Death Penalty Census Database
The Death Penalty Census displays death sentences imposed between the Supreme Court’s issuance of the Furman v. Georgia ruling in 1972 and July 1, 2024.
Each row in the database below represents a death sentence. You can search death sentences by the name of the defendant sentenced or filter the sentences in various ways. For helpful tips on searching, scroll below the database table.
Because of the complex legal processes involved in death-penalty cases, we encourage you to review the Death Penalty Census Codebook, which provides an in-depth explanation of how to interpret sentencing information in the database. For a downloadable CSV version of the Death Penalty Census, click here.
Our goal is for the Death Penalty Census to be as accurate and comprehensive as possible, and we welcome any additions or corrections. To correct an error or provide missing information, please notify us by email and send documentation of the correct information to DeathPenaltyCensus@deathpenaltyinfo.org.
Tips for searching the Death Penalty Census Database
Search by Name: The default name search will attempt to find a person whose name or known aliases include the name parts that you provide. For example, searching for Jr. will return everyone that has the name suffix Jr. or other name part that includes ‘jr’. Searching for J Beard will return both ‘James David Beard’ and ‘Donald J. Beardslee’. You can also require a higher precision match by surrounding the query in quotation marks. For example, searching “James Beard” would only return ‘James David Beard’ (as would searching “James David Beard”). Searching “William Williams” will only return ‘William Williams,’ but searching William Williams (without quotation marks) will return anyone whose name includes ‘Williams’ because William is included in Williams so the name ‘Williams’ is sufficient to satisfy both portions of the request.
You can also increase precision on a specific part of your search. Therefore, searching J “Beard” will still return ‘James David Beard’ and no other results, and using “William” Williams will also only return ‘William Williams’ because ‘William’ will no longer be considered a match for ‘Williams’.
Name search is not case-sensitive.
Aliases: If a defendant has legally changed their name, their current name is displayed in the search results. Hovering over a defendant’s name will show the name under which the defendant was tried. Searching for the defendant’s former name will return their results. For instance, searching for Bridgeman returns both Wiley Bridgeman and Kwame Ajamu, who was tried under the name Ronnie Bridgeman.
Note that searches using quotation marks will not search aliases.
Search Filters: The search filters provide options to narrow your search parameters. Note that an entry will be considered a match if any of the options you select are matched. Selecting ‘Black’ and ‘White’ under the Race filter will return all defendants who are either Black or white.
When using the Region filter, all federal sentences will be included with the region in which their federal district is located. Military sentences will not be included as those are not constrained geographically. Rather, military sentences are categorized by the branch of the military in which they were imposed.
The Jurisdiction Type filter will allow you to narrow your results to just “State”, “Federal”, and “U.S. Military.” You can combine this filter with the Region filter to find only sentences imposed by states in the south, for example.
Note about the Multi-Sentence Identifier
Perhaps the most complicated information to convey is how a death sentence relates to other death sentences imposed on the same defendant. The Multi-Sentence Identifier field is used to describe circumstances in which an individual was sentenced to death more than once. The field identifies 1) cases in which a defendant was sentenced and resentenced to death in a single criminal proceeding and 2) instances in which the same defendant was sentenced to death in multiple unrelated proceedings. This field is left blank when a listed sentence is the only death sentence imposed on the defendant.
The number before the period represents the case, or the proceeding against the defendant for a specific criminal act (or set of criminal acts if those acts were all tried in a single proceeding by the prosecuting authority). The number after the period represents the succession of death sentences in a case.
For more information on the Multi-Sentence Identifier, including example cases, please see the Death Penalty Census codebook.