total. That is because a few prisoners are
sentenced to death in more than one state. Those prisoners are included in each state’s totals, but only once in the national total.
California
632
Tennessee
45
Idaho
9
Florida
288
U.S. Gov’t
42
Kansas
9
Texas
180
Georgia
38
Indiana
8
Alabama
167
Mississippi
37
Utah
7
North Carolina
138
South Carolina
35
U.S. Military
4
Ohio
117
Oklahoma
34
Montana
2
Arizona
116
Arkansas
27
New Hampshire
1
Pennsylvania
109
Kentucky
25
South Dakota
1
Louisiana
63
Missouri
12
Oregon
0
Nevada
59
Nebraska
11
Wyoming
0
TOTAL: 2,213
DEATH ROW PRISONERS BY STATE: July 1, 2024
DEATH ROW PRISONERS BY RACE
FL
IL
TX
PA
LA
NC
AZ
OH
OK
CA
AL
GA
MS
MO
NM
MA
TN
IN
MD
NV
SC
AR
DE
ID
KY
MT
NE
OR
VA
WA
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
2
2
2
3
3
4
4
7
7
7
8
11
11
11
12
12
13
18
22
30
• An average of 4 wrongly convicted death-row prisoners have been
exonerated each year since 1973.
Death Row Exonerations
By State Total: 200
INNOCENCE
RECENT STUDIES ON RACE
White Def./
Black Victim
Black Def./
White Victim
307
21
•
Jurors in Washington state are three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black
defendant than for a white defendant in a similar case. (Prof. K. Beckett, Univ. of Washington, 2014).
• In Louisiana, the odds of a death sentence were 97% higher for those whose victim was white than for
those whose victim was black. (Pierce & Radelet, Louisiana Law Review, 2011).
• A study in California found that those convicted of killing whites were more than 3 times as likely to be
sentenced to death as those convicted of killing blacks and more than 4 times more likely as those
convicted of killing Latinos. (Pierce & Radelet, Santa Clara Law Review, 2005).
•
A comprehensive study of the death penalty in North Carolina found that the odds of receiving a death
sentence rose by 3.5 times among those defendants whose victims were white. (Prof. Jack Boger and
Dr. Isaac Unah, University of North Carolina, 2001).
Lack of law enforcement resource
Drug/Alcohol abuse
Family problems/child abuse
Lack of programs for mentally ill
Crowded courts
Ineffective prosecution
Too many guns
Gangs
Insufficient use of the death penalty
2
3
5
6
7
12
14
20
20
All death penalty states plus the US
government use lethal injection as their
primary method. Many states utilizing
lethal injection have other methods
available as backups.
What Interferes with Effective Law
Enforcement?
EXECUTIONS SINCE 1976 BY METHOD USED
1414
Lethal Injection
163
Electrocution
12
Gas
3
Hanging
3
Firing Squad
DETERRENCE
• A report by the National Research Council, titled Deterrence and the Death Penalty, stated that studies
claiming that the death penalty has a deterrent effect on murder rates are “fundamentally flawed” and
should not be used when making policy decisions (2012).
• A DPIC study of 30 years of FBI Uniform Crime Report homicide data found that the South has
consistently had by far the highest murder rate. The South accounts for more than 80% of
executions. The Northeast, which has fewer than 0.5%
of all executions, has consistently had the lowest
murder rate.
• A 2009 poll commissioned by DPIC found police
chiefs ranked the death penalty last among ways to
reduce violent crime. The police chiefs also
considered the death penalty the least efficient use of
taxpayers’ money.
South
Midwest
West
Northeast
Nat’l
6.5
4.5
5.2
7.0
8.0
Murder Rates per 100,000 (2020)
MENTAL DISABILITIES
•
Intellectual Disabilities: In 2002, the Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that it is unconstitutional to execute defendants with 'mental retardation.'
•
Mental Illness: The American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, and the American Bar
Association have endorsed resolutions calling for an exemption of the severely mentally ill.
DEATH SENTENCING
Year
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
Sentences
166
151
138
140
123
126
120
118
114
85
82
83
74
49
31
39
43
34
18
18
21
21
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics: “Capital Punishment, 2013.” 2014 - 2023 figure from DPIC research.
316 death sentences were imposed in the U.S. in 1997. The number of death sentences per year has dropped dramatically since then.
JUVENILES
WOMEN
• In 2005, the Supreme Court in Roper v. Simmons struck down the death
penalty for juveniles. Since 1976, 22 defendants had been executed for
offenses committed as juveniles.
•
There were 52 women on death row as of March 11, 2024. This constitutes
2.12% of the total death row population. 18 women have been executed
since 1976.
EXECUTIONS BY REGION*
South
Midwest
West
Northeast
Texas
589
4
90
200
1301
State
Tot
2024
2023
State
Tot
2024
2023
State
Tot
2024
2023
TX
589
1
8
LA
28
0
0
WA
5
0
0
OK
125
2
4
MS
22
0
0
NE
4
0
0
VA
113
0
0
IN
20
0
0
PA
3
0
0
FL
106
1
6
DE
16
0
0
KY
3
0
0
MO
99
2
4
US GOVT
16
0
0
MT
3
0
0
GA
77
1
0
CA
13
0
0
ID
3
0
0
AL
75
3
2
TN
13
0
0
OR
2
0
0
OH
56
0
0
IL
12
0
0
NM
1
0
0
NC
43
0
0
NV
12
0
0
CO
1
0
0
SC
43
0
0
UT
8
1
0
WY
1
0
0
AZ
40
0
0
MD
5
0
0
CT
1
0
0
AR
31
0
0
SD
5
0
0
EXECUTIONS BY STATE SINCE 1976
*Federal executions are listed in the region in
which the crime occurred.
Percent Ranking Item as One of Top Two or Three
PUBLIC OPINION AND THE DEATH PENALTY
The Death Penalty Information Center has available more extensive reports on a variety of issues, including:
• “Lethal Election: How the U.S. Electoral Process Increases the Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty” (July 2024)
• “Broken Promises: How a History of Racial Violence and Bias Shaped Ohio’s Death Penalty” (May 2024)
• “The Death Penalty in 2023: Year-End Report” (December 2023)
• “Compromised Justice: How A Legacy of Racial Violence Informs Missouri’s Death Penalty Today” (December 2023)
• “Doomed to Repeat: The Legacy of Race in Tennessee’s Contemporary Death Penalty” (June 2023)
• “Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma’s Death Penalty” (October 2022)
• “DPIC Special Report: The Innocence Epidemic” (February 2021)
• “Enduring Injustice: the Persistence of Racial Discrimination in the U.S. Death Penalty” (September 2020)
• “Behind the Curtain: Secrecy and the Death Penalty in the United States” (November 2018)
• “Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty” (November 2015)
• “The 2% Death Penalty: How a Minority of Counties Produce Most Death Cases at Enormous Costs to All” (October 2013)
• “Struck By Lightning: The Continuing Arbitrariness of the Death Penalty 35 Years After Its Reinstatement in 1976” (June 2011)
Life without parole
60%
Death penalty
36%
No opinion
4%
• A 2019 poll by Gallup found that a clear majority of voters
(60%) would choose a punishment other than the death
penalty for murder.
COSTS OF THE DEATH PENALTY
Support for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
•
Capital trials cost more than non-capital cases because of higher costs for prosecution and defense lawyers; time consuming pre-trial
investigation; lengthy jury selection process for death-qualification; enhanced security requirements; longer trials because of bifurcated
proceedings; solitary confinement incarceration; and necessary appeals to ensure fairness.
•
An economic analysis of independent research studies completed in 15 death penalty states from 2001 – 2017 found that the average
difference in case-level costs for seeking the death penalty was just over $700,000. Report of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review
Commission, Table 1 at p.233 (2017).
•
Oklahoma capital cases cost, on average, 3.2 times more than non-capital cases. (Study prepared by Peter A. Collins, Matthew J. Hickman,
and Robert C. Boruchowitz, with research support by Alexa D. O’Brien, for the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, 2017.)
•
Defense costs for death penalty trials in Kansas averaged about $400,000 per case, compared to $100,000 per case when the death penalty
was not sought. (Kansas Judicial Council, 2014).
•
A study in California revealed that the cost of the death penalty in the state has been over $4 billion since 1978. Study considered pre-trial
and trial costs, costs of automatic appeals and state habeas corpus petitions, costs of federal habeas corpus appeals, and costs of
incarceration on death row. (Alarcon & Mitchell, 2011).
•
A report by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts in 2010 found that seeking a federal death sentence costs 8 times more than seeking
a life sentence. Jon B. Gould and Lisa Greenman, Update on the Cost and Quality of Defense Representation in Federal Death Penalty Cases
(2010) at https://www.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/fdpc2010.pdf
• Gallup Americans Now Support Life in Prison Over Death Penalty
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
1940
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2022
% Favor
% Oppose
% No Opinion
Americans’ Support for Death Penalty
Are you in favor of the death penalty for a person convicted of murder?
• Gallup Steady 55% of Americans Support Death Penalty for Murderers
55%
42%
3%